New World

Summer came early this year! Captain America: The Winter Soldier hits theaters this week (for some regions, last week). It's the third post-Avengers film and the second Captain America film. The film is a follow up to financial hits but personally disappointing and mediocre Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World (disappointing is for Stark and mediocre is for the Asgardian). Chris Evans is back as Steve Rogers, Scarlett Johansson is also back as Natascha Romanoff with Sam L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill and also new faces (but old) Robert Redford and Anthony Mackie. Trailers look solid and I was sold.

The story is Captain America being employed as a SHIELD agent doing errands for Nick Fury until he discovered a certain plan that puts SHIELD in jeopardy as he uncovered a mole within the organization. Cap teams up with Black Widow and newcomer Falcon to clean up SHIELD as well as the world. Plus, he also has to face some recurring faces from his past that caught up to him.

Trust me, this one will entertain you. Iron Man 3 was a smug movie with occasionally cool moments, saved by Marvel's no 1 asset Robert Downey Jr. Thor: The Dark World was a safe movie with Brit accent and fun along with Marvel's no 2 asset Tom Hiddleston. And Captain America: The First Avenger was basically a plot device to introduce the 90 year old virgin to the Avengers and to introduce  the Tesseract, the film as a whole was the weakest MCU entry alongside Iron Man 2. But The Winter Soldier changed all that Marvel 'fun' formula by opting for a more serious storyline. The story cleverly was balanced with the action too. Moreover, the action are more solid than the other post-Avengers films. While it also works as a MCU canon, it also works well as a stand alone film. After it ends, the story set up a different world for the superheroes. Chris Evans is okay in his role, sometimes he's so wooden. Scarlett Johansson steals the show like she did in Iron Man 2, and she's given all the nice dialogues. Bye-bye bikinis. Sebastian Stan has a rising career from being a guest star in Gossip Girl to being a sub-titular villain in a major superhero film! There are also nice little details that incorporate the other Avengers. Bruce Banner and Tony Stark was occasionally referred or name-dropped. And there is an easter egg about Dr. Strange (I actually don't know what he is, but he came up in some development stories). I wish there are more to The Winter Soldier, Agent 13 and Maria Hill. And I was expecting an appearance from Hawkeye but sadly no. Also fun cameos from Marvel's own legend Stan Lee and Abed of Community. All that fun and thrill were capped off by a killer post-credit scene that ties up to next year's big event The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Let me give you a hint, two of my favorite young actors are in that scene (sorry I've said too much). There are also one other post-credit scene at the very end. So be sure to stay in your seats until the very last second. Overall, this is very satisfying and it's on par with the quality that Marvel showed circa 2008, that is of course during the first Iron Man film, y'know before they slowly downgraded to making kids' films. It's also a very nice surprise from the director duo whose last feature film credit was 8 years ago and it was You, Me and Dupree. Captain America: The Winter Soldier: rated 4/4.

Bonus! That post about badass girls is still on and this gal is definitely on it

Food for thought, also spoiler for warning:
Now that SHIELD is done, does that mean automatic cancellation for Agent Coulson-powered TV series Agents of SHIELD? And by the way isn't Agents of SHIELD enough to show that SHIELD is the most incompetent intel organization to ever exist? Now they had to make a movie out of that too? Anyway, they should've included Coulson in the film--fan service and also promotion for that shame you call spinoff on TV. Note: I actually follow SHIELD, and it's getting good these last few episodes, but after seeing this film, SHIELD is total shit.
One more, in 2008, Coulson struggled to find the abbreviations for SHIELD, but it's actually have been around since the WW2? I guess Coulson missed a memo or something.
And boom, Johnny Depp burn! Arnim Zola was Transcendence-d!


This might be my last Indonesia-based post. If it is, then the next movie review would be The Amazing Spider-Man 2.