MCU Rank & Review: Part Nine: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Runtime: 02:15:51

Total Runtime: 18:43:28

I'm back after another brief hiatus, only about a week this time. I'd like to promise these will come faster, but I'm dealing with a mild case of depression that is dampening my drive to get these out there despite the next couple of movies being really good.

This will probably be a bit more detailed than Thor The Dark World's discussion because this movie isn't a total slog to get through. Before I get into it, I've been watching WandaVision as well, first three episodes are out, and the reviews of those will come out once I finish these TWENTY-THREE movie reviews. Those will be a review per episode, I think, either that or since it's 9 episodes, I'll break it down into 3 episode chunks. I haven't decided yet. But we're only on Part Nine of this series, and Black Widow will probably be out before I get to Part Twenty-Three anyway. We'll see.

Let's Begin.

We open with Cap (Chris Evans) doing laps on our first new character, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) - soon to be known as The Falcon. Sam does not like that Steve keeps passing him on his left.

Following the destruction of Sam's Ego, he and Steve meet and discuss their respective military services. Sam gives Steve the knowledge that the "Trouble Man Soundtrack" by Marvin Gaye will tell him everything he missed while under the ice. 

Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) shows up to pick Steve up for a mission.

Their mission is to infiltrate a boat and rescue SHIELD agents held captive aboard. They rescue Agent Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernández) among others, Steve fights Georges Batroc (George St-Pierre) and Natasha had a secret second mission to steal some info.

Steve confronts Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) about Natasha's secret mission, he states that everyone has secrets and "the last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye." Later revealed to have been done by a cat, sorry, Flerken. Fury shows Cap "Project Insight" and reveals that the mission he went on was a cover for Natasha to steal info regarding this project. The project involves three very large "next-gen" Helicarriers.

We are also introduced to Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford), a secretary of the World Security Council. discussing the events of the mission with other World Security Council members. Fury interrupts the meeting and asks for a delay in the initiation of Project Insight.

Understanding each other Steve leaves and visits the Smithsonian to reminisce about the good old days of World War II, and then visits Peggy in the hospital. She is now much older as she wasn't also trapped in ice for 70 years, and suffers from Alzheimer's. 

We are then shown that Sam helps veterans struggling with PTSD, and then transition to Fury now under attack by an unknown organization that is obviously Hydra. We get our first image of the Winter Soldier (Sabastian Stan), looking super bad-ass. Fury escapes certain death through a manhole. The hit on Fury was ordered by Pierce.

Steve arrives in his apartment briefly talking to his neighbor (Emily VanCamp) in the hallway. Noticing his music is on in the apartment, Steve enters cautiously to find a wounded Fury. Fury warns the apartment is bugged and they must speak cryptically. Fury is shot through the wall, Steve's neighbor arrives revealing herself to be a SHIELD agent, and Rogers gives chase to the shooter - The Winter Soldier. 

Fury is shown to die in the hospital, Steve and Natasha are sad. Steve hides the drive that Fury gave him in his apartment in a vending machine behind some gum. Steve runs off to SHIELD Headquarters and meets with Pierce. Steve is attacked by undercover Hydra agents in an elevator. They stood no chance, stating "Before we get started, does anyone want to get out." Captain America is then named a "fugitive of SHIELD." Natasha bought the drive from the vending machine, leaving with Steve she tells him of the Winter Soldier. 

They go to a mall and masquerade as a couple to hide from Hydra agents looking for them. They use the drive at an Apple Store and get coordinates to a secret bunker at a military base.

they head to the bunker knowing which is correct through Steve's military expertise. "This building is in the wrong place." In the bunker, they are trapped by a now computerized Dr. Zola who attempts to blow them up to cover up his secret Hydra scheme. Pierce is revealed to be Hydra, but if you didn't know that by now, you need to work on your movie analysis skills. They escape the explosion.

Sam shows up and recruits himself to the team assisting Steve and Natasha. They run off to interrogate Sitwell, Sam mentions knowing where to find a suit. Meanwhile, Senator Stern (Gary Shandling) from Iron Man 2 is revealed to be Hydra, what a shock.

Steve and Natasha interrogate Sitwell, he doesn't play along so they kick him off a building. Sam catches him in his fancy Falcon suit and Sitwell proceeds to spill all the beans about Project Insight.

It's a secret Hydra plan to eliminate all potential Hydra threats, though I doubt it'd kill Bruce Banner, considering Bruce can't even kill himself with a bullet. Though the best part of the scene here is the Stephen Strange reference confirming the future Dr. Strange movie yet unannounced upon release of this film.

They head out to stop Hydra's plans and the Winter Soldier kills Sitwell via delivery truck.

A big fight ensues with some of the best choreography in the MCU to date.

The Winter Soldier picks up Cap's shield, a potential foreshadowing if they decide to have several Captain America's moving forward. But also, his mask is removed revealing him to be Bucky, to the shock of only Steve and the six-year-old in the theater watching the movie behind me.

Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) saves the three of them from The Winter Soldier and takes them to a very much alive Nick Fury. 

They infiltrate SHIELD again, and Steve outs Hydra's plans. Hydra Agent Rumlow, otherwise known as Crossbones (Frank Grillo), over-rides their attempts to stop Project Insight, activating the helicarriers. Natasha infiltrates the council disguising herself as one of the councilors.

The Winter Soldier comes to stop Cap and Team from preventing the success of Project Insight by changing the targets from millions of people to just the three helicarriers. Fury has one up on Pierce cause he has two different eyes.

Steve and Bucky fight, Steve breaks Buckys arm and chokes him out so they can complete their mission. Meanwhile, Falcon fights Crossbones and the building collapses on Crossbones while Falcon is saved by Fury via helicopter. Steve and Bucky go down in one of the helicarriers. Bucky pulls him out of the water, visibly unsure of why.

 

Cap wakes in the hospital with Sam "on [his] left." Fury goes into hiding, pretending to be dead - gravestone and all. Natasha gives Steve a dossier on The Winter Soldier and drives off. Sam and Steve remain, Sam willing to help with the search for Bucky asking "When do we start?"

Mid-credits Hydra are revealed to be performing tests on Loki's scepter. Baron Wolfgang von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann) is revealed. He confirms Hydra is bringing about "the age of miracles" revealing the twins Wanda and Pietro Maximoff portrayed by Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson respectively. Our first tease for Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Post-credits Bucky goes to the Smithsonian exhibit from earlier to find out more about himself presumably.

The Winter Soldier is by far, without a doubt the best MCU movie put out to this point. While a simple script, all the MCU movies are not exactly complicated, this is by far the best narrative put out by Marvel Studios. The political intrigue of the film allows the MCU to continue to shift into multiple genres, up to this point primarily having focused on similar feeling films. Though for the most part, they won't go far from the comfortable feel they've grown accustomed to. The announcement of Deadpool 3's R rating leaves me hopeful that the MCU can continue to grow and be more than it is currently.

Steve's questionable devotion to Bucky begins here. Expanded further in Civil War, we begin to see Steve struggling with what to do with his friend, turned war criminal, and the only remnant remaining of his previous life.   

Official MCU 23 film ranking:

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
2. Iron Man 3 (2013)
3. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
4. The Avengers (2012)
5. Iron Man (2008)
6. Thor (2011)
7. Iron Man 2 (2010)
8. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
9. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) is next. Coming Soon™.

MCU Rank & Review: Part Eight: Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Runtime: 01:52:02

Total Runtime: 16:27:37

I'm back. I took a month or two off to decompress cause 2020 was a shit-show, and I watched like 80 movies in the span of three weeks to finish my "must watch movies of 2020" list. I still have two left. "News of the World" and "One Night in Miami" and I'll be getting to those shortly, with my annual best and worst of lists following shortly after.

The other, more prominent reason for the delay was this movie. It sucks.

Not in a "this movie is bad" way, but more in a "this movie is boring" way. Needless to say, This will be a relatively short review in comparison to the previous seven parts.

Jumping right in we start with narration for Odin, just like the opening of the first film, this time he explains the history of the Dark Elves and the Aether, the MacGuffin of this film, eventually revealed to be the second Infinity Stone - the Reality Stone.

Loki is arrested and sentenced to the dungeons for his crimes in New York and Thor obliterates a rock being.

After his battle and back in Asgard, Odin advises Thor to forget about Jane, but she's played by Natalie Portman which makes doing so impossible until she isn't in the movies anymore after this film. Though she will return in 2022. 

We go to London where Jane is on a date with boring man, Richard, played by Chris O'Dowd who I wish had way more screentime, along with a better character to play. Darcy interrupts, shows Jane some readings and they ditch Richard finding a place with weird gravity and portals. Jane enters a Portal, for some reason touches a glowing obelisk of doom, and is infused with the Aether - Heimdall sees this with his magic eyes. Also, an intern throws their car keys in a portal and they don't come back.

Thor returns to Earth, and Jane promptly slaps him, twice. Thor takes her to Asgard to treat the Aether problem. 

Thor believed the aether had been destroyed long ago, Odin reveals he lied. Meanwhile, Frigga visits Loki in a touching scene, though heartbreakingly it's revealed that she was an illusion the whole time created by Loki. He just wants to be loved.

Thor explains the Convergence to Jane, where all the universes align and the Aether can be used to destroy them? or unite them? or something evil that the Dark Elves want to do. A prison break occurs by some Dark Elves and Loki tells them to use the stairs to the left.

Heimdall crashes one of the invading ships which he could see despite it being invisible, but for some reason couldn't see the hundreds of other ships. They invade after the shields are deactivated through the Prison Break. Frigga tries to hide Jane, Malekith, the leader of the Dark Elves kills her to get the Aether from Jane, Thor strikes him with lightning.

The best scene in the movie happens. It's the funeral scene, it's sad and beautiful.

Odin has Jane locked up to use her as bait for Malekith's return, Thor prefers to bring the fight to him. Thor asks Heimdall to help him commit Treason, but to do so he needs Loki's help. Loki puts on the facade that he is fine, but he isn't. Thor asks for help, he accepts.

Jane slaps Loki. Which causes him to like her.

Heimdall admits his treason to hold off Odin while Thor, Loki, and Jane escape to confront Malekith - decapitation their grandfather['s statue] in the process. They use Loki's skills of description to trick him hoping to destroy the Aether when he removes it from Jane. It doesn't work. Malekith takes the Aether into himself, they fight, and Loki is stabbed and dies.

Thor and Jane hide in a cave, they find their stuff from earlier they threw into the portal and take the portal to London. Thor charmingly hangs Mjolnir on a coatrack. 

Loki is revealed to be not dead, Thor still believes him to be though. Malekith arrives on Earth, they use devices to help them find portals caused by the convergence, the battle has them flying all over the place and myuh-myuh tries to keep up.

 The heroes win, obviously.

On Asgard again, Thor refuses kingship from Odin, stating Earth needs his help. Thor leaves and Loki is revealed to have disguised himself as Odin - No word on what he has done with the All-father. 

The team on Earth are having breakfast, Thor arrives, he and Jane kiss, roll credits. Mid-credits the warrior three bring the Collector the Aether stating "it's unsafe to have two Infinity Stones in one place. 

The collector accepts. Post-credits a creature from Jotunheim is on Earth chasing some birds.

I'm not entirely sure why this one is so hard to get through. What I do know is the first two Thor films are incredibly weak in the villain department. So much so the first film doesn't really have a "main antagonist" that is defeated by the hero. Loki is the central villain, and his plan fails and he falls into space. This movie has Space Elves that want to return the universe to its natural state of darkness by destroying it. which would leave them without a home, but Evil be Evil I guess.

The fight scenes here are far more impressive than those of the first film, but the plot lacks focus and sense to make the film enjoyable. Everything on Asgard is incredibly boring, and everything on Earth is the typical MCU comedy. Luckily the third Thor film fixes the tonal issues. But God, this movie's a mess. I also left out the Selvig goes crazy storyline, cause it's literally pointless. The end.

Official MCU 23 film ranking:

1. Iron Man 3 (2013)
2. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
3. The Avengers (2012)
4. Iron Man (2008)
5. Thor (2011)
6. Iron Man 2 (2010)
7. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
8. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Coming up next are two of the best movies in the MCU, followed then by one of the worst. But first, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier."