a5c7b9f00b Steve Rogers, finding it easier to acclimate to the modern society as a soldier of SHIELD, learns that the organization has been compromised and a Soviet assassin known as The Winter Soldier will stop at nothing to kill Captain America, which leads him uncover a truth that will change everything. Steve Rogers is coming to grips with living in modern America after being frozen in ice for 50 years. A new threat against S.H.I.E.L.D. arises called "The Winter Soldier". While the origins of the Winter Soldier are unknown, the threat against S.H.I.E.L.D. from the Hydra organization is. Especially after it compromises Nick Fury and Agent Romanoff, leaving them betrayed and left for dead, and their S.H.I.E.L.D. status revoked, marking them as traitors to the organization. Now racing against time with very little resources available at his disposal, Captain America launches an investigation into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s origins and that has him returning to the very Army base where he once underwent basic training nearly 100 years ago. What he and Romanoff discover there leads to a very startling development with S.H.I.E.L.D., a top secret project called "Operation Insight", and the launch of the next generation of Helicarrier. Can they stop it before it's too late? 10/10. It's a phenomenal movie, and and instant all time favorite action flick for me. The action and fights are so, so , so well done. You can almost feel the thuds as Cap slams his shield into someone, or as Black Widow uses some crazy luchadore takedown move. The creators did a good job of framing the camera and shooting in a way that lets you get a great feel for the action. The action in this is simply state of the art. <br/><br/>The story is good, even outside of "comic book movie standards", which can tend to be a little campy and goofy. This story goes much, much deeper than "good guy vs. bad" and even touches on some issues in today's society relating to things like social media and government surveillance of the populace. All in all the story hits on a nice espionage angle, and it definitely provides a breath of fresh air to the "Hulk smash" solutions that Wolvie, Thor, Iran Man and umm.. The Hulk tend to resort to.<br/><br/>Character wise, I was impressed with the development they brought with this story. I was kind of "meh" on Cap's character before now, feeling that he was overshadowed by the other Avengers (namely Iron Man and Thor). Cap has always been the boy scout and loyal soldier in "First Avenger" and "The Avengers", but the creators took this movie as an opportunity to take his shining example and really flesh it out. He really comes across as a patriot and a man of high moral standards and integrity... yet is also 93 years old and out of place in our modern world. IMO, after this movie Cap is right up there with Wolverine and Tony Stark in terms of charisma. This is a character you want to see more of because he is the absolute embodiment of the "selfless hero". <br/><br/>And they really didn't overdo it with the heroic posing or bad boy attitudes that are so common in some other franchises... *cough* Iron Man *cough* Wolverine. Not to say I don't like those characters... But Cap offers something on the other end of that spectrum. It's a fresh improvement to the Avengers/Marvel lineup, and I'm really excited to see where Marvel is able to take this cast in the future. <br/><br/>Now I just can't wait for the DVD. Compared to other MCU movies this one feels a bit bland and emotionless. While I liked the characters themselves, on their own, their interaction leaves a lot to be desired. Only sometimes it feels that some characters have real chemistry between them and I would say that uneasy romance between Scarlett's and Chris' characters - Black Widow and C'pt America was one of the rare examples of that - which I find surprising considering how the Black Widow was one-dimensional in previous movies. From the emotional stand point Chris Evans did not have much what he could do.<br/><br/>The main emotional stand-off should have been the one between Captain America and The Winter Soldier, but as it turned out eventually, they only exchanged few lines of the dialog and many, many more punches. On the good side of things, the pacing is really good, the action is enjoyable, but still - this feels like and forgettable experience, which is kind of shame considering the talent and the possibilities of the cast. It’s OK for April, in other words, but not up to the higher standards of a Marvel summer blockbuster. At one point, Stephen Strange (aka Doctor Strange), whose own film is in development, is mentioned as a potential future threat to HYDRA. In that same scene, a man in Cairo, Egypt is also mentioned. While this is not too specific, mentioning that among other names has lead to fan speculation that it is a reference to the mercenary and combat strategist, Moon Knight. One of the buildings targeted by the helicarrier is the Baxter Building, home of the Fantastic Four. When it was revealed that Nick Fury was alive, he stated that he used Tetrodotoxin-B, a neurotoxin developed by Bruce Banner (Hulk) originally to control his rage, in order to make his pulse undetectable, although it is revealed later that the surgeon operating on Fury knew of the plan. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, set to appear in <a href="/title/tt2395427/">Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)</a> (2015), are shown in a mid-credits scene. When we first see Senator Stern in this movie he and SHIELD Agent Jasper Sitwell are having a conversation where Stern whispers, "Hail Hydra", to Sitwell. It is implied that HYDRA's reach has expanded beyond SHIELD to members of the government including Senator Stern. During the events of <a href="/title/tt1228705/">Iron Man 2 (2010)</a> (2010), Senator Stern asks Tony to surrender "the Iron Man weapon" to the U.S. Army; but, following this revelation in The Winter Soldier, it is implied that his real concern was never for the U.S. Government, but rather him removing Tony Stark as a heroic threat and delivering the armor to HYDRA. He is arrested at the end of the film. It is revealed in the TV show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that they use brainwashing technology to forcibly recruit HYDRA members. How could he have? SHIELD existed for almost 70 years without anyone successfully discovering the secret HYDRA conspiracy. Even Nick Fury himself, with one of the highest clearances in the organization, didn't figure it out until it was almost too late. Arnim Zola explains that Howard Stark, Tony's father, may have begun to suspect or even found proof, but he was killed for this knowledge. By the modern age, HYDRA clearly understood the importance of leaving no paper or digital trail of their conspiracy on SHIELD computers where anyone could hack it. Besides, Tony Stark's immediate goal when hacking SHIELD was only to find their true intent with the Tesseract, which was known as Phase Two, and the immediate threat of Loki didn't leave him time to study the rest of the data and find such a deeply rooted secret. He hardly had a choice. It was S.H.I.E.L.D./HYDRA that sent the missile to kill Captain America and Black Widow as they stood inside Zola's computer brain. S.H.I.E.L.D./HYDRA didn't see any value in the computer brain of Arnim Zola any longer, evident by the fact that he had been ignored and not updated for decades, so destroying him was of little concern to them. As for Zola himself not caring about his own "death," his last moments seem filled with joy and certainty that he has beaten Captain America, so he appears happy to go out in a blaze of dramatic glory.
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