Check it Out! - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Well, I’m all ready to see “Age of Ultron” now!  I have watched “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”.  While I like the first Cap movie better overall, I have to say that this one was definitely more of a cliffhanger.  I can’t remember the last time I’ve yelled at and pleaded with the TV so much during a movie.  That is one main advantage to watching a new movie on DVD versus watching it in theaters, you don’t have to worry about disturbing anyone with all your uninhibited comments and emotional outbursts (that and being able to pause it if you absolutely have to leave the room for a minute so you don’t miss anything).

Anyway, here we go, in the format that I started using with “Thor” and have used ever since.

Steve Rogers, aka Captain America:  During the unmentioned amount of time since “Avengers” occurred, Cap has done quite a bit of acclimating to the 21^st century.  There are still some things he hasn’t gotten used to, and some things he refuses to get used to, namely the idea that in order for peace to reign everyone that might stand as a threat to it must be eliminated (as he told Director Fury, "This isn’t freedom, this is fear.”)  Cap still has his moral compass intact and pointed in the right direction, and he still has that heart of gold.  This is what causes Shield (which has had Hydra working within it undetected for years) to target him for elimination.  I am also glad they showed that he had been able to find Peggy again.  Even though she is now a bedridden old woman who has lapses of memory, you can tell that he still cares for her.  That was the sweetest, most heart touching and close-to-tears-inducing part of the whole movie.

Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow:  It is much more obvious in this movie than in "Avengers" that Natasha and Cap have entirely different outlooks on life.  They both end up needing each other to survive, but that doesn't mean that they approve of the way the other person handles different situations.  Then after they find out that Hydra has been using Shield as a cover all these years, Natasha begins to doubt what she has believed about her past motives and methods.  She is definitely a developing, evolving character, which makes her interesting to watch.

Director Nick Fury:  This is the movie where some of Fury's previous work comes back to haunt him.  While he does end up realizing that he has inadvertently been helping Hydra all these years and is able to let Cap know in time to stop him from getting caught up in it, he also has to suffer the consequences of being too deeply involved and then trying to get out.  (Sidenote:  I want a car like his where you can control it using vocal aids.  That would have saved me from a couple startling situations where I've forgotten that my car can't read my mind to know that I now want to drive forward instead of backwards...)

Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon:  This is the guy Cap needed in his life.  A veteran of the Armed Forces who served two tours of duty and now works with other vets struggling with the after-effects of being in combat, Sam understands what Cap has been through more than anyone else Cap has encountered.  AND he has a special skill set that comes in real handy as he steps in to the role as Cap’s right hand man.  He's the kind of guy that when he hears about something that needs to be done, he says, "Ok, let's go!"

Secretary Alexander Pierce:  It was so strange seeing Robert Redford playing an antagonist.  I can’t really say “bad guy”, since the other two movies of his that I’ve seen had him playing rolls where both characters were technically “bad”, i.e. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting", which were both well done but both also deserve PG ratings.  ("The Sting" has the most jaw-dropping ending of all time. Trust me).  But, as always, he did an amazing job.  He is such a scheming, hardhearted so-and-so!

The Winter Soldier (aka Bucky Barnes!!!!):  This guy is the main reason I was screaming at the TV.  During his first real fight with Cap, the mask he's been wearing comes off, and Cap recognizes him and calls him by name.  Bucky denies knowing him since he’d been brainwashed by Hydra after they discovered him after his fall in “First Avenger”, but the encounter starts things niggling in the back of his brain where he knows he’s seen that guy before.  Then they brainwash him again!!!!!  That’s when the yelling started on my end.  After that whenever Bucky was in a scene I was begging, “Remember, Bucky!!!!!  Knock some sense into him, Cap!  Let him remember!!!”  It sure took forever, but apparently something did start to work, since we see him pulling Cap out of the Potomac after Cap fell in to it.  And then in one of the end credit scenes, he is in the Captain America exhibit in the Smithsonian reading about himself.  Just like everyone watching the movie, Cap knew that there is still something good left in Bucky.  I hope he gets his memory back in “Captain America: Civil War”!!!!!  He’s too good to loose.  (One other thing that dawned on me while watching their final fight was that this was the first time Cap has ever refused to fight back.  Even back before he had the serum injection he would never back down from a fight, but now he let Bucky beat him to a pulp and never resisted.  That's what you call loyalty right there).

Well, this beats my previous record of number of Marvel movies watched during a certain time span.  While it was one week between watching the first "Thor" and the first "Avengers" movies and two weeks between seeing both Cap movies, it is going to be just three days between "Winter Soldier" and "Age of Ultron"!  I'm going with a couple of friends to see it at our $3 theater (I hadn't been expecting it to get there for another month, but last weekend one of the friends I'm going with texted me saying it was there already!  This is the same friend who agrees with me that it's almost impossible to pick who you like better between Cap or Bucky, and by that I mean the original, sane Bucky.  We'd both take either one.  ;) )  So be looking for a new post in a few days!