Captain America: The Winter Soldier

     This movie was on my to-see-in-theaters summer movie list last year, but I never got around to it. Now with Avengers: Age of Ultron just around the corner, I thought it would be best to get The Winter Soldier. The movie was good...at least that was my thought when I viewed it the first time, then after watching it again, I found that I really did like it! Now, it's nothing like the first movie which takes place during the charming WWII era, but now we're thrown into a modern day setting and like Steve, it can be more than one can handle.

~ ~ ~

Capt. Steve Rogers//Captain America

Chris Evans

     About a year after the battle in NY where the Avengers were first assembled, Steve Rogers is still trying to adjust to 21st century life. His work as the only super-soldier at S.H.I.E.L.D is wearing, strict, too secretive and almost mundane. Steve realizes that he is in the same position he was in seventy years ago when his new-serum being was only being used to sell war bonds. To top that off, all of his friends are gone or almost gone. Putting it simply, Steve Rogers is lonely and bored; with no actual war to fight and no reason to use his abilities. 

     That changes when his ever-secretive boss, Nick Fury, reveals to him new machines that will satellite the world and inform S.H.I.E.L.D of any enemy plans. Steve himself doesn't approve and sees it as terrorism, but Steve's somewhat outdated opinions are almost always ignored. When Nick is attacked by secret S.H.I.E.L.D forces, he asks for Steve's help, knowing he is the only good man he can trust.

     Steve's once monotonous life is soon thrown into a ring of fire as he and Natasha race the clock to track down the secret faction that attacked Nick and discover their plans for world destruction. While (literally), in the fast lane, Steve comes face-to-face with the last person he never imagined he see again, his old friend, Bucky Barnes, now known as the illusive Winter Soldier who is the brainwashed, famed assassin for recreated HYDRA.

     Captain America's mission becomes two-fold, save Bucky-save the world. The world is easy, but trying to save his friend who doesn't remember him is another story. For Steve, the loss of his friend seventy years before was bad enough, but finding him again only to realize that he's his enemy is a nightmare. His morals and decisions are put to the final challenge and does sacrifice the needs of the many to save the needs of one?

     The great thing about Chris Evans as Steve Rogers is that he plays the character in such a personable way that you feel Steve is really your friend throughout the whole story! I love that! Chris' characterization of one of Marvels oldest superheroes gets better with each film as Steve Rogers struggled to adapt in a modern day world while living by old age ideals.

~ ~ ~

Natasha Romanov//Black Widow

Scarlett Johansson 

     Lovely and lethal Natasha returns as Steve's co-worker, confidante, part-time matchmaker, and S.H.I.E.L.D's best woman for the job (or two jobs). When Steve finds himself in the middle of Fury's mess, Natasha doesn't waste anytime in aiding him, even if it means risking her own life as well. When she learns that S.H.I.E.L.D was nothing short of a lie, Natasha finds herself recalling her former past as an assassin and wonders if her time there was even worth all the trouble that people went through for her. Even in the midst of danger and destruction, Natasha remains ever solid and dependable. She's probably about the best ally one could ask for.

~ ~ ~

Sam Wilson//Falcon

Anthony Mackie

     A military vet returned from two tours of duty, Sam is ready to relax and takes orders from only person, himself; especially since he lost his wing-man and best friend in his second tour. Sam now offers counseling sessions to help other veterans get through their new lives in America, one of them being Captain America. When Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanov end up on his doorstep asking him for aid, he can hardly say no. Sam joins forces with the two of them if it means stopping a war that took his own friend and preventing the loss of millions of innocent people. A really good addition to the story; Sam harkens back to the memory of Bucky Barnes and becomes the friend that Steve has missed and desperately needs.

~ ~ ~

Nick Fury

Samuel L. Jackson

     The once indomitable Nick Fury finds himself in one tangled web of secrets and lies, when he discover that S.H.I.E.L.D's leader, Alexander Pierce, has been using S.H.I.E.L.D as a front for the harboring of the second HYDRA division. With this new knowledge, Nick must find his closest friends to warn them, but is attacked before he can even reach them. The only person he can rely on is Steve Rogers, who had warned him about the up-coming terrorist motives of S.H.I.E.L.D, to stop Pierce and HYDRA before they find themselves plunged in a nuclear WWIII.

~ ~ ~

Alexander Pierce

Robert Redford

     The Nobel-nominated leader of S.H.I.E.L.D, Pierce is nothing but a body of secrets and a house of lies. For years he as actually been the head of the re-created HYDRA, brought back by Schmidt's scientist, Dr. Zola. Upon realizing that Nick Fury as well as Steve Rogers are becoming suspicious about his motives, he sends the famed Winter Solider to wreak havoc on the both of them so he can complete his warped and diabolical plans. Cold and ruthless, without an ounce of humanity, Pierce is truly the stuff of HYDRA beliefs and will torment and kill to get what he wants in the end.

~ ~ ~

Bucky Barnes//The Winter Soldier

Sebastian Stan

     The once handsome, charming, blue-eyed soldier who fought bravely by Captain America's side and died honorably, isn't as dead as everyone thought. The former testing done on him when he was captured with the 107th in Austria, saved him from death, but gave him a new life as an assassin and an enemy of humanity. Bucky is treated with the same serum as Steve, giving him the same super-abilites and making him a lethal fighter and killer. Never-ending brainwashings prevent him from remembering his former past as a war hero and a good man, but something is triggered when the man that he was sent to kill says one name, "Bucky?" Now he's in a limbo state trying regain the memory of his past, but also completing the assignments that his life depends on. A heartbreaking victim of evil that leaves you with more questions than answers; it's made clear in the end of the movie that Bucky's story is only the beginning.

~ ~ ~

     I think MARVEL (or whoever does the promoting) should be called on for false advertising. This movie was being toted all around as the continuation of Bucky's story, but he only had a sum total of 15 min. in the film and to be honest, the film had nothing to do with him at all. That aside, I really did enjoy it. It is definitely darker and more violent (even I was surprised at certain scenes), but it really does inform the audience of the times that we live in and you get to go on that journey with Steve as he witnesses the degrading of humanity and how the world is willing to turn a blind eye to evil.