Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Anthony and Joe Russo are not the most seasoned directors for the big screen.  Their filmography shows 3 other full length features, the last of which was the slapstick RomCom – You, Me and Dupree.  Add to that, the fact that I have not seen Captain America : First Avenger (yeah yeah you can boo me to kingdom come).

The end result – I didn’t enjoy Captain America : The Winter Soldier as much as I have enjoyed the other Avenger series movies.  I am at no point of time saying that it was a bad movie.  The movie was very well made I must say with a lot of attention to detail and some great sequences.  But somehow, it did not come together for me.

Maybe it was the pace of the narration – something that I was speaking to a friend of mine about.  I just thought that the movie unfolded at a leisurely pace – much like the 1940s when Captain America first came into being. It was not a thrill-a-minute ride like you are used to with The Avengers.

Captain America : The Winter Soldier begins with the Cap (Chris Evans) taking his laps of the city and a passing introduction to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). The Cap gets called onto a mission along with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and the STRIKE Team.  The mission is to rescue a SHIELD Ship from a hostage situation.

Along the way, Natasha aka Black Widow, also picks some sensitive info on a pen drive – a mission (or a sub mission) for Director Fury (Samuel Jackson).  Cap is not too happy with this because, “it could have jeopardized the entire mission”.  Thankfully nothing goes wrong and all is hunky dory.

Not for too long though cause a couple of days down the road, Director Fury is killed by an unknown assassin. However, Fury hands over the drive to Cap before dying and asks him to “trust no one”.  In the bargain, Cap doesn’t realize that all of SHIELD will be thrown against him by SHIELD Head Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford).

Robert Redford is probably the highlight of the entire movie.  He is calm & casual when asking Director Fury to ensure Ironman comes for his niece’s birthday and stunningly ruthless when the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) has to be “shocked” back into running his mission.  The experience shows.  The rest of cast is pale in comparison.

Captain America : The Winter Soldier definitely has its moments.  The action sequences are well choreographed and definitely shot well.  They are not stunningly edge-of-your-seat.  But they are enjoyable.  There are some slick dialogues thrown in to ensure no fatigue as well – most of them from Director Fury.

I felt the editing wasn’t upto the mark.  136 minutes was way too long.  It could have easily been cut down to less than 120 minutes.  One does get a tad impatient along the way.  The kids will of course love it.  Hardcore Avengers fans will too. And at 7 on 10, it is not a bad bet for the holidays.  Watch it on big screen though.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi111127321/?ref_=tt_ov_vi