Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Published August 19, 2014

Film info

Title Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Directors Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Year 2014
Run time 2hrs 16m
Genres Adventure, Action, Science Fiction
Tagline In heroes we trust

After the cataclysmic events in New York Captain America: The Winter Solider finds Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, living quietly in Washington, D.C. and trying to adjust to the modern world. But when a S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague comes under attack, Steve becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue that threatens to put the world at risk. Joining forces with the Black Widow, Captain American struggles to expose the ever-widening conspiracy while fighting off professional assassins sent to silence him at every turn. When the full scope of the villainous plot is revealed, Captain America and the Black Widow enlist the help of a new ally, the Falcon. However, they soon find themselves up against an unexpected and formidable enemy - the Winter Soldier.

Live Blog

Time	Comment
1:32	He’s just showing off, no one likes a show-off.
2:49	Love his list. Gonna need a screenshot of that later.
6:54	The shield hitting things just sounds painful.
7:56	Oooh, French bad guys.
10:16	Really don’t want to get on the wrong side of Natasha.
14:27	“Agent Romanov is comfortable with everything.”
16:41	So helicarriers is the correct term? Mr C was going with boat-plane.
22:36	Gosh, I’d like to be able to secure my office.
25:11	“Not just a flyby, he’s got to mingle.” Love having Iron Man doing party visits.
29:50	Fury has a self-driving car with mega awesome voice activation. Google and Apple take note.
40:11	On the one hand, surprised. On the other, I wouldn’t put anything past them since Agent Coulsen.
48:42	Captain America is so strong he can fight the laws of physics.
51:16	“If someone tweets about this guy, we need to know about it.” Just do a search.
54:56	Apple store crawl!
1:02:47	Epic Wargames reference.
1:08:29	The Winter Soldier looks suspiciously like Prince of Persia.
1:17:37	He stole their steering wheel! Never seen that before in the history of car chases.
1:24:04	Good job Captain America had the shocked recognising face on, because I couldn’t pick Bucky out of a lineup.
1:32:05	“Don’t look at me, I do what he does, just slower.”
1:34:23	Spotted Stan Lee mid-film. Bonus points.
1:41:57	I don’t really approve of face-changing, but I love a kick-ass woman.
1:52:24	That was kinda beyond brutal.
1:58:30	You can’t jump into a helicopter like that.
2:08:41	“Two sides of a coin that’s no longer currency.”

Thoughts

I wasn’t hugely looking forward to this one, Captain America turns out not to be my favourite of the Marvel characters introduced so far and I couldn’t remember huge amounts of the first film. I think it lived up to my expectations. It was an entertaining enough film with all the good Marvel things you come to love - inside jokes and references, nice witty dialogue and plenty of action along the way.

I thought the story lacked a lot of punch and interest, the whole Nazi thing just felt laboured although Bucky’s reappearance added some tension to the last few scenes. Scarlet Johansson as the Black Widow was perhaps the best bit about it, being just as awesome as the titular hero without a shield to hide behind.

A decent enough entry in the film series, but ultimately forgettable.

Revisited - March 2021

On a repeat viewing, this film is much better than I originally thought - I was much more invested in the Bucky story knowing that the Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV show would be in his future. Also I hadn’t realised quite how big my dislike of Captain America was, whereas now I think he’s great - straightlaced, sure, but a good guy.

Also having seen Agents of Shield and all the Hydra drama that came out of that, I felt more invested in the fact that the Avengers are effectively fighting their own side… something that happens more and more as Cap continues his journey!

Rating: 3 / 5