Grim (with spoilers)

Rating: 2/10 (2 April 2014)

It's only April and already this gets my vote for worst film of the year. The first scene is utterly cringe-worthy. Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie (like a young Will Smith) buddy up whilst jogging round a park in Washington DC. It's stilted and humourless. Chris Evans doesn't wear a mask all the time but he might as well for all the expression he puts into things. The film then elevates Samuel L. Jackson (with eye-patch) to centre-stage to good, adrenalin-fuelled effect but immediately kills him off as soon as he gets our sympathy. Robert Redford emerges a few seconds later, to fill the Alpha Daddy void, without hitherto being mentioned. His job is to pump up the film's credibility but the political plot stinks. I walked out the theatre at this point. What makes me most sad is that I really liked the first Captain America film, which is the reason I made the effort to see this one as soon as it came to town. I guess it must have been the interest of the 1950s setting which made it for me, as this sequel completely alienated me. Perhaps also, Chris Evans fitted the role as a squeaky-clean postwar guy. In the 21st century he's as much fun as watching paint dry.