| Title: | Captain America: Winter Soldier |
| Publisher: | Marvel Studios |
| Year: | 2014 |
| Length: | 132 Minutes |
| Rating: | PG-13 |
| Story Grade: | A |
| Entertainment Grade: | A |
Captain America: Winter Soldier is so much more than Hail Hydra. It is a terrific story that is both entertaining and thrilling from start to finish. Beneath all of the glitz and glamour Hollywood throws at this type of summer blockbuster there hides a sinister story of spies, drones and an all the too realistic fear of the government's possible use of all the new technology. And it comes to you without being preachy. And while it isn't preachy, it is still scary as hell if you stop and think it about for more than 30 seconds. This is likely one of the top ten horror films of all time. Okay not really... just trying to to make a point here.
Check out the trailer below.
When I first saw the Original Captain America, I found myself bored as I do with most movies based on a character's origin. This is one of the reasons a solo Hulk movie hasn't been successful; they were both origin movies and origin movies tend to have a slower pace to them and Captain America was no exception. But the second installment of Captain American, The Winter Soldier, picks up the pace in a hurry and doesn't stop through to the very last of the end credits. All those fools who got up after the first credits scene... you know who you are... Bwa-hahahahahaha.
Let's just get past the whole Hail Hydra meme-thing for a minute. I mean come on, Hail Hydra was only really said once during the entire 132 minutes of the movie and it became a huge social media annoyance for weeks afterward and then it vanished... disappeared like all other memes before it.
Let's focus on what the story was really about. The entire movie is an entertaining social commentary about technology or more specifically the government's use of said technology against the people it governs. This movie plays to a conspiracy theorist's anxieties like the devil himself on a fiddle... well maybe more like Johnny on the fiddle since his is the best that's ever been.
The use of drones, A.I. and various other tech as a character in this movie was simply stunning, scary and exciting all at the same time. With the NSA using technology in the real world to track every digital communication sent across the U.S. and the military using weaponized drones, like the Predator, as weapons against enemies, this is a plot straight out the conspiracy theorist's handbook.
The fact is, most of us are frogs in a pot of water. We won't notice it boiling until it's too late. While most of the tech in the movie is not a possibility today, likely decades off, some of it is. The movie uses the real world issues coming to light as plot point and then uses a 95 year old WWII soldier, a frog that is essentially dropped into the pot of boiling water, to tell us to tell us that the use of technology is a violation of basic human freedoms.
This movie is basically one of those "Based on True Events" movies, in which only one part of the movie is actually true and all of the other aspects of the movie are added for dramatic effect. The use of the reality part, now or near future reality is what makes the movie so impactful.
All in all I graded this movie a solid A. It is one of Marvel's most entertaining releases to date (that I have seen). If you haven't seen it, it is currently running in many second run theatres and is worth the $3 ticket to see.
Until next time... enjoy the recently released deleted scenes below.
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