What does Captain America do when America turns on him? (Avengers Movie Project part 7)

     Hi friends, it has been a few weeks since I did a Marvel post, but I feel like I need to play a bit of catch up. First of all, my last post was about Iron Man 3, so in terms of the actual movies in order, I should write about Thor: The Dark World, but I'm not going to do that. That movie is just okay, and there's very little that comes out of it other than showing the potential of the Reality Stone, which will come in later. Other than that, the main points to remember for that one are that Odin is banished from Asgard with Loki disguised and sitting on the throne, Thor's mother dies, and Darcy is still a really funny and interesting character. Natalie Portman had more to do this time around, but ultimately isn't all that interesting of a character and is almost treated more like a McGuffin. This week, I'll be talking about Captain America: Winter Solder, which is definitely one of my favorite MCU movies, as well as probably my favorite one from Phase 2. This movie is weird because it's really more of a spy-thriller than a typical "Superhero" movie, which is really cool to see. It's also just nice to see the Star-Spangled Man tackling the problems of modern day life, such as dating and the internet when he was still struggling so much to understand that type of stuff when we last saw him in The Avengers. You know what time it is now, friends. Time to strap on your shields again as we dive into this rare example of a sequel that's better than the original!

"On Your Left!"

    This movie begins with a normal day in the life of Steve Rogers. He goes out for a jog around Washington, D.C., but due to his increased athletic ability, he's able to pass another early morning jogger, Sam Wilson, lapping him three or 4 times, but we'll get to him later. Black Widow picks Steve up for a mission, lightly flirting with Sam, and they drive together off to headquarters. Fast forward to a mission involving Steve leading a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. (which from now on, I'll just call "Shield") agents onto a ship to save a hostage. Black Widow goes off book and takes some info from the ship under secret orders when the whole thing blows up. All the agents and the hostage are safe, as well as Cap and Natasha, though something seems off. Alexander Pierce, who is a big name in government politics and is on the board of directors for Shield (I think that's what he does, he's a big name regardless) He's friends with Nick Fury, but is skeptical of his leadership and devotion to his post. Nick doesn't trust anyone as usual, though trusts Captain America to see the new helicarriers that can identify potential threats to national security before they even begin to threaten things. Cap is very disturbed by this and doesn't understand how this happens. Fast forward through a bit of plot set up and Nick is waiting for Cap in his apartment one night after he's ambushed by a bunch of people, he's worried that there are traitors inside of Shield that are trying to get him killed, and as he tells Steve some information, he is shot by a sniper on a roof. Steve runs out and tries to stop the man, but he gets away. Nick dies from his injuries (so we think) and Captain America is marked as a fugitive because he was shot in his apartment. Since Steve was told by Nick to not trust anyone, he goes on the run and takes some information that Nick gave him to hide, where it's found by Natasha, of course. They go on a road trip that takes the two of them ultimately to Steve's old boot camp, which apparently was the birthplace of Shield. They find out there that Arnim Zola (which you may remember from Captain America: The First Avenger) is still alive in a way and is being preserved inside a super computer as an AI. He was a founding member of Shield and sowed seeds for a new Hydra (The Nazi science wing from The First Avenger) to be born inside of Shield. There's been a secret organization inside of the other secret organization for all this time, and they're the actual ones in power, Nick Fury has apparently just been a figurehead. Zola also reveals that he was the one who wrote the program to detect potential threats before they came to be threats, and says that the new helicarriers would start wiping all of them out soon.

    The bunker blows up and Cap and Black Widow get out safely, then go to Sam Wilson's house to regroup. It turns out that Sam was involved in an experimental test flight suit program called Falcon, and he helps the heroes with a mission taking down the helicarriers before they take off. Also, amongst all the stuff in this movie, Nick Fury is revealed to still be alive, just in hiding for his own safety and watching events go down from the outside. Alexander Pierce is revealed to be the actual leader of this new shadow Hydra and has control of the Winter Soldier, an assassin's fairytale character who turns out to be Bucky Barnes, Cap's best friend from WW2. Bucky died in the first movie (or so we thought) by falling off a train, but it turns out that he was captured and programmed by the Russians to be a serial killer, like a sleeper agent or something, and gave him a mechanical arm, after he lost his real one in the fall. Steve wants to save him even though it would be a lot easier to deal with him in a less friendly way. In the final battle, the helicarriers start taking off while Steve and Sam (AKA Falcon) work to stop the three before they kill millions of people for having destructive potential. They're able to reprogram two out of the three, and they are heading for the third when Bucky shows up to fight Cap inside. Meanwhile, Black Widow disguises herself as one of the members of the secret council and leaks all of Shield's information on the internet, Nick flies in on a helicopter and has a final dramatic showdown with Pierce, which ends with the villain being dead. The day is saved when the third helicarrier gets destroyed and crashes into the Potomac, then Bucky comes to his senses somewhat and drags Steve out of the river. In the end, Shield is destroyed, Black Widow has to own up to her crimes which she did in the past, which were detailed in Shield's leaked files, and Nick Fury goes into hiding, dramatically burning his eyepatch in favor of a pair of sunglasses.

Major Tone Shifts!

    This movie comes with a lot of shifts in all kinds. All throughout Phase One, Shield was always working behind the scenes, but it's revealed here that in the shadows, there have been bad things, namely Hydra, always at play. Thinking back, this probably had a hand in sending a missile to nuke Manhattan in The Avengers, but it's still shocking to find out, as well as it being demolished in this one. In the end, we see Maria Hill accepting a job with Stark Industries, Cap is just back to his normal life, but Black Widow was taken in by Shield, and she worked for them for a long time to get the "red out of her ledger," so she's pretty shaken up by the reveal that they weren't quite as good as they appeared. She still acts like her cool, collected self, but there's a deeper hurt that she worries about beneath the surface. I have to say this movie is probably Nick Fury's best or second best movie, because he's in a whole lot of it, even though he is supposedly killed about half way through. Samuel L. Jackson is as sassy and commanding as he always is, though this time we see a new side of him which is scared about the unknown threats coming from inside of Shield. Bucky wasn't given a death sentence in this movie, Steve vowed to save his friend, though in the end, his friend saved his life when given the chance. There's clearly still good in the Winter Soldier, but how much, and will Steve be able to reach out to his old friend? With the destruction of Shield, the government-approved power in charge of dealing with supernatural threats is no longer around, which ultimately will bring up some troubles down the road, as is to be expected. How will the heroes deal with them once they rear their ugly heads? Will they stand strong and united? Or will they turn against each other? Only time will tell.

Standout performances!

    I have to give a quick shout out to some of the acting in this movie. As I said already, Samuel L. Jackson is a knockout performance as always, and honestly I'm about convinced that if there was an entire movie of him just eating lunch at Taco Bell, I would go see it multiple times in theaters. On top of being a good movie for Nick Fury, this is probably the best movie for Black Widow. Scarlett Johansson is a great actress and it's good for her to be able to develop her character other than "She's awesome, she wears leather, she could easily kill if she wanted to." We see a much kinder side to Natasha in this movie, one who acts kind of like a sister to Steve, who's still trying to figure out how life works in this new century. We see her drop her "Femme Fatale" vibe here, and it's nice to get to meet the person that lies beneath, even when she's worried about what other people will see. Steve Rogers is as great of a character as ever, and Chris Evans brings him to life once again in an effortlessly likable performance, bringing a lot of heart to the role as well as the muscle that is expected. Sam Wilson is an excellent addition to the cast of characters here, and Anthony Mackie is a joy to watch play him. He's a really cool guy who cares about the people that he works with, and it's evident from the first second that he walks on screen. No spoilers, but let's hope he sticks around for a while! Sebastian Stan returns with a completely different (and horrifying) take on Bucky Barnes than we remember from the first movie, and he does a great job of portraying a man unsure of who he is, but blindly following orders for the most part. I haven't said anything about Agent 13, but Emily Van Camp is really good in this role, even though she has almost nothing to do here. She's really just another Shield agent who's out of a job at the end of this movie. I would be remiss not to mention Robert Redford playing the likable, but conniving Alexander Pierce. He starts out as a character that seems so kind and full of good will, but once the facade is torn away, he is one of the more interesting villains in MCU, and not just because he's played by the incredible Robert Redford, though that doesn't hurt either.

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends! I hope you enjoyed it if you looked it over. Captain America: Winter Soldier does a great job of showing just what the MCU can do whenever the director takes a project in a different direction from the stereotypical, and it's why it stands above most of the others in this billion-dollar franchise. Until next week, I've been your Self-Proclaimed Cap Fan, I'll talk to you soon.