After the Cataclysmic events in New York with The Avengers Marvel's 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' finds Steve Rogers aka Captain America living quietly in Washington D.C. and trying to adjust to the modern world. But when a S.H.E.I.L.D colleague comes under attack. Steve becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue that threatens to put the world at risk. Joining forces with the Black Widow Captain America struggles to expose the ever-widening conspiracy to while fighting off professional assassins sent to silence him at every turn. When the full scope... of the villainous plot is revealed Captain America and the Black Widow enlist the help of a new ally The Falcon. However they soon find themselves up against an unexpected and formidable enemy - the Winter Soldier. Based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series first published in 1941 Marvel's 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' is produced by Kevin Feige directed by Anthony and Joe Russo from a screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and stars Chris Evans Scarlett Johansson Sebastian Stan Anthony Mackie Cobie Smulders Frank Grillo Emily VanCamp and Hayley Atwell with Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce and Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury. [show more]
We live in the information age. Any question we can ask can be answered at the touch of a button, any knowledge we want to gain can be looked up online in a matter of seconds, and every aspect of our lives is being increasingly catalogued through all manner of digital interactions and recordings. But in a world in which this data is inevitably open to abuse - and in which the scandals created by individuals such as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden have shown that information can be used as a weapon just as easily as it can be used to educate and edify - it's only natural that we ask questions about who uses this knowledge, how they use it, and why.
Which brings me to 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier', the latest entry in Marvel's inter-connected series of superhero movies that started way back in 2008 with 'Iron Man'. Fresh from his success as part of the Avengers ensemble that earned Marvel more than a billion dollars at the global box office a couple of years ago, it would have been easy for Captain America's second solo film to rest on its laurels, and sit back and offer more of the same flashy and frothy superhero action. But instead, this sequel chooses to explore some more challenging ideas, including ruminations on how much we can trust the people who govern us, and how much freedom we should be willing to exchange for our security.
Of course, it's all dressed up in familiar superhero conventions - the costumes, the powers, the rousing speeches, and the superhuman action. And there are also a fair few returning characters and concepts from previous Marvel movies to help sustain that sense of familiarity: Scarlett Johansson again reprises her role as KGB turncoat Black Widow, while Samuel L Jackson is once again Nick Fury, the director of the high-tech super-espionage SHIELD agency that's ostensibly responsible for global peacekeeping - but which shows itself in this movie to be a more morally ambiguous organisation than we might have originally expected.
Because the events of this film are set into motion when Captain America (aka Steve Rogers, played once again by Chris Evans) begins to suspect that SHIELD may be overstepping its remit and becoming an active instigator of global unrest, rather than simply reacting to trouble and neutralising it. And when Fury reveals that the Captain's fears are well-placed - and that SHIELD is secretly working on a programme to create three giant orbiting warships that will be able to deal with threats "before they happen", it drives a wedge between our hero and his employer that threatens to destroy their entire relationship.
Using the clean-cut World War II hero that is Captain America to explore such modern, relevant and morally-complex problems turns out to be a masterstroke, as it allows directors the Russo brothers to both acknowledge how much the political landscape has changed in the past seventy years, while also having, in Steve Rogers, a character who can cut to the moral heart of the debate without seeming naive or ignorant. Captain America simply comes from another era, with simpler and cleaner moral values, and it's watching Rogers come to terms with this conflict that provides some of the meatiest and most thought-provoking scenes in the movie.
There's more to this film than just politics, though - not least in the form of the Winter Soldier himself, a mysterious assassin played by Sebastian Stan who gradually reveals his past connections with our heroes at the same time as he acts as the catalyst for countless explosive action scenes. The militaristic setting of this movie allows it to include more dangerous-looking combat hardware than in any other Marvel movie so far, with a sense of jeopardy that's greatly enhanced by the fact that most of the characters involved are trained soldiers who are ready and able to kill. As a result, the movie has a serious tone that's a far cry from the jokier, less tense likes of 'Iron Man' or 'Thor' - although thankfully the writers do manage to inject a bit of levity with the odd well-timed one-liner here and there.
As well as the compelling core ideas, interesting characters and great action, there are also some great performances from the supporting cast. Anthony Mackie makes his Marvel debut as a new airborne hero, Falcon, and there's an excellent turn from some acting newcomer called Robert Redford (yes, really, THAT Robert Redford) whose character Alexander Pierce is thankfully far meatier than what could otherwise have been a mere extended cameo turn from a bona fide film superstar. In fact, it's Redford's character who best personifies the central conflicts of this movie, all the way through to the epic battle that closes out this particular chapter of Marvel's apparently-endless cinematic saga.
Overall, this is one of the most satisfyingly adult and serious entries in the Marvel canon so far - although that's not to say that it isn't hugely fun too. The combination of the film's likeable stars with the engaging ideas, dazzling action scenes and genuinely unpredictable plotting makes it gripping and immediate in a way that hasn't always been true of Marvel's other superhero movies. And the incredibly relevant, well-thought-out approach to the subject matter of information abuse makes it feel like one of the few superhero movies with real brains to match its brawn.
On blu-ray, the film looks and sounds as excellent as you'd expect, and there's a decent selection of behind-the-scenes material and extra features to make it worth buying on disc rather than just renting or streaming it (my favourite bonus might be the 'gag reel' of outtakes - which shows that the cast were clearly having fun on set, in spite of the sometimes-serious nature of the movie).
It might not be Marvel's most out-and-out entertaining film yet - that crowd-pleasing honour still belongs to The Avengers - but it's probably the most satisfying.
We will publish your review of Captain America: The Winter Soldier [Blu-ray] [Region Free] on Blu Ray within a few days as long as it meets our guidelines.
None of your personal details will be passed on to any other third party.
Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson star in this action adventure sequel based on the Marvel Comics series. Set two years after 'The Avengers' (2012), the film follows superhero Steve Rogers aka Captain America (Evans) who is now living in Washington where he is trying to adjust to modern society. When a fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is attacked he teams up with Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Johansson) to uncover a conspiracy and, with the help of the Falcon (Anthony Mackie), defeat a powerful enemy known as the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). The cast also includes Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Redford, Cobie Smulders, Dominic Cooper and Emily VanCamp.
Please note this is a region B blu-ray and will require a region B or region Free Blu-ray player in order to play. Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson star in this action adventure sequel based on the Marvel Comics series. Set two years after 'The Avengers' (2012), the film follows superhero Steve Rogers aka Captain America (Evans) who is now living in Washington where he is trying to adjust to modern society. When a fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is attacked he teams up with Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Johansson) to uncover a conspiracy and, with the help of the Falcon (Anthony Mackie), defeat a powerful enemy known as the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). The cast also includes Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Redford, Cobie Smulders, Dominic Cooper and Emily VanCamp. Age Rating 12
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy
