Captain America: The Winter Soldier

After waking from a 50-year deep freeze and helping to fend off an alien invasion, super-soldier Cpt. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is still adapting to the modern world. He finds himself increasingly at odds with his employer, security agency SHIELD, and its secretive director, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). But when SHIELD is dealt a blow by a mysterious assassin called the Winter Soldier, Rogers is willing to put his life on the line to discover the truth and right some wrongs. Along the way, he enlists the help of Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), an elite SHIELD agent with a checkered past, and Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), a military para-rescue veteran turned PTSD counselor.

Success can sometimes be as much a burden as a blessing. For the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the triumph that was The Avengers created a question of “Where do we go from here?” It’s a question that Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World each attempted to address, and it’s one that Captain America: The Winter Solider confronts head-on. Whereas its forebear, Captain America: The First Avenger, was an old-school war/adventure film, this latest installment is a political thriller dripping with contemporary relevance. Without giving too much away, SHIELD’s aggressive and ethically dubious approach to keeping the world safe functions as both a stakes-raiser for the entire MCU and, hyperbolic as it may be, a cautionary tale for a country that inches closer toward a surveillance state.

What’s most shocking about this maturation and change in tone is the creative force behind it. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo are best known for comedy (namely, Arrested Development and Community) while screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely gave us the Chronicles of Narnia films. Despite being unconventional choices, all four men acquit themselves well. The Russo brothers give the film a taut, hardnosed sensibility with room to breathe, mixing combat and car chases with quieter moments that allow for character growth. Meanwhile, the script manages to pay homage to several comic book storylines while still throwing in surprises here and there. It also allows the film to function equally well as a stand-alone adventure and a bridge to the next Avengers installment.

The acting too is above par for comic book action fare. Owing to his old-fashioned heroism, it’s easy for Captain America to come across as one-dimensional, but Evans is able to tap into Rogers’ inner conflict and humanize him. The same goes for Johansson’s portrayal of Romanoff. Though she continues to operate as a one-woman wrecking crew, watching her contemplate her place in the world makes her infinitely less cartoonish. Jackson is gold as Nick Fury, but why would anyone expect anything less? Among the newcomers, Mackie overachieves in an underwritten role: Wilson seems to only exist to lend a helping hand. And Robert Redford, as a SHIELD high honcho, is noticeably lacking in intensity.

Despite the seeming absurdity of having a comic book movie tap into the political zeitgeist, The Winter Solider succeeds in doing just that. There is a current running through the film, embodied by its hero, that reminds us that freedom is worth fighting for even if the cost is high. That notion may strike some as facile or stale, but in an era of drone strikes and domestic spying, it’s well-worth remembering. It just so happens that a spandex-clad shield-tossing octogenarian gets the point across more lucidly and more entertainingly than legions of self-serving ham-handed pundits ever will.

8.25/10