Captain Turns the Heat on

The deceptively named Winter Soldier scores as an engaging and intellectually stimulating action flick
Captain Turns the Heat on

Captain America: Winter Soldier is one of those rare summer tent poles that brings not only the good ol’ fashioned action back, but does it with surprising depth and character. You can tell some thought has gone into the script, and for once, the Cap lives up to expectations.

 In his second full-length feature outing as a stand alone Avenger, we see Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) aka Captain America team up with some familiar faces to face off against his most difficult rival to date - the winter soldier (Sebastian Stan). There is a murky past here, and how the Cap begins to deal with it is just one tiny portion of the film, which will definitely continue on to the next Captain America installment.

The choreography of the action sequences are top notch, particularly the first time Cap meets our winter soldier - the hand to hand combat sequence almost looks like an aggressive yet light-on-the -feet dance piece.

 For most part of the film, we have Cap taking his time, settling back into the new world, decades away from his World War-2 days, still trying to wrap his head around the mega event that is the Internet. He has difficulty putting his whole-hearted trust into Nick Fury’s (Samuel L Jackson) SHIELD and who can blame the guy, really.

 When sent out on a mission to retrieve hostages from a SHIELD ship held captive by pirates, the Cap finds out there’s more than meets the eye to this deceptively simple task. Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) accompanies him, albeit to carry out her own special little mission and she is as riveting as ever as the beautiful SHIELD agent, Fury’s number one gal. Sequence after sequence, we find out everyone’s guarding their own secret and when Nick Fury is apparently murdered in cold blood, things begin to really heat up.

 There are high ranking defence officials, ex-Nazi crazy scientists, a nurse who’s more than what she claims to be and a destructive piece of technology that the Cap and his band of supporters need to stop, in order to save the world.

 Anthony Mackie plays Sam Wilson/Falcon’s role - the ex-paratrooper, excellent in aerial combat, appearing here with wingpacks - one of the first African American superheroes to have ever been created. It was definitely great fun to watch him come to life on screen.

 There’s a whole lot of symbolism to go around too: the movie comes close to defining the state of current, global politics; how much freedom the world’s so willing to give up, just to feel a tad more secure. This is the digital age and no one’s what they seem to be, and trust is a depreciating commodity. This is heavy stuff for a super hero movie, but co-directors Anthony and Jon Russo have created a movie that’s as engrossing and intelligent as it is fun.

 Don’t forget to stay until the end of the credits. You won’t regret it.

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The New Indian Express
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