Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Rating: 8/10 (16 April 2014)

Avengers Assemble was such a big hit for the Marvel franchise, so I am making sure to follow the storyline that is continuing through each of the films, and of course I liked the first film starring the hero of this wearing the iconic costume, from directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (Welcome to Collinwood; You, Me and Dupree). Basically it has been two years since the events in New York, Steve Rogers aka Captain America (Chris Evans) is still having to catch up with the modern world and pop culture, having been in suspended animation, frozen in ice for fifty years, he works for espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division). He is sent on a rescue mission to save hostages on a vessel, alongside agent Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), in fact besides the rescue the mission involves extracting data from the ship's computers for S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who explains about Project Insight, where three spy satellites can eliminate given targets, Fury is suspicious of the project. Heading to meet with agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), Fury is ambushed by enemies, led by the mysterious masked assassin the Winter Soldier (Gone's Sebastian Stan), he survives the attack and makes it to Steve's apartment, Furty warns him that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been compromised and hands him a flash drive, before being shot and dying in surgery, Hill takes the body. Steve is summoned to the Triskelion, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters, to tell what he knows to official Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford), but refusing to say anything he is regarded a fugitive, but he escapes as the agency hunt for him, he and Romanoff join forces and in New Jersey locate a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. bunker where they can access the content of the flash drive. They activate a supercomputer with the preserved consciousness of Dr. Arnim Zola (Toby Jones), Zola explains that S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded after the Second World War, but since then enemy organisation HYDRA has secretly operated within its ranks, causing global chaos in the hope that humanity will surrender freedom for the security, and then the pair inside the bunker narrowly escape a missile attack on them. Steve and Romanoff recruit former USAF para-rescue man Sam Wilson aka Falcon (The Adjustment Bureau's Anthony Mackie) to join them, and they deduce the HYDRA mole inside S.H.I.E.L.D. is Jasper Sitwell (Maximiliano HernÃ¡ndez) who they catch and force to divulge the information he knows, that HYDRA has identified through data searching every single individual on the globe who is a threat to their plans, and the three satellites could be programmed to eliminate them all. Travelling to headquarters the trio are ambushed by the Winter Soldier and his assailants, during the long fight the assassin's masked is removed, Steve recognises him as his former comrade James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes, who he thought was dead, Hill then rescues the heroes and takes them to a safe house, where they find Fury is alive, he faked his death and he has plans to replace the programming chips for the satellites so they will not fire. At the Triskelion the World Security Council are gathered, Captain America exposes the plot by HYDRA, disguised Romanoff reveals herself and forces Pierce to leak out all classified information, Fury comes in eventually and after a struggle kills Pierce, meanwhile Rogers and Wilson work to try and change the controllers, but with the Falcon suit damaged Rogers is forced to do it alone, the Winter Soldier tries to stop him but the attack is stopped just in time for Hill to take control and have the vessels destroy each other. Wilson fights and defeats double agent Brock Rumlow (The Grey's Frank Grillo), while the Winter Soldier rescues Rogers when the vessels crash to the ground, but he disappears after this, in the end Fury using the cover of his apparent death heads to find the remaining HYDRA cells in Eastern Europe, Romanoff provides Rogers and Wilson information for them to track down the Winter Soldier program. Also starring Emily VanCamp as Kate aka Agent 13, Georges St- Pierre as Georges Batroc aka Batroc the Leaper, Jenny Agutter as Councilwoman Hawley, Garry Shandling as Senator Stern, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Alan Dale as World Security Council Member, Callan Mulvey as Jack Rollins, Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark, Stan Lee as Smithsonian Security Guard, Gary Sinise as The Smithsonian Narrator, Silent House's Elizabeth Olsen (Mary-Kate and Ashley's sister) as Wanda Maximoff and Kick-Ass's Aaron Taylor- Johnson as Pietro Maximoff. Evans is still straightforward and definitely growing into the role as he becomes more determined, Johansson is terrific being equally determined and a little feisty, Jackson gets much more time on screen as the smart leader, and even though a little stiff Redford is a villain. You don't have to necessarily pay attention to all the dialogue, the story once you settle into it is well thought out, using the contemporary surveillance scandals to good effect for the usual world destruction concept, of course the best bits are the explosive chase sequences and special effects bundled fight and battle sequences which are fantastic, as a sequel it definitely outweighs the original, a most entertaining action adventure. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Very good!