A review by Nalini Haynes
Captain America: The Winter Soldier opens in cinemas today.
Steve Rogers, aka Captain America (Chris Evans), repeatedly laps cute black dude running around monuments in Washington DC. Thus a bromance is born, introducing Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). Steve gets messaged and says goodbye to his playdate as Natasha, aka the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) pulls up in sexy car asking where the Smithsonian is because ‘I’m here to pick up a fossil.’
On the drive to SHIELD HQ, Natasha tries to set Steve up with a list of women. It’s clear she’s interested but she’s holding back.
Arriving at SHIELD, we’re introduced to some fearsome fan-service in the form of alien-looking aircraft with mega-guns intended to take down people before they commit a crime like in Minority Report only with flying robot guns. Steve argues passionately for justice only to be stonewalled by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).
Nick approaches his boss about delaying the launch of the flying guns. His boss, Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) fronts a committee arguing for a temporary delay.
Nick is attacked on the street.
OMG I NEED NICK’S SUV. IT IS SEXY AND AWESOME. Also, it drives itself and talks, a bit like KITT but without attitude. (It needs added attitude.)
Nick calls on Steve for help, only to get shot and die. His last words were ‘trust no-one’ as he hands Steve a USB stick.
Steve doesn’t know who to trust…
The plot thickens, the action amps up, Falcon joins the crew.
I love and adore Falcon. His entrance!!! Falcon needs to be more than Captain America’s side-kick. Falcon and Black Widow should totally get their own movies.
Skynet is about to take down Washington DC… Tension, explosions, shrapnel flying through the screen…
Winter Soldier has several kick-ass women characters but none of them talk to each other. At. All. Steve and Sam have a great bromance but there’s nothing for the women, not even a casual chat about ANYTHING. Natasha is intent on fixing Steve up with someone as if partnering up and match-making is a woman’s purpose in life. Winter Soldier fails the Bechdel Test, a simple gender bias test.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a kick-ass comic book movie with lots of humour, sexy weapons, vehicles, explosions and impressive special effects. Current fears of governments using internet tracking to predict and punish innocent civilians in a pre-emptive Skynet-style war create a SHIELD civil war. The Winter Soldier is a good, fun comic book movie. Stan Lee is gorgeous as the museum guard. Highly recommended.
★★★★☆ four out of five stars
The IMAX experience was, as usual, spectacular, complete with fabulous enormous screen and immersive sound but I had two complaints last night. Firstly, IMAX turned the lights up for the credits. Part-way through the credits and at the end of the credits there was another scene leading in to the next movie. The lights reflected in my 3D glasses, detracting from the image on the screen.
Secondly, I wanted to smack the guys talking in the row directly behind me. I asked them to be quiet. They eventually quietened down, after laughing at me, but retaliated by kicking my chair repeatedly. Seriously, dudes. Shared space. Grow up. You’re not in primary school any more. This is the first time I’ve had this problem at IMAX.
Don’t be those guys.
