Captain America: The Winter Soldier- Spoilers

Captain America 2 has just been released pretty much worldwide with to both audience and critical acclaim even being compared to the success of 2012's Avengers. Cap 2 isn't that bad at all, in fact as a standalone film its pretty good, but in a franchise in which we've come to expect so much, this film was a disappointment.

These issues are made more evident through the  the overwhelmingly positive reviews the film is receiving.

• Where was Hawkeye?

Don't lie to yourself, no one really likes hawkeye. Perhaps in the comics yes, with his slick purple attire, but not in the films. His bland and underdeveloped character are both hindrances to a hero already bogged down by an unimpressive power, in comparison to the other Avengers.

Some of his only known background in the films is that he works for SHIELD, so...where is he? His appearance in the film would have been extremely fitting and would've worked in neat collaboration with the whole main cast. Think about it, Nick Fury, Falcon, Black Widow and even Captain America to an extent, don't really have any magnificent powers, Hawkeye would've fitted in with all the characters being seen as an equal in the process. That said, however the appearance of Hawkeye as well as the main three heroes would've been a little too messy, however a decrease in the screen time of the bland Black Widow would've allowed Hawkeye time to at the very least make a cameo. Besides in the film Black Widow wears a pendant of an arrow, harking to Hawkeye's character, and considering the subtle relationship they both have, it's bizarre that he doesn't appear... but don't worry you can catch him in the original Thor... doing literally nothing.

• Stop Tricking us into thinking someone's died 

This is a fairly new trend which has plagued Phase 2 of MARVEL in-particular, appearing in all three of the films so far. An issue with all superhero movies is that we pretty much know for certain that the main character isn't going to die. Whether that's because their film is part of a franchise and we KNOW we're going to see them again (for example in the Avengers 2) or simply that the bad guy is so bad that, for the sake of it being a children's film, they cannot win. This therefore makes it very tricky to create a sense of peril in MARVEL movies as we know that nearly every time the hero is going to come out completely unscathed. MARVEL think they've found a way around this by killing off a main character, before bringing them back minutes later.

This can be seen in Cap 2 when Nick Fury is 'killed'. As he is so pivotal to the story however, the audience knows he isn't dead, therefore there is no point in killing him in the first place, it's simply a waste of time.
Through killing people and bringing them back to life MARVEL is damaging itself creating an atmosphere in their films whereby nothing can go wrong and where there is no sense of peril. This forces us care less for the characters and makes the dramatic scenes far less dramatic, thus making their films on the whole less engaging and entertaining. Imagine if characters actually died in MARVEL movies, especially someone so big like Nick Fury,  the Avengers team would go mental, showing their true selves, making the fight scenes in The Avengers 2 not only entertaining but also emotionally involving.

• The Winter what?

With the hindsight on watching Captain America:The Winter Soldier it is quite obvious who the 'bad guy' is. It isn't this 'Russian Assassin'  that MARVEL has been shouting to us about in trailers and various other media platforms, the main villain is actually SHIELD. This was a great twist, which in a way, inverts the functioning of the MARVEL universe, and what ultimately makes the film an important, if monotonous, addition to the franchise.

 Some of the best scenes in the film involved the bemusement of the SHIELD workers as they looked around puzzled at who to trust, reflecting a sincere crisis which is grounded in real life. The infiltration of SHIELD is led by the fantastic Robert Redford, who is gifted perhaps the best scene in the MARVEL franchise so far, seen when he murders his housekeeper after she overhears a top secret conversation, showing the man's hatred and sadistic drive all through one action. With such a fantastic villain underlying the film, it is ultimately a shame that he's not seen more often, replaced by the dumb military antics of the bland Winter Solider.

 This film would be exactly the same, if not better, without the winter soldier in it, heck he even has a cooler, more characterised counterpart in Hydra solider 'crossbones', who could've quite easily replaced him in his role. His only function in the film is to fire his gun and replicate a, walking, talking cliché, with his final movements being unbelievably foreseeable. His character follows the typical story of a man loosing his memory, as he turns on his best mate, before Captain America reminds him of his previous self through an 'emotional speech', until eventually The Winter Soldier joins Captain Americas side.

 This is furthermore yet another example of a character, dying and coming back to life.

•  Inconsistency

Superhero movies, or more accurately MARVEL movies, follow quite a straightforward formula. Everything's fine, till a villain shows up and demonstrates their power, the superhero is then in disarray, and then  eventually overcomes the evil.

 This was starting to get boring, which was why I was so excited to watch Cap 2, showing a premise of action packed espionage entwined with sinister politics that looked different and more appropriate to Captain America's character. This movie is far from this intelligent exterior which it presents.

 It starts so well, peaking at the 'death' of Nick Fury whereby the audience is completely stunned at the story that's taking place, immediately turning the MARVEL universe on its head. After this however, the film forgets that its political storyline ever existed and resorts to violence to tell its story. Redford attempts to uphold any sense of intelligence in the final few scenes however his plans are thwarted by the heroes who look incredibly childish in comparison to the clever plot. This contrast between the classy first half of the movie and the dumb second half, only highlights this issue further, like three sugar pumped kids hijacked the script, smearing the final pages with their sticky hands and lack of patience, creating a mess.
 This made the movie, not bad, but incredibly frustrating as the potential was evident, however the final performance lacked any kind of impact.




- This movie's not that bad, heck if it was the first of the Phase 2 movies I would have probably quite liked it. But it's not, it's the third in the ongoing MARVEL franchise and the first film where cracks in the MARVEL franchise have started to show, taking few risks, with plot structures which are identical to the last movie. This movie is part of a franchise, meaning these films aren't going to stop being released any time soon. Since this is the case, why not mix things up a bit and leave the heroes on a bad note, where for example, Captain America has been imprisoned , leading to an exciting opening sequence at the start of The Avengers 2 which would establish a great tone for the start of the film and allow for further character development as we see the heroes in a more desperate situation.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a good film, but it wasn't great. It's the potential within the film which makes me so annoyed, promising so much but delivering so little. It felt like a mid-point in Phase 2, nothing special, not the worst, not the best just...meh.