Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Original Theatrical Release: April 4, 2014
Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) struggles with the morality issues that accompany the new world he’s awakened to. He finds the United States Government takes a back seat to the power of S.H.I.E.L.D. and he wonders if he should continue the fight or step away from the underhanded dealings of his new employers. However, after Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is targeted by a mysterious assassin known only as The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Rogers must team up with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to get to the bottom of the new assassin’s identity and motives before it’s too late.

This film was an excellent sequel to the first film, Captain America: The First Avenger and a nice follow up to events in The Avengers.

Action, action, action – there was a ton of it here and since the film wasn’t primarily set in the 1940’s, we really get to see how Cap handles modern day threats….and he sure looks cool doing it.

Anthony Mackie gives an impressive performance as Sam Wilson/Falcon, and he pretty much stole the show as far as I’m concerned. I hope he shows up for Avengers 2! He’s that cool. Sebastian Stan also impressed with his portrayal of Winter Soldier, who provides a great antagonist to Cap and his team. Scarlett Johansson, of course, sizzled as Black Widow. She’s been doing a great job in that role. And on top of all that we get to see ROBERT REDFORD in a Marvel film? What? That’s so cool! One curious omission was Hawkeye. Where the heck was he in this film? As a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. I would’ve thought he’d be called in for all this governmental hullaballoo.

There was a lot of focus on Hydra in this film, so it was nice to re-touch on where they ended up in the modern world after the events in World War II.

This is a great film overall,  so go see it and make sure to stay for the extra scenes after the credits. There are a couple of teaser after-credits shorts, so make sure to stay for ’em all if you want to get all the tasty Cap morsels you can for your money. This film should tide everyone over until Guardians of the Galaxy comes out – I’m beyond excited for that movie to drop on us.

JOE Rating: ★★★★★

Movie Trailer For Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Update!

So, I’ve been thinking about what this blog is.

For me, it’s sort of been a way for me to write as often as I can (if not every day) as well as to showcase my love for all things pop culture.

In a lot of ways, I’ve grown in my ability to write as well as review. That is due to me being with my MFA writing program for the past couple of years but also because I’ve reviewed quite a bit of material (and I have a lot of stuff backlogged, to boot).

So…this leaves me thinking, as I said above – what is this blog?

Well, it’s a review blog for the average person, for the “average joe”. Whenever I search for a review on something online, I don’t want an insane, in-depth critical analysis unless I’ve already read it, already watched it or already played it. This is why my reviews are so to-the-point. I wanted someone to find my blog, search for something they perhaps want to see or play or read and quickly judge whether or not it might be worth the time.

However, I do feel that my reviews could pack a little more punch. This is why I might go through and update some of the older reviews. Also, I may be adding more content than before to future reviews. If it’s a book, I could provide links to a sample of the book’s pages and/or a link on where it could easily be purchased. If it’s a film or video game, I might provide more screen shots and/or trailers.

I’ll be posting some more reviews soon!