CAPTAIN AMERICA; THE WINTER SOLDIER picks up sometime after the events in THE AVENGERS as Captain America is trying to figure out why he is working for S.H.I.E.L.D. as he questions his roles in the missions and whether Nick Fury trusts him.   The opening mission in the movie has Steve Rogers aka Captain America at odds with black Widow as he finds out she was assigned on a side mission by Nick Fury to retrieve data from a S.H.I.E.L.D. research vessel in the Indian Ocean (and Steve’s mission is to rescue hostages.   Soon, Nick Fury is attacked and Steve is on the run with Black Widow as he must find out what is the true objective of Project Insight (which involves three ready-to-launch Helicarriers that will be linked by satellite).   Can Steve trust the motives of Alexander Pierce (an old colleague of Nick Fury’s) who wants Steve out of the way or are there deeper agendas tied to an old enemy, HYDRA?

 

I think the CAPTAIN AMERICA sequel is a sequel that improves on the first CAPTAINA MERICA and serves as  a good follow up from THE AVENGERS while introducing new characters and setting the stage for other Marvel Studios movies.  It manages to mine a few key storylines like THE WINTER SOLDIER comic storyline and picks some inspiration from the NICK FURY VS. SHIELD comic series while introducing some key characters from the CAPTAIN AMERICA comics (Agent 13, Sam Wilson, and Brock Rumlow).   It also brings up a good debate whether we should be putting up preventive measures to stopping potential threats or respond to the threats to punish the bad guys who do bad things.  CAPTAIN AMERICA; THE WINTER SOLDIER combines conspiracy thriller with political thriller while making it a great Marvel Comics sequel.  I can’t wait to see what they will do with CAPTAIN AMERICA 3, but I hope they edit the action with less shaky camera shooting style next time since I found the action a little hard to follow at times compared to how the action sequences for the first CAPTAIN AMERICA were shot.   Other than the action scene editing issue, it is great storyline with good actors.   Also make sure to stay through the end credits for two bonus scenes with one acting as a prequel to THE AVENGERS: THE AGE OF ULTRON.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio commentary by Directors Anthony and Joe Russo and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely as they talk about how the story developed, comparing it to the 1970s conspiracy thriller THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR, production information, and the real meaning of the movie’s title.

 

ON THE FRONTLINE: AN INSIDE LOOK AT THE BATTLEGROUNDS OF CAPTAIN AMERICA- WINTER SOLDIER- a ten minute behind-the-scenes/ making-of featurette on the movie

ANTHONY MACKIE: CUT THE CHECK!- the thing the actor who plays Falcon would say if he think the take is perfect

STEVE ROGERS NOTEBOOK- a look at the various versions of the notebook per country to reflect some of the important pop culture events of that country

 

Four deleted scenes (with optional audio commentary) which are great character scenes cut for pacing reasons

Two and a half minute blooper reel

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER is better than the first CAPTAIN AMERICA movie as it delivers a complex and layered thriller.  I wish they had more making-of extras, but Target has a hard to download exclusive featurette called Behind the Lens - The Making of Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier if you want more behind-the-scenes content (so send your comments to Disney and Marvel if you are the one who doesn’t like retail exclusives that splits up bonus content).

 

This review is ©9-2-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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