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I'm Mervi Eskelinen!
An artist, nerd and sorcerer, dedicated to make world softer and better for everyone, and to get you to make more art. Make art, change the world!
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
ATTENTION! The following contains spoilers and details about the movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). If you haven't seen it yet and don't want to know what's going on beforehand, please refrain from reading this. You've been warned.
I'm not a comic book nerd. Not even a little bit. Comics weren't a big thing in my home when I grew up and I didn't get into them like for instance the man I live with. I have read some here and there, but mostly I'm just clueless about this stuff. Thus I watch these "comic book movies" as any other movie, without having a real comparison to the less moving versions of the stories and the players.
When I first saw Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) I thought it was quite okay. It didn't make such a huge impression on me as it made on Toni, but I could see how he got all excited about the movie. And hey, Chris Evans isn't exactly unpleasant to look at. Later on I've seen the movie again a couple of times and grown to appreciate it. It doesn't try too much, yet it does just enough. It has interesting characters and it concentrates on how they feel and interact, instead of concentrating on explosions and action. The movie, as it's main character, has a straight back, strong idea of justice and tons of empathy.
Then there was of course The Avengers, which got me fangirling all the way and starting to think I really need to get into these comics as well. It was big and it was smashy, yet same time it had the heart and soul. It was still a bit of a sausage fest, but Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow was kicking ass as any other Avenger. As a tiny yet kinda ballsy chick I liked that.
I'm not going to dwell into the other Marvel-movies any more than that, since this is supposed to be about The Winter Soldier, but I will say this one thing: They have been getting better and better with each one and they have made me want more and more. As they do with this latest instalment.
The Winter Soldier tells a story about a world changing drastically. Steve, oh captain our captain, finds himself in a weird situation where his loyalties are tested. He teams up with an old friend Natasha Romanoff, commonly known as Black Widow. Additionally a new player is introduced to the team, a soldier called Sam with special, yet no superpower skills. He's the mandatory outsider needed because things inside have got rotten.
And how did the things inside get rotten? Nazis, of course. Hydra, introduced to the audience in The First Avenger didn't die with it's leader. It got inside S.H.I.E.L.D., our good guy group and grew like a mould in a badly insulated bathroom walls. Thus plenty of our good guys turn out to be bad guys. That's something Cap doesn't appreciate and it saddens and confuses him. The bad guys have on their side this other super soldier, a Russian built urban legend who's more of a weapon than a man. He's known as The Winter Soldier and he proves to be an equal in size, strength and skills to our hero. The mystery man carries his missions like a robot and is close to messing up everything and everyone. Up until the point his masks drops of and Cap recognises him as Bucky, his best friend who he thought to have died during the war and The First Avenger. Poor Buck unfortunately doesn't remember a thing cause his mind has been wiped and gets all baffled when Steve seems to know him. Poor Bucky, trying to kill everyone including Cap.
Turns out that Zola, the evil mad genius of Hydra has been "living" as an AI and been pulling the strings from the back of it all. Because Hydra has spread in every corner of S.H.I.E.L.D., the both instances must go down. Our handful of good guys who know what's going on come up with a plan and mayhem follows.
I liked it all. I continued to like Cap and Black Widow, I think Anthony Mackie as Sam/Falcon is awesome and Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier/poor Bucky makes my head spin. Oh dear. Okay, besides of being hot he does really great job bringing The Winter Soldier alive even though he doesn't say much through the movie and mostly just stares with angry angry eyes. The story is interesting and very whole. It's built with small details and little things that aren't forgotten in the next scene. It builds the world in which the other movies and even the sadly-quite-boring Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. television show exist, and by the way it explains the Clairvoyant of the said show. After seeing the movie I told Toni I think Clairvoyant is/was Zola. I mean, I'll be really disappointed if this isn't the case. The action is beautifully built and the fights go on like dancing. It's kind of watching ballet with firearms and blood.
The both times I have seen The Winter Soldier already the audience was mainly girls and women. The hot guys can explain a part of it, but I strongly believe having female players who can take care of themselves yet are still women instead of being a guyish is the way to get us ladies really feel for the movie. This one has a couple in addition to Black Widow and at least I felt happy about it. Also because the movie concentrates on characters and being a whole compelling story it obviously works for people who like stuff such as that. In my personal experience women do like that.
The Winter Soldier does something most the Marvel movies lately have been able to do: It has darker undertones and serious themes, but it's not murky, dark and overly serious. It has the right balance of lightness and humour without becoming a joke. There are big emotions, there are laughs and while it is a fictitious world with superheroes, alien species and imaginary tech it's not unfamiliar or weird. Because this movie is focused on the characters, their feelings and how they work with themselves and with each other, it's very human and in a way real. All the explosions, action scenes and tech is actually there to help the story to move on and to support the players and not the other way around.
Overall The Winter Soldier is fantastic and the best of the Marvel's movies and definitely better than any of the DC's murkiness. It's much more than a superhero movie. It's a movie.
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