Crash Bang Wallop

Rating: 7/10 (18 August 2014)

Every year that goes by and every film in the fantasy franchise that goes by the cgi cartoonery gets more polished and potent and this outing is no exception. Where will it end? This is an exhausting ride of cartoon violence and unremitting mayhem that although I stayed with it to the conclusion I knew was coming I was happy when it was all over and quiet descended again. Until the next time that is, when we can all start over again.
The organisation protecting the world's freedom SHIELD has been found to be completely infiltrated with the different brand of freedom lovers from the alphabet soup HYDRA. Boss Samuel L. Jackson's injunction to Capt. America Chris Evans to Trust No One rings very true here: don't trust anyone but especially don't trust your own eyes. Or his for that matter. Basically many people have to die in the chase for a flash stick, but the film loses impetus once its secrets are "revealed" and the graphics take over. Scarlet Johannson as Black Widow succeeded admirably in looking powerful and non-sexy, Evans' life was saved at least half a million times during the picture by his titchy shield, Falcon looked a force to be reckoned with except on very flimsy wings but it was the Winter Soldier who looked impressively impregnable. I couldn't imagine such a cool savage dude ever sneezing, getting a wedgie or paying a parking ticket. The heroes – or should that be merely saviours – didn't seem to care much for the Innocent Bystander, so it was refreshing to hear Johannson shout to hundreds of bystanders to get out of the way of the baddies flooding the air with bullets. And as for the mammothly expensive death-dealing flying machines – cheap teleportation will transport us all into a new world of non moving parts; same as those flying machines when disabled with a credit card, it's right on top of us.
However I enjoyed the film - less than the first because of the excessive cartoon choreography which probably doesn't play as well on a TV, but wasn't surprised or disappointed by any of it: same as all of us I knew what I was getting into. The biggest point to me: Why can't all freedom lovers whether political or religious mind their own business?