MCU Rewatchathon April 18th: Captain America The Winter Soldier (2014)
Day Nine: 9/19 down!
Tomorrow we will back in order based on release date!
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Favorite Moment:
Javier: I absolutely love the first time Bucky and Cap fight. Everything about that fight is great from the choreography to the "big" reveal moment of who the Winter Soldier is.
Antonio: This movie is filled with bad ass moments. It's hard to pick one, literally every time The Winter Soldier is on screen is insanely cool. The shot where he side steps the wreckage of Fury's car is top-tier.
Favorite Line:
Antonio:
Nick Fury (Portrayed by Samuel L Jackson): "You're wrong about me. I do share. I'm nice like that."
Javier:
Sam Wilson (Portrayed by Anthony Mackie): "Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower"
Villain Ranking:
Georges Batroc
Antonio: I love that the Russo's started this trend, starting us off with a minor villain James Bond-style is a fantastic idea and gives them a chance to highlight some lower-level threats. Batroc is a great example of this, they even made him cool!
7.5/10
Javier: I think this was a great way to put an obscure villain in the MCU and to start off the beginning villain trope in the MCU and he's even given a good fight scene.
7/10
Arnim Zola
Javier: It's cool to see him in his computer form even for like a second.
7/10
Antonio: This may be a tiny ass scene but it's one of my favorite moments of comic-book pay off in a Marvel movie.
8/10
Alexander Peirce
Antonio: This role is made for me entirely due to Redford's performance. He's kind of ineffective but he plays the confidence very well.
8/10
Javier: Peirce plays the manipulative Hydra leader very well he's no Red Skull but he still is a good behind the scenes villain
8/10
The Winter Soldier
Antonio: Everytime he's on screen the music sounds like people screaming and I can't think of a better soundtrack for someone so visually imposing. His posturing, his gear, his choreography is all on point. You feel like you SHOULD fear The Winter Soldier.
9/10
Javier: Now Winter Soldier at first seems like a typical baddie that we shouldn't really care about but he surprisingly delivers a great performance and shows us why we should be very intimidated by him also his character does develop pretty quickly unlike certain villains *cough* Loki *cough*.
8/10
Final Ranking: 8/10
Additional Commentary:
Okay so first off, yeah we watched this movie and Guardians out of order in terms of releases. We did this largely due to how the end credit tags correspond with the films surrounding them.
Continuity Notes:
Winter Soldier is about as jam packed with goodies as Guardians was...
1. The team Cap is now apart of is called the SHIELD STRIKE Team. In the comics the STRIKE team was a British group of SHIELD agents allied with Captain Britain
2. The new stealth-suit Steve is wearing is based on his "Commander Rogers" look from the Heroic Age comics, it was his uniform while he was the director of SHIELD.
3. Steve jumps from the back of the plane during the first scene, this makes 3 Avengers that have jumped from the back of planes: Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man in Iron Man 2.
4. Brock Rumlow, a member of Steve's STRIKE Force is secretly an agent for HYDRA. This is a reference to his alter-ego from the comics, Crossbones, which is an alias he takes on in his next appearance in Captain America Civil War.
5. Jasper Sitwell, a SHIELD Agent first appearing in Thor, reappears here, he is revealed to be a HYDRA agent and subsequently killed by The Winter Soldier.
6. Georges Batroc, the leader of the pirates that take over the Lemurian Star, is known as Batroc the Leaper in the comics. This is referenced through his signature purple/yellow costume shown under Batroc's fatigues in the movie, as well as his use of Muay Thai, Savate and Kick Boxing.
7. Nick Fury mentions that the SHIELD Insight Helicarriers have had engine upgrades courtesy of Tony Stark, after he had an "up-close look" at the old turbines, this is a reference to Tony's bumpy patch-job in Avengers.
8. We get our first real look at the World Security Council in charge of SHIELD, having only seen them as shadowy figures in The Avengers.
9. We also get our first look at The Triskellion, SHIELD's on-the-ground American base of operations. This building was first introduced in the Ultimates comics as the Helicarriers were not public knowledge, the Triskellion served as SHIELD's public facing headquarters.
10. We are introduced to Sam Wilson, AKA The Falcon. Falcon is actually the first black superhero to appear in an American comic book and has been a long-time ally to Captain America, as well as the successor to the shield.
11. We are reintroduced to James Buchanan Barnes as The Winter Soldier, this film and story are based on the Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting Captain America comic of the same name.
12. The idea that HYDRA had been a part of SHIELD from close to its inception was something introduced in Jonathan Hickman's Secret Warriors comic-run, it was discovered by Nick Fury in the comics as well.
13. Nick Fury attempts to initiate vertical take-off in his SUV. This is a reference to the Stark Hover-Car shown in Captain America: The First Avenger, and is also standard issue for SHIELD Agents in the comics.
14. Steve's neighbor, Sharon is actually Sharon Carter, Peggy Carters niece and an agent of SHIELD, as revealed later in the film, with her family ties revealed in Captain America: Civil War. She is also Agent 13, as mentioned when she checks in with her handlers.
15. At the Smithsonian Exhibit for Steve Rogers, we see a lot of Howling Commando history, a bit of additional info on Peggy's life is given as well, including that she ended up marrying Union Jack like in the comics.
16. We also learn Peggy Carter was a founding member of shield, along with Howard Stark and Colonel Phillips.
17. Nick Fury fakes his death, something he's done a multitude of times in the comics.
18. The military base that Zola's algorithm is located at is the same military base Steve trained at in The First Avenger.
19. Zola downloading his mind into computers is a direct reference to his life as a cyborg in the comics. His face even appears on a green screen with his signature camera head watching Steve and Natasha.
20. Steve takes down a Quinjet during his escape from the Triskellion. I forgot to mention this in the Avengers recap but Quinjets have long been the standard for transport in Avengers comics.
21. Maria Hill busting Cap and his allies out of the SHIELD Transport is very reminiscent of a scene in the Civil War comics where Steve and Sam bust the New Avengers out of a SHIELD Transport while in disguise as Agents.
22. While no one explicitly loses their arm during the course of this film, Bucky has obviously *Lost* his arm, fufilling the ESB running-gag, I failed to mention this in the last post but in Guardians Groot loses both his arms and even more damning, Nebula lost her hand as she plummeted from the Dark Aster.
23. Cap's retro costume from the Smithsonian is actually not an exact replica of the suit he wore in The First Avenger, it has three stripes on the belly instead of two and the grey straps have been largely repainted blue. It's unclear why this choice was made other than to make it slightly more comic-accurate.
24. Steve's Stealth suit actually serves as the basic layout for his future suits,
25. Black Widow uses a SHIELD-Tech face mask that allows her to digitally alter her face, this is a reference to Madame Masque, an Iron Man villain in the comics who uses a similar mask, this character, using the technology in from The Winter Soldier actually appears in a later episode of Agents of SHIELD.
26. Jasper Sitwell lists Bruce Banner and Stephen Strange as high-profile threats to HYDRA determined by the Insight Algorithm. This is the first MCU mention of Stephen Strange (but far from the last!).
27. Senator Stern (Portrayed by the late Gary Shandling). Reprising his role from Iron Man 2 he is revealed to be an agent of HYDRA and subsequently arrested.
28. Danny Pudi appears as a SHIELD technician, he was given a cameo thanks to his relationship with the directors, the Russo brothers, who directed many episodes of Community. He is not the last Community star to appear in an MCU film either!
29. Black Widow uses her widow stings to short circuit her armed-ID badge-bomb, remarking after "Those really do sting".
30. Maria Hill, after the fall of SHIELD applies to work for Stark Industries.
31. Sharon Carter enlists in the CIA.
32. Natasha explains to Steve project paperclip, a real program that saw the US Military enlist the work of Nazi War-Criminal Scientists to aid on projects. This was Zola's in with SHIELD.
33. During Zola's video montage, he shows Steve that Howard Stark potentially discovered the insurrection inside of SHIELD but was assassinated by the Winter Soldier to prevent him from speaking. This contradicts that Tony believes his parents died from a car accident. (Well...contradicts it for now...)
34. SHIELD falls, causing the world to reverberate from the loss of a major intelligence agency. The Insight Helicarrier's are all destroyed and Bucky seemingly begins to remember who he is.
35. Black Widow publicly releases all of SHIELD's secrets, they are encrypted but still technically open to the public.
36. The end credits tag reveals quite a few bits of important information: 1. It introduces long-time comic-villain of Captain America, Baron Strucker, one of the leaders of HYDRA. 2. It introduces us to the Maximoff twins, Pietro and Wanda, otherwise known as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. 3. It confirms that after the collapse of SHIELD, HYDRA managed to salvage some of their assets, including Loki's scepter, which we later discover is incredibly important.
Closing Thoughts:
Javier:
Winter Soldier is a great entry to the MCU. I believe it set a standard for the MCU fight scenes because these were some of the best fight scenes I've seen in the MCU at the time.
9/10
Antonio:
Winter Soldier is seen as the best Marvel movie by many and it's easy to see why. While I still think we've surpassed it since, I will admit, it's an incredible film with solid fight-choreography and even better writing.
9/10
Final Score: 9/10
After the Credits:
The Winter Soldier has two fairly important cut-scenes, the first being a direct tease for Age of Ultron (the main reason we watched it AFTER GOTG). The second scene is a pretty nice set-up for Bucky's mindset in Civil War, though possibly a less exciting scene.
Javier: This scene is awesome not only does it give us a confirmation in where the scepter is located but it also shows us a small preview of the twins.
8/10
Antonio: Definitely one of the more substantial ACS's, quite possibly the longest. It was cool to be introduced to three new Marvel characters in one go, even if Strucker ended up having a short shelf-life.
8/10
Final Score: 8/10
Woof, this one was a day late, hah, these may be a bit erratic from here on out. Still gonna try and get em all out before Infinity War though! Up next is Avengers: Age of Ultron
See you all tomorrow!
And remember...
Hail Grodd.