Sean Walker
Collegiate Staff
I’ve never been a huge fan of war movies or political thrillers.
That being said, I must also say that, of the Avengers to have been featured on screen or in print, Captain America is my favorite. No other hero I’ve read about or watched onscreen has taken their job as seriously as Cap does (apart from, maybe, Spider-Man).
Back in 2011, when “Captain America: The First Avenger” hit theaters, I was excited the first time I watched it, as it was a superhero in a war movie which made it interesting for me.
Jump ahead to this year, and we have “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” a political thriller-type superhero movie that might just be the next best film that Marvel Studios has to offer since “The Avengers.” In this new film, Captain America (Chris Evans) continues to work for S.H.I.E.L.D., the world’s most covert security network, and tries to find his footing in the new world in which he finds himself. After Cap’s ally Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) comes under attack, Cap becomes entangled in a mystery that threatens to eliminate anyone perceived as a threat to security. Together with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Captain America fights to answer the hard questions: What is S.H.I.E.L.D. planning? Why are they doing it? And how is the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) involved?
Cap’s journey to uncover the truth involves much menace, intrigue, action, story and character development, as a superhero movie should. We see the internal struggles that Steve Rogers goes through while he tries to do the right thing, even though he admits at one point that he isn’t sure what that is. The movie also provides an interesting take on how war can leave a person changed, for better or worse, in that Cap’s ally Falcon is a former soldier himself who now helps those with PTSD. There is also some humor as we see Cap developing a small sense of humor about being a “man out of time.”
As a whole, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” lives up to the hype of every Marvel movie and leaves audiences wanting more, though we’ll have to be patient as Cap won’t be back until next year in “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” But hey, sometimes waiting is part of the fun.
