Is this the best Marvel movie yet? No, but it's really good.
With X-Men having been the only Marvel property that I enjoyed while growing up, I am just absolutely amazed how Marvel has managed to continuously make care more and more about their other properties with each and every film they release. To be honest, Captain America was always a cheesy concept to me; a star spangled man running around fighting evil with a shield. Yet somehow the 2011 film managed to turn that camp to its' advantage, with Chris Evans taking center stage as the relatable protagonist and the action being just self aware enough to go over the top without requiring me to take it too seriously, I was shocked to find myself enjoying that movie as much as I did.
(I am going to try a new format with this review, it will have only three sections: The Good, The Bad, and The Verdict.)
The Good
Captain America 2, The Winder Soldier, had a very difficult job: keep the movie fresh and fun without being able to fallback on any of original support cast, any of the World War 2 environment, or any of the 40s camp.
So how did it do? Amazingly well!
This is at it's heart an action movie, and the action is just fantastic. The chase scenes are fast paced, hand to hand combat hits hard, and the overall color pallet is bright and vibrant as a comic book movie should be. When characters are on screen and fighting you can see all of the details, nothing is washed out, nothing is cut too quickly, everything just looks good and FEELS great. I specifically have to give a call out to Captain America's shield, and applaud just how much effort was given to making the physics of it ricocheting off walls and bad guys seem realistic.
In between action, the whole cast deliver great performances. Marvel has made a point to make all of their movies very character driven, and that is exactly what we see here again. The interaction between all of the characters work in a down to earth and an enduring way. What do super heroes talk about in between punches? Steve and Natasha talk about trust and dating, while Steve and Sam talk about running or coming back from their respective wars, it is exactly the kind of conversations you would expect real people to have.
The Bad
The plot of this movie is by no means bad, and it does well at being culturally relevant to the modern age. It is a very straight forward allegory for a post 9/11 America being afraid of terror abroad. However it does dilute it's message a tiny bit by (minor spoilers) revealing that the real enemies are still the Nazis, because obviously we can all agree to had those guys.
What really works against the film are the twists and turns that tries to pull but which are undermined by basic facts of the Marvel universe, and even worse, it's own movie trailers. For example (spoilers), everyone should know that Nick Fury was not dead because there were additional scenes of him in the trailers that we had not seen yet. Also, if you don't already know who the Winter Solider is, then you need only read the movie poster to figure it out.
The Verdict
Obviously this review is weight with more content about what is good over the few things that I considered to be bad. So unsurprisingly, I really enjoyed the movie. It was fun, it was long but didn't drag on, and it simply succeeded where I personally did not think that it could.
It might leave a long lasting impression, but you will definitely have fun watching it!
Captain America 2, The Winter Solider earns a score of One Q. *
...but if I had to give it a number, it would be 7/10
Enjoy,
Tom
* Good to average; we probably recommend it. At one Q there are things that we didn't like, but it was still enjoyable. Ask me about it next month and I'll probably say "meh." Learn more about the QQ Review scale.