Magnetic Tape and Plot holes: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

by Jon Petre

Recently, Marvel have set the standard quite low for sequels. Captain America: The Winter Solider was by no means brilliant, but neither was it in the same vein as The Wolverine (the one where he goes to Japan; it's so un-memorable I had to Google the title). I was quite impressed, but it was far from polished and was rough around the edges.

See what I mean? A lot darker, eh.

Captain America had a strong, dynamic opening, with some very brutal scenes from the Cap from the off, which surprised me--in a good way. Literally, the Cap crushes someone's lungs in half with his shield. Marvel have tried to shed the image of a jingoistic, champion-of-manifest-destiny and all-American hero, in favour of a darker, more realistic and overall gritty vigilante. Not quite a "Watchmen" is the "new" Captain, but I'll bite.The key theme at play here is that America has gotten dark and shady and corrupt, and generally fairly evil. The Captain reflects this at the outset, and then goes on to outright combat it in the third act. Obviously Christoper Markus (scriptwriter) watched the NSA scandal and the Snowden case last year with hungry eyes. Well, at least more people know about it, I suppose.

Let's have a quick rundown. But be forewarned! Here be spoilers...ish.

SHIELD is under attack. Forces of evil have converged against them --and in today's age of computers and technical wizardry and Total Recall energy masks and photo-grams and motor cars and wiff-waff (look it up, you'll laugh) and kinetoscopes, they may not always be who they seem...but, of course, that's been done so many times (especially in Marvel movies--especially in sequels) that you can guess straight away who's bad. Oh well, I wasn't expecting miracles anyway. The champion of this New World Order is the eponymous Winter Soldier.

Now, I don't want to be a stick in the mud (a lie), but the Winter Solider was in it for all of twenty minutes. In a two and a half hour film. I mean, come on. Why not just call it Captain America 2 and be done with it? Stop lying to us, industry. And you can make the case that they're trying to spread the characterization over two films; I get that, and while it's good, the lack of detail given over to the Winter Soldier was shockingly low. Either go hard or go home--it's hard to be subtle in a superhero movie like this. Don't just put in an antagonist just because you can.

Oh, Winter S! Nice of you to show up for the final act.

And as soon as you start picking, the whole rotten facemask starts peeling away. There were so many implausibilities. And it's not like they're subtle, fan-boy only problems; they're quite huge! You'll notice it as you go along, and unless you're okay with it then it'll annoy you. And another thing; at a key moment, ******* uses a Total Recall-esque energy mask (remember that scene when Arnie is an old fat woman at the airport? that). So now, in any future Marvel movie, any stealth or infiltration can be plot-hole'd by saying "why not use an energy mask?" you've set yerselves up for a world o' hurt, darngummit!

That said, there were some fun things about it. In comparison to the other sequels we've seen recently, it was stellar. The action was well done (if un-polished toward the end) and the plot made sense; it was just marketed terribly and re-branded to suit the title, and it would have done better if they'd played down the Winter Solider in the promos. It was a refreshing change --especially for the Cap-- to see an Avenger acting with such brute force and blase violence. Refreshing. Also, there was the cutest AI ever! He was stored over "20,000 meters of magnetic tape", and had a nice retro interface. It lifted the film out of the abyss that it was sinking towards, and kept the thing afloat at one of its weakest points. I think that there are also some scenes that have been cut out, so if you notice something fairly major missing, that could be the explanation. Or, it could just be a terrible scene. Your choice.

I can't go too low with this one, as it's not fair to class this alongside the standard that Marvel has (sadly) set, but neither is it a must-see. Enjoy it for what it is, and be aware that you'll probably be disappointing if you take it at the value it's been presented as. A reluctant 3/5 for me.

3/5