Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★½

I couldn’t have told you one comic book superhero from the next until Marvel launched its Cinematic Universe in 2008 with “Iron Man.” Today, I look forward to each new installment. However, most of their films have not lived up to the enormous expectations. The latest installment from Marvel is “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and with that, Marvel may have finally figured out how to make these movies accessible to everyone.

“The Winter Soldier” takes place a couple years after the events of “The Avengers.” Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) continues to work with S.H.I.E.L.D. helping them fight terrorists around the world. As we open, he’s on a mission with Agent Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) trying to rescue S.H.I.E.L.D. agents from a ship hijacked by pirates. One of the pirates is Georges Batroc, played by UFC fighter Georges St-Pierre, which turns into some fun and wild hand-to-hand combat between him and Cap.

Of course, Romanoff appears to have a separate agenda during this simple rescue mission. Rogers doesn’t like being left in the dark on missions when members of his team are given a separate mission. He takes it up with Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Fury decides he’ll let Rogers in on a little secret mission since he’s so upset about being left out of the loop. S.H.I.E.L.D. is working on something called Project Insight which consists of three upgraded Helicarriers (advanced models of the massive air/water vehicle S.H.I.E.L.D. used in “The Avengers”) which can patrol the globe indefinitely and eliminate threats to world security. Rogers doesn’t agree with this thought process. Fury shares Rogers’ doubts about the program with Secretary Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) who is leader of the World Security Council (an active supporter of Project Insight).

Fury’s suddenly finds himself being targeted by a ruthless assassin called The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). He’s a Keyser Söze-type villain who’s more of ghost story character than anything else; many have heard of him, few see him and live to tell the tale. But here he is, in the flesh. Rogers and Romanoff take off running from him and those who hired him, trying to figure out why they’re being targeted all of a sudden. Thankfully, a new friend of Rogers, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), is trustworthy and proves very helpful.

“The Winter Soldier” is a huge win for Marvel and their ongoing Cinematic Universe. What they’ve done here is taken well known and beloved comic book heroes from this and previous generations and successfully blend them into a modern day setting. This isn’t a just a comic book/superhero movie; this is smart political action thriller more than anything else.

If you were to remove the superhero elements from the script, you’d be left with a tightly wound story about powerful and corrupt people with the good guys trying to bring them down. This, of course, despite many different antagonist elements sprinkled throughout the plot. I think this is the model Marvel has been working toward since they started making all these movies in the same Cinematic Universe. We’ve got the origin story out of the way, we’ve got “The Avengers” out of the way, so it’s time to really take this character and put him into a real world story arc.

While other Marvel movies have attempted this structure with little success, “The Winter Soldier” is the first film to really make it work. That credit should go to screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who have worked with Marvel already on “Captain American: The First Avenger” and “Thor: The Dark World.” Third time’s a charm, I guess. The first “Captain America” was dead on arrival and no one was able to salvage that. It was a two-hour preview for “The Avengers” and had very little for the audience to identify with. It was an obligatory film that had to be made in order for “The Avengers” to be the success that it was. As for “Thor,” that’s a hard one to tell. The character isn’t well known outside the Marvel fan base and he’s not easy to relate to. Don’t get me wrong, I do like Chris Hemsworth in the role and Tom Hiddleston steals the show, but it seems to be a hard world to write and bring to life. But Markus and McFeely finally have it figured out with “The Winter Soldier.” It’s as if they wrote a political thriller first, and then stuck Captain America in there as the protagonist after they worked out the kinks in the story. And it’s got the right amount of wit and humor to accompany the story.

Of course, the film is not without its faults. There’s a lot of unnecessary development of the Rogers character despite this being the third time we’ve seen him. Additional development is okay in sequels (see Alvin Sargent’s masterful screenplay for “Spider-Man 2”) but it shouldn’t bog down the pace of the film. After an amazing opening series of scenes, this film grinds to a halt for the remainder or an overly long first act. There’s also plenty of spots where I wasn’t sure who was fighting who and who was on who’s side. When the climactic events occur in multiple locations all at the same time, things tend to get a little muddled. Joss Whedon figured that out, which is why the battle in New York at the end of “The Avengers” is so well put together.

But I can’t take anything away from directors Anthony and Joe Russo. For a couple of guys who’s credits include directing the pilot episodes to two cult television shows (“Arrested Development” and “Community”), they don’t seem to be intimidated by a complex plot, a big studio budget or operating within the realms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel was wise to lock these guys into another film. They handle the story well by letting the plot take center stage rather than the CGI. Sure, there are hundreds of effects shots in this film but they’re used to supplement the film, not steal the show.

The Russo’s have also guided their stars into excellent performances. Chris Evans seems right at home as Captain America. I know I’ve seen him in other films before (including two terrible films featuring another set of Marvel characters that shall remain nameless), but I can’t help but see Captain American every time I look at him now. He works well with Scarlett Johansson too. I felt her character got the short end of the stick in her other Marvel appearances, but her character really takes off here. And I really liked the way the Winter Soldier character is handled. He is the film’s namesake, but the plot doesn’t revolve around him. He intersects the plot at random times causing havoc whenever he appears. He does get some back story, but overall he’s just viewed as a menace. That might not work in some films, but it works great here.

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is the stand-alone film Marvel fans have been waiting for. I don’t think fans of the comics will be disappointed at all, especially with the way the characters and the source material are handled. Those who aren’t big into superhero movies should really enjoy it too, especially those who like political thrillers. Because that’s really all this film is. I know nothing of these characters as they appear in the comics, only from what’s in the movies and on the TV shows. But I have become a fan of what this studio is doing. And with everything that’s happened in “Iron Man 3,” “Thor: The Dark World” and now this, I’m excited to see where they’re taking these characters and these stories in the next “Avengers” movie next summer. Just over a year to go.

By the way, there is one scene in the middle of the credits and one after the credits. You’ll probably want to check out both.

Review: All is Lost

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★½

Every time a survival film comes along, I have to wonder how realistic it portrays the solitude. It’s fun and humorous even to see Tom Hanks dancing around a campfire in “Cast Away”, but is the reaction we should expect from someone who has just figured our their utterly lost? “All is Lost” is the latest to take on the survival story, but it addresses the solitude idea a little differently: this is a film with next to no dialogue and only one character.

Robert Redford is credited in “All is Lost” as Our Man. He is the only person in this entire movie. The film opens with a voice over courtesy of Redford that sounds like a goodbye note to someone, which eerily sets up the events that follow. Eight days earlier, we see our man waking up on his sailboat in the middle of the Indian Ocean. A shipping container floating in the water has damaged his boat.

He repairs the boat, but his radio equipment had been flooded leaving him with no one to call for help. And if things couldn’t get any worse, a storm pops up which tosses his boat throughout the waves. His boat is badly damaged, so much that he had to abandon it in favor of a life raft.

On the surface, “All is Lost” appears to be overly simplistic. There is only one person in the entire film, Redford, and there is very little dialogue. Outside of the opening voiceover, Redford probably only has two lines of dialogue. With so little going on, the film has a lot of potential to be a very boring 106 minute movie.

But it’s not boring at all. The film is paced so well that it feels much shorter than it is. The screenplay, written by director J.C. Chandor, relies solely on situational elements to keep the pace alive. And each of these situations creates moments of genuine intensity. Chandor doesn’t utilize typical scare tactics to levitate you from your seat. He’s able to dial up the intensity simply by putting Redford into one life-or-death situation after another.

I did have a hard time feeling for this character at first. As someone who would never be in this situation, I can’t feel sorry for him. He’s in the middle of the Indian Ocean on a sailboat that shouldn’t be that far out to sea. Not to mention, he didn’t really seem to know what he was doing. And since the movie just begins with no real setup, I didn’t know who I was supposed to be rooting for.

But then I realized that’s the point. Without any backstory, Chandor has allowed the audience to come up with their ideas of who this man is or where he comes from. For example, I noticed that he seemed a little in over his head at times. Perhaps he’s the cocky guy in the yacht club who thought he knew everything there is to know about boats. The more experienced sailors probably tried to talk him out of this excursion, but he didn’t listen.

There are so many questions that you can ask about this man and it’s entirely up to you to come up with the answers. What prompted him to take this trip? Why’s he in the Indian Ocean and not something a little more close to America (when he does speak, he speaks with an American accent so we know he’s from the USA at least)? What type of family does he have? Is he married? He’s wearing a ring on his left hand but it doesn’t really look like a wedding ring, does it?

Credit the costume and art departments for bringing out those questions. There a little things hiding out in the background that elude to who exactly this man might be in his everyday life. Chandor doesn’t dwell on any of it, but its up to the watchful eye of the audience to catch them.

Redford is sensational in this role. This is essentially a silent film for him. He speaks very little, only to himself or into a radio. And with no backstory built into the script, it was all up to Redford to create all the history and motivations on his own. I can’t imagine how much of a challenge that must be for an actor. Redford never seems to disappoint. Even if the movie he’s in is a bit of a misstep, Redford is always the one bright spot. He’s delivered many fine performances in his career and this one will go down as one of his best.

“All is Lost” won’t be for everybody. I can certainly see where some people might find the lack of dialogue a bit of a bore. But if you allow yourself to be creative as you watch it, there’s a lot you’ll be able to get out of it. Outside of that, it’s got a brilliant screenplay, its beautifully shot (both above and underwater) and its masterfully acted by its singular star. If you can accept this film as a silent film and let Redford’s performance coupled with whatever your imagination can concoct, there’s plenty to like here.