WARNING!!!
The following post contains spoilers
for ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier. If you have not yet seen the film,
please refer to my ‘Spoiler-Free’ review of the film (link provided below) as
I’ll be discussing the film’s key moments in detail here. You have been
warned!!
This
is the third Spoiler Post that I’ve done for a film on this site. The first was
for ‘Iron Man 3’ in regards to the controversial Mandarin twist. The second was
for ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’, which revolved around the reveal of the identity
of Benedict Cumberbatch’s character, Khan and then the moments in the film that
mirrored the events of 1982’s ‘Wrath of Khan’. I didn’t do one of these posts
for either ‘Man of Steel’ or ‘Thor: The Dark World’, mainly because I felt that
there wasn’t really much to talk about in regards to spoilers for either of
those films. I realize that I could’ve possibly done one for ‘Man of Steel’
giving the events that happen at the end of the film, but ultimately I decided
not to do one. ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ on the other hand
definitely requires one of these posts. Compared to those other two films,
there is a lot to talk about in this film, much of which regarding the events
in the movie that really set the stage for the future events in the Marvel
Cinematic Universe. So let’s talk about them…
First,
there’s what is perhaps the biggest plot point in the entire movie; S.H.I.E.L.D.
gets overrun by HYDRA. Yes, the organization led by the Red Skull in ‘The First
Avenger’ still exists and has worked its way through the roots of S.H.I.E.L.D.
After Nick Fury is supposedly killed (emphasis on ‘supposedly’) by the Winter
Soldier, Cap is branded a fugitive by Alexander Pierce for not sharing
information that Fury had given him. This results in Cap and Black Widow having
to go on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D. and try and figure out just what is going
on. Around the midway point of the film, they go to an old military camp in New
Jersey that just so happens to be the same location where Steve trained with
the army in ‘The First Avenger’. There, they find an old S.H.I.E.L.D.
underground base where they also find a supercomputer that preserved the consciousness
of HYDRA scientist Armin Zola (Toby Jones, reprising his role from ‘The First
Avenger’, albeit in computer form).
Through
Zola, Cap and Black Widow learn that after Cap had captured him during World
War II, Zola was recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D. and while there, he began to plant
the roots that would eventually lead to HYDRA taking over the organization many
years later, with many members of S.H.I.E.L.D., including Pierce and the
members of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s strike team (including Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo; Crossbones
in the comics), who despite being critically injured at the end of the film ultimately survives),
being secret agents of HYDRA. Their goal here is to use the latest S.H.I.E.L.D.
project, ‘Project Insight’ to their advantage, which revolves around three new
Helicarriers that would be in the air 24/7 thanks to new engines suggested by
Tony Stark (Remember that scene in Avengers where he fixed the engine but then
got bounced around by it? Now you know why…). Anyway, these helicarriers are
linked to satellites, and HYDRA’s plan is to use them to wipe out all of their
enemies which in their case means millions upon millions of people that they
view as ‘threats’. Of course, Cap, Black Widow, and their allies aren’t going
to let that happen so during the climax of the film, they infiltrate the
Helicarriers and override their controls to make them fire upon each other,
destroying them before they attacked anyone else. At the same time, Black Widow
exposes HYDRA’s plan to the world resulting in S.H.I.E.L.D. falling into
disarray.
And
that’s really the big thing here in regards to the role that S.H.I.E.L.D. will
play in future movies. I mean, I have the feeling that they will be back even
after all that happens in this movie, but they won’t be as involved as they
were during ‘Phase One’. It’s also going to be interesting to see how ‘Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ will continue after the events of this film. For the record,
at the time I’m writing this the 17th episode ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’
hasn’t aired yet so we’ll have to see how it all turns out there. I also really
liked how HYDRA was still around, even though they were seemingly defeated
during World War II. It really played well into the political thriller aspects
into the film’s story as well as the overall character and story arc for Steve
Rogers, showing how he was finding himself at odds with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s actions because
as it turns out, HYDRA was still around and considering one of the post-credits
scenes (which I’ll get to in a bit), they’ll be playing a much bigger role in
the next few MCU films. Needless to say, things are going to get interesting in
the MCU.
Now
let’s talk about the Winter Soldier and his role in the film. Of course, in my
review, I mentioned who the Winter Soldier was because even if Marvel wanted to
keep his identity a secret, I’m pretty sure most comic book fans knew who he
was and even if you’re like me and you haven’t read any of the comics, this
isn’t that much of a surprise if you see who’s playing him and reference the
cast list for the ‘The First Avenger’; it’s Bucky. In my review, I said that I
wished that he was in the film just a little bit more. For the record, I’m not
saying he’s completely underused; it’s just that he’s ultimately not the main
villain of the film (despite being in the film’s title) and more of a HYDRA
henchman. Also, the relationship between him and Cap is only focused on during
the second half of the film. However despite all that, the filmmakers did do a
really good job at developing that relationship between these two (even in the
amount of the time that they gave it) and how Cap was working to help Bucky
regain his senses. I particularly love the line that Steve says to him while
the Helicarrier they are in is falling into the river saying that no matter
what, he will be with him ‘until the end’; that’s an excellent character moment
between these two and I look forward to seeing where this story, and their
relationship, will go in the next ‘Captain America’ film.
Now
let’s discuss the two post-credits scenes for the film. I’ve heard a lot of
people say that the post-credit sequences so far for Phase Two have been rather
lackluster. I don’t necessarily agree with that, but I will admit that the
sequences for ‘Iron Man 3’ and ‘Thor: The Dark World’ haven’t been amongst the
studio’s best. The final scenes for these two films, while entertaining, are
sort of just filler and don’t really add much to the story even though ‘Iron
Man 3’s end credit scene did bring a close to the narrative structure of that
film. The mid-credits scene for ‘Dark World’, on the other hand, did set the
stage for what’s to come in the future, but perhaps more so for ‘Avengers 3’
considering the route they’re going for ‘Age of Ultron’. However, I wasn’t that
big a fan of the visual look that they were using for this scene; a scene that,
for the record, was directed by ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ director James Gunn
and one that ‘Thor 2’ director Alan Taylor wasn’t too fond of using. Needless
to say, it made me a little worried about what is now the next (and most risky)
film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
However,
the two post-credits scenes for ‘Winter Soldier’ are pretty darn good, both of
which do a great job at setting up what’s to come in the next few MCU films.
The first one specifically sets the stage for ‘Age of Ultron’ with the scene
itself directed by Joss Whedon. It gives us our first look at three new
characters; Baron von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann) and his two ‘prisoners’,
the Twins Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Quicksilver (Aaron
Taylor-Johnson). Also, while it is reported that Loki will not be appearing in
‘Age of Ultron’, we do see that Strucker possesses Loki’s scepter so who knows?
Maybe Loki will make an appearance in the film in some shape or form (no pun
intended) but as of now, I’m just speculating. Of course, this scene also
raises speculation on how the MCU will handle the incoming ‘mystical’ elements
of their universe, which have only really been explored through the ‘Thor’
movies. With the addition of Scarlet Witch and perhaps Dr. Strange down the
road (Anyone else notice his name getting dropped by Agent Sitwell?), it’ll be
interesting to see how this will connect with the MCU as a whole because as is,
the Marvel Cinematic Universe is still fairly grounded in reality. In fact,
this movie as a whole is the most ‘grounded’ of all of the MCU films.
The
second post-credits scene appears to be intended to be a set up for the next
Cap film. At the end of this film, it seems like Bucky regained some of his
memory as he saves Steve from drowning after the Helicarriers are destroyed but
he then disappears. This leads to Steve and Falcon planning to look for Bucky
so that they can help him regain his memory. The final scene in the film
returns to the Smithsonian, where Steve briefly went to near the beginning of
the film and then later to ‘steal’ his old WWII costume back (the latter
scenario also giving us another fun cameo from good old Stan Lee (Excelsior!)).
The camera moves to the memorial exhibit for Bucky before turning around to
reveal that Bucky himself is right there in what looks like the beginning of
his journey to remember who he really is. Maybe in the next Cap film, he takes
Steve’s place as Captain America, something that he does do in the comics at
one point. There have been recent reports about how Chris Evans is looking to
move into directing so maybe that’s exactly what’s going to happen for ‘Cap 3’
but again, this is all just speculation at the moment.
And
that’s really all I have to say about ‘Winter Soldier’ for the moment. Like I
said in my review, it’s an effective political thriller and also a very
exciting superhero film. Based on what happens in this film, I’m eager to see
where the MCU is heading next considering the possibility of a reduced role for
S.H.I.E.L.D. and, at the same time, an increased role for HYDRA. Will Bucky get
his memory back? May he eventually become the next Captain America around the
time of the next ‘Captain America’ film? At this point, this is all up in the
air but one thing’s for certain; things are definitely going to change because
of what happens in this film. ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ is one of my
personal favorite entries in the entire MCU but ‘Winter Soldier’ might just be
the better film. It’s not only one of the best sequels ever but also one of the
best films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe period.
(Also, because a scene with
Agent Sitwell and Senator Stern (Garry Shandling) has apparently led to the
start of a new meme… well, I couldn’t resist doing my own take on it…)
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