Captain America: The Winter Soldier Thread

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

Saw this today and I loved it.

Anyone else?

Please know that you should expect MAJOR SPOILERS in this thread...

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

Here were my favorite elements:

• Agent 13 being introduced. I like that they gave you just enough information to know that, "Yep, it's the same one as in the comic books."
• The new status quo for Nick Fury and Black Widow in the end. I can't wait to see where their next adventures take them.
• Falcon is such a badass.
• I didn't know until I got home and was reading up on the movie that I realized that was supposed to be Crossbones. Now I know why he survived this movie.
• Stephen Strange is officially in this movie universe! Wondering if he will get a solo film.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Thanks, Wandering Sensei. I was afraid I would be first -- again.

I was drafting a post, so I'll just include it below:

 

(Just to get that out of the way ... !)

I saw Captain America -- The Winter Soldier on Sunday. I can't believe I'm the one starting a thread about it. Fellows, we're falling down on the job!

Anyway, some thoughts ...

• I considered re-reading "The Winter Soldier" story line from the Captain America comics, but decided against it and ran out of time, anyway. I'm glad I didn't; I would have found myself comparing the movie story to the comics story instead of enjoying the movie in its own right. After all, movies are movies and comics are comics, and I appreciate that movie makers have to have license to do what works to make a good movie.
• Before it started, there was a trailer for Scarlett Johannson's upcoming film Lucy (see it here), showing her being thoroughly badass. So why isn't a Black Widow movie on the roster? They'd probably do something stupid like make it Hawkeye and the Black Widow, even though he was pretty useless in The Avengers and even Jeremy Renner has complained that he was given too little to do there.
• I didn't spring for 3-D, but it's just as well; after the first 15 minutes or so, I don't notice it any more anyway.
• Anyway, nice, simple start -- Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson on an early morning jog around the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC. Of course, Steve lapped Sam about a half-dozen times.
• Anthony Mackie is well-cast as Sam, and he and Chris Evans have a good, easy rapport.
• In the comics, I've not favored "Captain America, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.," but this is the wrong movie to watch if you don't want to see that.
• The first mission: rescuing hostages from a freighter captured by Batroc. Y'know, "The Winter Soldier" storyline was the first and only time I ever believed Batroc was dangerous. Thank you, Ed Brubaker. And the movie was equally convincing. It helped that in the film, he wasn't wearing that goofy mask and pencil-thin mustache. NIce touch that he was, however, wearing purple and yellow.
• The Black Widow definitely rates her own movie.
• And Scarlett Johansson has a good rapport with Chris Evans, too. They seem to be teasing a romance between the Widow and the Captain. Could be interesting …
• However, Natasha isn't the love of his life. It was good to slow things down and show Steve and Peggy together, bittersweet though it was.
• Robert Redford adds gravitas to the proceedings. Cool.
• The Winter Soldier … wow. It’s like he stepped right out of the pages of the comic.
• Nick Fury’s got one seriously tricked out SUV; it must have as much armor plating as a Brink’s truck.
• “My wife threw me out.” Really?
• Agent 13! Really!
• Nice touch, introducing Arnim Zola via a computer screen … echoing the first sight of him in Captain America – The First Avenger on a TV screen. But really – dropping a missile on all those old computer banks won’t destroy him! He’s likely downloaded his consciousness into a laptop or a smartphone.
• The elevator scene: I had no doubt Cap could take all those guys, but was it really smart of them to crowd into the elevator like that? But then, like I’ve said before, if henchmen were smart, they wouldn’t be henchmen.
• The battle on the Roosevelt Bridge … the lead henchman notices a TV helicopter and tells the other not to take out Captain America there. I couldn’t help but wonder how Doreen and Jim would report it on Channel 4 that night, not to mention the coverage in The Washington Post.
• Maria Hill! What a surprise! There IS at least ONE person you can trust!
• It is still a stunning sight to see the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier on screen. But seeing three of them – wow!
• I really liked how the technician refused to launch the helicarrier, even at gunpoint. Also good that he didn’t get killed for taking that stand. Thank you, Agent 13.
• I usually think most movies I watch could stand to be a half-hour shorter, but not this time.
• Watching the credits, the two guys behind me said that, if you left out the Falcon’s winged flying jetpack, this could almost be a James Bond movie. Which is exactly what they were going for. Well done. 

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

Yeah, I forgot to add that I loved the way Arnim Zola (it was so creepy/realistic) and the way Maria Hill became a much bigger player in this movie. Looking forward to Maria in the next movie. I wish Zola had been more of a Werner von Braun than a Hubertus Strughold, but at least he was included and provided another tie to the original Captain America movie.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I don’t see every superhero movie, but I did go to see this one over the weekend. I thought the first one was largely set-up for the Avengers movie, with a strong “we told you this story so we could tell you that one” vibe, but it turns out “The First Avenger” was equal parts set up for the Avengers as well as this sequel. If I had kids, they’d be able to say, “This is not my father’s Captain America.” They made Captain America dark. Big whoop. Having said that, though, it is a good adaptation of Ed Brubaker’s Cap (and I do like that), kind of filtered for a mainstream audience. I don’t know if it would appeal to anyone who hadn’t seen the first one, though, unless all one was looking for was an action-driven popcorn flick, in which case, “if this is the sort of thing you like, then you’ll like this” (as Don Thompson used to say). It’s better than Daredevil or Wolverine, and about as good as Avengers or Thor. It’s still just a movie, though.

[Mark S. Ogilvie]

3 Helicarieers? SHIELD must have the greatest budget of all time :) Just one of those things must cost a mint.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

I don’t see every superhero movie, but I did go to see this one over the weekend. I thought the first one was largely set-up for the Avengers movie, with a strong “we told you this story so we could tell you that one” vibe, but it turns out “The First Avenger” was equal parts set up for the Avengers as well as this sequel. If I had kids, they’d be able to say, “This is not my father’s Captain America.” They made Captain America dark. Big whoop. Having said that, though, it is a good adaptation of Ed Brubaker’s Cap (and I do like that), kind of filtered for a mainstream audience. I don’t know if it would appeal to anyone who hadn’t seen the first one, though, unless all one was looking for was an action-driven popcorn flick, in which case, “if this is the sort of thing you like, then you’ll like this” (as Don Thompson used to say). It’s better than Daredevil or Wolverine, and about as good as Avengers or Thor. It’s still just a movie, though.

You say that as though some people thought it is more than a movie, or something other than a movie.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I meant "It's still just a movie... in comparison to a comic book." I have yet to see a superhero movie I like more than the [best example of the] comic book it's based on.

[Mark S. Ogilvie]

I think the interesting thing about the WS movie is that it will tie into AOS on the tv, I don't think that there has been a case like that before, where a movie was tied into the same universe as a tv show and had an effect on it. When they did the Batman movie it didn't matter at all to the series. There have been cases where a series went to movie, Firefly comes to mind. You have in effect the Agents of Shield tv show sandwiched between the Avengers and Winter Soldier. I think it is the to credit of the producers that they are doing that, making it almost a regular series comic and two big events.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Some other thoughts:

• Movies being movies and comics being comics, I think it was a great move to change Bucky from being Captain America's kid sidekick to an older brother figure for Steve Rogers.
• I thought it was odd that the Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian was in the Air and Space Museum, and not the Museum of American History. (In the old days, there would have been an establishing shot outside the building, but they don't do that kind of stuff any more. Even so, there's no guarantee they'll be correct. The Get Smart movie showed Max walking toward the Smithsonian Castle, and then immediately showed him in the lobby of the Musuem of American History, which is on the opposite side of the National Mall. But I digress.)
• A little bit of fun when the kid noticed Steve Rogers looking at the Captain America exhibit, and Steve shushed him with a little smile.
• "Captain America and His Howling Commandos"? Sure, fine, why not? I long ago started thinking of "Sgt. Fury" and "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." as two different characters, and that was well before I ever saw an issue of The Ultimates. (Speaking of which, I forget -- did they actually get Samuel L. Jackson's permission for him to be the face of Ultimates Nick Fury before they put him in the book?)
• Stan Lee sighting!
• Doesn't this movie pull the rug out from under the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series?

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

My wife hasn't seen the first one, and liked this one quite a bit. And not just for the eye candy, which is the main appeal (and a strong one) of Arrow.

No one's mentioned my favorite little detail is the quote on Nick Fury's grave: "The path of the righteous man..." Could Nick actually be Jules Winnfield, having quit the hitman game and walking the earth? It's so rare to have an in-joke in a comic book movie that isn't referencing a comic book, but I laughed out loud when I saw that.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

This is certainly the most extensive interplay between movies and a currently airing TV show. Though I've heard that there was a ship in Deep Space Nine that was mentioned to be damaged from the events of a Next Generation movie, but that was only an incidental nod to continuity. Nothing of the scale of what's going on at Marvel.

Mark S. Ogilvie said:

I think the interesting thing about the WS movie is that it will tie into AOS on the tv, I don't think that there has been a case like that before, where a movie was tied into the same universe as a tv show and had an effect on it. When they did the Batman movie it didn't matter at all to the series. There have been cases where a series went to movie, Firefly comes to mind. You have in effect the Agents of Shield tv show sandwiched between the Avengers and Winter Soldier. I think it is the to credit of the producers that they are doing that, making it almost a regular series comic and two big events.

[Rich Steeves]

The other example I can think of is the X-Files movie, which came out in the middle of that series. Of course, I didn't think it impacted the show as much as it SHOULD have...

Mark S. Ogilvie said:

I think the interesting thing about the WS movie is that it will tie into AOS on the tv, I don't think that there has been a case like that before, where a movie was tied into the same universe as a tv show and had an effect on it. When they did the Batman movie it didn't matter at all to the series. There have been cases where a series went to movie, Firefly comes to mind. You have in effect the Agents of Shield tv show sandwiched between the Avengers and Winter Soldier. I think it is the to credit of the producers that they are doing that, making it almost a regular series comic and two big events.