The Russo brothers put Captain America in a cage match, breaking free of Marvel's rote battle plan
Film Features The Marvel Moment
As Marvel’s house style has come together, the two most frequently discussed elements have been its humor and action (especially the third-act titanic throwdowns). But these two aspects have rarely been equal in their development—the humor has evolved at a greater pace and with greater consistency than the action. Hell, comedy not only rescued the Thor franchise, it offset the clunkiness of Ragnarok’s final fight, an all-too-common convoluted swirl of fists and CGI.
Despite having launched with propulsion jets, the actual heroics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have rarely ever soared as high as they did in The Avengers’ splashy climax. Whether traveling to strange new worlds or just over to Queens, most MCU fights go down in the same way: They’re loud, hard to follow, with often uninspiring special effects. This inability to combine clarity with a grand scale is made even more glaring in Avengers: Infinity War, which takes us through the paces at least a half-dozen times.
Clearly, bigger isn’t always better, a lesson that the MCU seemed to have actually learned in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. When Kevin Feige tapped Anthony and Joe Russo to direct the follow-up to The First Avenger, it wasn’t immediately clear what the Arrested Development and Community alums would bring to the house style. Ultimately, the brothers, who’d deployed a kind of guerrilla filmmaking while working on those two popular TV comedies, were freed of the some of the usual constraints. Marvel Studios had already determined The Winter Soldier would be in the style of a ’70s political thriller like Three Days Of The Condor and The Parallax View, which put it far and away from any of the preceding MCU films, including The First Avenger.
The Russo brothers ran with the idea, using an eclectic, enervating score from Henry Jackman to ratchet up the paranoia of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), while bringing Robert Redford on to disillusion everyone from Captain America to Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) as the cynical politician Alexander Pierce. The Winter Soldier continues Captain America’s progression, from potential jingoist square to beacon of hope to clear-eyed man without a country (or at least, a mission). Just as important, with no repulsers, mythical hammers, or evil robots to get in the way, the film offers the first big break from by-the-numbers CGI beatdowns. Though the approach is more “ground and pound” than it is high-flying, the fight choreography in The Winter Soldier is more exciting and graceful than anything that came before it, and most of what’s come since.
It all starts with body language, from Steve’s brashness on the plane to the Lemurian Star, where he shows off some truly impressive hand-to-hand combat skills, thereby filling us in on what he’s gotten up to since saving New York. Like another Marvel captain, he revels in his physicality and competence as he takes down the hijackers. Steve’s right back to principled soldier in Winter Soldier’s first elevator ride, his jaw sagging slightly at the sight of the Project Insight carriers. When he argues with Nick about whether the program is preserving freedom or instilling fear, he’s resumed the stance from his old WWII posters—shoulders broad, hands at his belt. This all changes again after the attack on Fury, as well as Steve’s first run-in with the eponymous Soviet operative, who also happens to be his best friend, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan).
When Cap enters the elevator a second time, his worldview is about to be rocked even further. Steve’s training, combined with his growing mistrust, make for the most electric fight in MCU history. As members of STRIKE, both plain-clothes and in full gear, board the elevator, Cap notices the beads of sweat on one man’s brow, and the hand of another hovering over his sidearm. They’re right to be nervous—what follows is a cage match that proves just how well Cap has adapted to the times.
Everything about the sequence is exhilarating and satisfying, from the bone-crunching blows to aerodynamic feats you wouldn’t think possible in such a tight space. The Russo brothers’ use of handheld cameras makes sense of the melee—keeping the unconscious agents in frame has a certain grim humor, as we see the bodies piling up, but their various sizes and guises also reflect how deep the infiltration goes. Steve has no way of knowing who’s on his side, a point that’s further driven home when he finds out his best friend is an international assassin and that his attempts to bring meaning to his life after losing everyone were in vain.
Along with the nimble direction, Evans’ performance sells us on just how significant this last straw is. It’s hard to believe that the elevator fight was the first scene Evans shot for The Winter Soldier, but he was just waiting to unleash the frustration and disillusionment. As he’s surrounded by enemies, Steve’s face registers growing suspicion, some shock, and finally, acceptance of a new mission. If Tony Stark’s shown the greatest progression as a character, Evans has clearly demonstrated the most growth as an actor, helping the MCU hit a new, if short-lived, high.
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“It kinda feels personal.” Best line.
I dunno. I’m kinda partial “Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?”
^This. And you know Steve’s not even being a badass; he’s a legit nice guy, you can go on your way, no hard feelings, thank your mom again for the cookies.
“Tell ‘em I’m in pursuit” before Cap goes through the window is my favorite BadAss Cap line.
I was genuinely surprised they didn’t have a guy asking if he could leave. It would have been hilarious, but also it would undercut the seriousness.
I was thinking it would have been great to have someone go “Wait, what?” and be just a random uninvolved “civilian” for Steve to try to protect/deal with.
In an Iron Man or Thor film, they would have. Here, they wisely decided to play it straight.
True. Makes me realize he was trying to avoid hitting someone who WASN’T out to get him and really just wanted to get to Records at a bad time! Even in this situation he was thinking of clearing out the “civilians,” in as much as anyone working in a paramilitary organization’s Washington headquarters can be considered a civilian. I don’t get Danette’s constant put-downs of the action scenes in Marvel movies in general though. Hard to follow? I find their action scenes in general quite easy to follow. I contrast this with how, at least for me, the action in early Transformers movies was disorienting and a blur of bolts. (Don’t know if the newer ones are like that still, haven’t seen them) Compared to those, Marvel’s action scenes all play out very neatly, keeping things mostly separated out into small groups.
The only Transformers film since 1986 that has had decent action scenes was Bumblebee.
It’s a fair warning. “You sure you wanna do this? Alright…”
Maybe the best line in the entire MCU.
I’m sure that at some point in development the line was “Anyone want to get off?” until someone said, “No, we have to change it. We can’t trust the internet with that.”
“Internet. So helpful. Been readin’ that a lot.”
Evans delivers it just right. It would be easy for it to sound too corny or too flip, or just too aggressive. Evans actually manages to make it sound really sincere.
The elevator fight is a very good fight, in a movie with a bunch of good action scenes. However, for me the best moment is Bucky doing that little knife flip in the street fight with Cap. So pointless, so cool.Oh, and it is too bad Winter Soldier chickened out and made Hydra the bad guys, not Shield, but a tentpole blockbuster can only be a little bit subversive. And I guess the people in power are secretly Nazis is a little more relevant today than back when the film came out.
Then, he topped himself in Civil War by grabbing that motorcycle as it was driving to him.
That was badass.
Gonna be fun talking about Civil War next week. The whole fight/chase scene when T’Challa suits up is off the damn chain.
That whole fight sequence is bananas from start to finish.
The music also enhances that scene in a big way – and the rest of the movie. Love the building tension, it always felt ready to explode.
I dig the Winter Soldier’s theme especially. It’s got that weird shriek in it whenever he shows up. I like the score for the freighter raid a lot, too. Watch Cap as he’s running up the deck taking out all the goons one by one. Really driving and heavy. Henry Jackman did a great job.
That scene and when he catches the shield. I’m a man and I think I ovulated
I wouldn’t consider it chickening out. At that point over half of Shield was Hydra and they knew the best way to clean house was to dismantle Shield entirely.
That there was so much corruption that even with all the data released, there were still numerous Hydra/Shield cells for Agents of Shield’s TV show to run with for 2-3 seasons before running into the Inhuman issue was telling. Not to mention all the fallout from Hydra’s reveal causing Age of Ultron and Civil War.
Keep in mind how built Chris Evans is, then go back and look at how Sebastian Stan looms over him in that gif. It’s tough to believe that he’s the same actor who played such a wormy little creep in “I Tonya.” It reminds me of that scene in “Superman II” where Reeve used posture to portray Superman and Clark Kent in the same frame.
This is a guy with a fingerless glove on a metal hand. Pointless and cool is his entire thing.
You know how much ass that fingerless glove on a metal hand gets him?
Sebastian Stan said his roommate was wondering why he was walking around the house twirling and flipping a rubber knife all the time while filming.
This whole highway sequence is actually my favorite action scene in the movie. It is two enhanced but almost within realism soldiers going off, using military tactics and just some of the best hand to hand combat I’ve ever seen on a big ticket movie. I was kind of stunned by how good it was.
Best scene in the entire franchise. The elevator scene is a great single set piece. But the highway battle is three or four major set-pieces in a row:WS tossing Sitwell – ripping out steering wheel – Cap, Falcon & Nat sliding on ripped off car door.Machine gun & rocket launcher fight – Cap/bus crash – Nat swinging on cable (!) – Mini-gun ricocheting off shield.Nat vs Bucky then the – oh man – Cap vs Bucky knife fight.
Yeah, the overpass scene is such incredible controlled chaos. Love the moment when Nat jumps on Winter Soldier’s shoulders and attempts to garrote him. BEST action sequence in a movie that is chock-full of terrific action sequences.
There are a whole bunch of these moments, especially in and around that street fight. BW has some where you really need to slow down and repeat the movie to be able to appreciate them fully.
The entire Freeway Battle (beginning from Bucky ripping Sitwell out of the car and ending with “Who the hell is Bucky?”) is hands-down the MCU’s greatest action sequence
You know, looking at it in slow-motion in that .gif, I can ALMOST see a point to the knife-flip. At first it looks like he’s going to switch his knife from his right hand to his left, but instead he catches it with his right hand and goes for an attack again.
It’s very probable that the only purpose is to be a pointless little flourish that looks cool, but I love this movie so much that I’m willing to let myself believe that it was a feint, and a totally conscious bit of choreography.
Still my favorite Marvel movie. A great genre for a superhero movie, a great choice in Robert Redford for the villain, great partnering of Black Widow and Cap, Cap’s best uniform and Chris Evans really owning the character. I saw this the weekend it came out because I wanted to be up to speed for Agents of SHIELD the following week. It was a great movie on its own and a huge payoff for AoS and really kicked that show into high gear. It’s unfortunate, but completely understandable, that they just dropped the attempts to connect AoS with the cinematic universe after that. The payoff was huge, but I think it was also responsible for the general listlessness of the first 2/3 of the first season of the show. I may just have to have a watchathon of the last episode of AoS before the movie, this movie, and then the rest of season 1 of AoS this weekend.
I haven’t done it, but I’m told that first season of AoS improves mightily when you’re watching it as part of a binge and not week to week.
I’d say that’s true. Despite the pre-season hype of a connected universe, for the first-half season of AOS barely seemed connected to itself. It was a weekly scavenger hunt leaving viewers asking “is this all there is?” It was only after the Ward reveal that the world-building really got started.
While I haven’t done a full rewatch personally I tend to think on Season 1 a lot more fondly then as it was airing. Getting away from AV Club snark and knowing where everything is gonna go makes you kind of appreciate the various tidbits from clips and recaps a lot more. I’d definitely rewatch Season 1 again before Season 5, cause screw that season.
It sucks, save your time.
The clunky exposition dialogue is even more glaring, but the pacing of the plot beats is better.
This is absolutely true. I gave up on watching first seasons in real-time after getting waaaay too invested in My Own Worst Enemy and The Cape, so I ended up binge-watching S1 after S2 began.
I had heard it wasn’t great, but watched the pilot on a whim when I first decided “Hmm, I really liked the GotG movies and Black Panther… maybe I should see what the hell all this damn fuss is about and watch literally all of the rest of these movies.” Enjoyed it and kept watching. So I guess Winter Soldier’s big reveal was spoiled for me, but I really didn’t see why everyone hated the first part of the show so much. You have to take the time to build up “This is what these people do on a day to day basis” before you can put them through the shit. Movies do this with a montage, for the most part, and make up for the lack of development time with much higher emotional and melodramatic stakes, but TV needs (and when done well uses) that extra time to breathe. So the show’s treatment of (let’s call it SHIELD’s original sin) hit me probably as hard as Winter Soldier’s did for most people in the theater – maybe more so, as I really liked [REDACTED].
my favourite MCU film too, and easily the tightest in terms of direction, plot and action – this is the one I can genuinely imagine myself still watching in 10 or 15 years’ time. also, while I definitely understand the impulse, everyone who writes off the first 2/3 of AoS s1 as being bad seems to forget how good ‘FZZT’ was
True. I LIKED AoS but so many people stopped halfway through the first season. It was slow world building and honestly there is so much to watch that if you didn’t grow up a Marvel zombie like I did, I sort of understand giving up on it. And after the reveal of Ward, it was interesting to go back and rewatch to look for clues.
I totally get it, it’s just a shame, especially given how good the show got season 3 and onwards.
Season 3 seems to be a make it or break it season for some people cause it’s either where they really upped their game of people just really didn’t care for it that much. I can understand either opinion but it’s still probably the best one for me personally. Lot of good stuff. Here’s to Season 6-7 I guess.3>2=4>1>5.
4 > 5 > 3 > 2 > 1 for me. even though I understand where people would dislike 5, I think this show basically improved year to year with 4 being the absolute peak of the formula. very excited for 6 and 7 but not sure how they’re gonna top what they’ve done already
I’d go 2 > 4 > 5 > 3 > 1, personally. I found the Ghost Rider arc painfully dull, but the LMD and Framework arcs made up for it. Season 2 is extremely underrated. It’s when they found their formula, and there’s just so much great stuff happening at all times. We get Peggy, Mockingbird, Cal, two versions of Raina, the last appearance of Maria Hill, the introduction of the Inhumans, the show’s best episode (“Melinda”), Ward’s whole arc…all of it is just great. I also like Season 5 a lot more than most others.
The Real SHIELD in hindsight is really the weak link of that whole thing. It did it’s job in setting other things in motion but it wasn’t really that well thought out. Whenever you have an opposing force of good guys it never seems to work out that well. You see similar issues in Buffy and Supernatural.
Pardon for butting in here … I haven’t watched “Agents of SHIELD” but I can already tell you one big problem with this arc, which is WHERE THE HELL WAS THE GHOST RIDER WHEN THANOS’ ARMY WAS POUNDING ON WAKANDA? Surely the Rider’s Penance Stare would’ve stopped Thanos where not even Thor’s Stormbreaker could? Or is the TV Rider simply not as powerful as the comics Rider?
Ghost Rider (like the entity) is FAR more selfishly motivated in Agents of SHIELD. You can’t just be like “come on Ghost Rider, let’s go fight crime!” There’s also problems of availability (sometimes the character is trapped in another dimension) and knowledge (how does Ghost Rider know who Thanos is or what his plan is or ANYTHING really?)
All of which makes sense … from a meta standpoint, it’s also the old problem of Superman staying out of Gotham City, only this time it’s more like “The MCU didn’t tell us they were bringing on Thanos so we couldn’t lend them Ghost Rider.” Or, if you like, different writers, different scheds, and sometimes they clash big time …
This. The Space-plot went two episodes too long, probably, but the Gravitonium/ General Talbot plot cranked up to a good season ender.
I kind of feel like Talbot deserved a better send-off. Plus a lot of the group fighting got resolved waaaayy too neatly. Like Daisy was friggin’ tortured and I guess we’re just supposed to shrug that off. NO THANK YOU.
IMO AoS best season was S4 when they completely dropped connecting with the MCU. The Hydra twist was awesome, for sure, but it did hamper the pacing of S1.
I really liked Season 3. AOS is like an expansion pack for the MCU. The Red Skull is fine as the founder of Hydra, especially with an older and much wiser one on Vormir who too late realises the price of his quest with a new perspective but I really liked everything they did with Hive and the planet Maveth. Also how Powers Boothe’s still recognisable cameo from his voice was a full on character arc.But I especially the ending which was quietly meditative if anything with everyone on that shuttle just chilling and a recognition the primary antagonist just wanted to made the world a better place but also recognising in the end why the others fought his methods.Hive was my favourite MCU villain and 4722 Hours my favourite episode (and for me better than most of the movies) as a result.
Hive was a pretty solid baddie and I think he gets a bit of the shaft because of the Ward thing and what not. But that whole arc with Daisy really packs a punch and in general the guy had a prescence. AIDA was solid but her ending really didn’t do her justice at all. Ward of course is probably the most iconic of the villains given how much of an impact he had.
And, honestly, the Ghost Rider stuff was just above average. The LMD and Madame Hydra plot is where the show hit a true high point – not just in action-adventure television, but in comparison to all prestige TV at the time. Suddenly AoS was on par with The Americans & Better Call Saul. They never really have hit that high since, even though the Gravitonium plot got close.
For me personally I kind of liked the Framework stuff the least out of those 3 pods. Although a lot of that might have to do with the anti-climax that wrapped it up (it was overall fine, didn’t help that S5A tried to ape it tho). LMD part was probably my favourite of the 3 and Ghost Rider was pretty neat.
I really like Gabriel Luna as Ghost Rider, but damn Agents of Hydra was outstanding.
Redford is an unsung great villain of the MCU. Charismatic and completely ruthless in equal measure.
Post-WS AOS was so much better than what came before it. But if you didn’t watch the earlier episodes, then the WS twist wouldn’t have had anywhere near the impact.
It’s a conundrum when it comes to recommending AOS, because to be fair, a bunch of the earlier episodes are not great. I haven’t thought much about whether a new viewer could just skip the first season and be comfortable settling into the show.
I wouldn’t really skip the whole first season cause part of the fun is seeing them set up a bunch of the major revelations for later. What some of the characters end up being isn’t quite as wild if you don’t see what they initially seemed to be. At best I might say skip a couple in the first 10 or so. But other than that it’s probably best to just watch all of it.
I should rewatch. I remember really liking the Ward/Fitz mentoring episode (my pick for favourite early season 1 ep) but then tuning into AV coverage and reading this visceral hate for the show. People went negative on it, it snowballed, and it took the show two years to get away from that narrative.
I wasn’t really a fan of that episode either personally. You are right that did seem to be the point where critical consensus was at a real low. It picked up after the halfway point at least but the show’s overall rep wouldn’t really get a whole lot better til S2-3. Definitely by S4 when the Netflix shows were starting to turn people off.
You really can’t skip the whole first season, especially not if you want seasons 2 & 5 to make sense.
Skip episode 2 because it’s the weakest in execution; all you need to know is that Team Coulson finds a super laser & puts it in lockup.
Skip episode 9 because, outside of a May fight, it’s just awful. You don’t even need to know anything from the episode; none of it is required knowledge later.
I remember finding the first season of Agents of SHIELD to be kinda listless and disappointing, so when I was sitting in the theater watching SHIELD getting destroyed in Winter Soldier, all I could think was, “boy, if they wanted to cancel Agents of SHIELD there were probably less-expensive ways to do it that didn’t involve dedicating a whole movie to it.”
This article made me rewatch Winter Solder again tonight. Still one of the top 5 MCU movies. But has anyone ever explained how Steve and Nat break into the bunker, take a long elevator down to Zola’s server room, and when the missile hits, they get blown back up to ground level? 🙂
This is the best scene from the best MCU drama. Guardians wins the comedy category, but Winter Soldier is by far the best drama.
Black Widow’s transformation into Han Solo was great, and Winter Soldier Natasha is my favorite Natasha.
All the characters brought back were loads of fun. Jenny Agutter from the first Avengers, Garry Shandling, Agent Sitwell, Arnim Zola, Abed’s cameo… even name-dropping then-celebrity Doctor Strange was a cool surprise.
I love Black Panther, I love Infinity War… but I think this is still my favorite Marvel movie. Maybe tied with Panther. It’s a close call.
The Russos love bringing back characters who were left by the wayside (see: Thunderbolt Ross). It makes the universe seem that much more connected.
Whedon brought back that “Captain’s orders” guy from Winter Soldier in Age of Ultron.
Totally agree. Brubaker’s run on Cap in the comics was adapted beautifully for the screen here.Zck Snyder take note, you don’t have to slavishly copy a classic story to do justice to it.Loved the casting of Redford. I’ve always said that, if they’d done a version of Cap in the 70s, Redford was perfect to play him.
When he was cast, I honestly thought they were doing to plot where Red Skull was in a clone of Steve Rogers. You can see Evans aging into Redford
There was a rumor going around at the time that said Redford was going to peel his face off at the end of the movie to reveal he’d been Red Skull the whole time. If that had happened, best movie ever.
There was only one Captain America in the 70’s
They did, although they didn’t have Redford…
What the hell did they stuff his trousers with?
100% USDA-approved Fizzlebeef.
CODPIECE!
Well, can’t un-see that.
That’s America’s Dingus.
For a few seconds, “Brubaker’s run” had me going someplace completely different from comics. In the ‘80s, Redford starred in a movie about prison corruption, titled “Brubaker.”
We also got Batroc the Leaper!
That hand-to-hand fight with Batroc was dooooooooooope. Cap’s flip kick finishing move especially.
I love their brief exchange in French. Of course Cap can parlez un peu.
Cap’s no dummy. Plus he spent a little time overseas back in the day.
Batroc Zee Leepair!Fify
My fav, GSP!
Han solo… Hum …”Thank you for your cooperation.”XOXOXO Nat.
Isn’t that gif from The Avengers?
Yup!
Winter Soldier has been in my top three MCU movies for five years running. Given the competition over those five years, that’s no small feat.One of my favorite moments is immediately after he takes out the Quinjet singlehandedly, there’s that quick shot of his face right before he ducks out of frame. Such a crazy cool throwback shot to ‘70s cinema. Love my Cap.
Maybe it’s the spy thing. Maybe it’s the Seventies inspiration, but I read that as Black Widow transforming into Napoleon Solo at first and made a mental note to rewatch it to try to find the Man from U.N.C.L.E. influence. Personal bias, but I preferred it my way.
I’m not even sure I understand the Han Solo thing.
I don’t get it at all.
The one problem I have is Bucky. The entire haunted look way overshoots in my opinion, into an emo/Marilyn Manson look. I spent so much time while he was onscreen wishing just once someone would grab his long hair and make him pay for not cutting it short, or at least tying it up. And while he is not wearing major eyeliner, he still seems like his eyes are made up and lit to look like a 1980s New Wave singer.
The image of long flowing hair makes sense on someone like Thor, but I just don’t get it for a mind controlled super killer.
It’s near the top of my list too. Based on which ones I’ve watched the most, it’s Winter Soldier and Ragnarok.
Indeed. Not to knock on this fight scene (it was fucking great demonstration of how far Captain America has came) but my favorite fight scene from this movie has to be the Highway Brawl-Out between Steve, Natasha, and Sam against Bucky aka Winter Soldier. Perfect escalation of tension and violence that felt so grounded and tense.And that was NOT my favorite fight scene in MCU… that honor goes to Battle of Titan, at least for me. Even I didn’t think it was possible for anyone to top the first Avengers film in this franchise, but somehow Russo Brothers pulled off with the Winter Soldier. No wonder they got the honor to make the third Avengers and somehow made it the best film in MCU (in my honest opinion, even I thought that would be nigh impossible to pull off… damn.)
It’s a great action scene in a film full of them but my favourite scene of the whole MCU is this one where we learn where the villains have the heroes looking in one way with visible villains and heroics to fight them, they’ve been quietly taking over via stealth in the other direction … much like real life as it happens.
‘Winter Soldier’ was the film where Nat really became a character and not just “the sexy female one”. You get to see how she approaches her work, which is not always morally comfortable, but also how she is as a person, in the way she relates to Cap as a friend. Plus Johansson and Evans’ entirely platonic chemistry is off the charts.
Nat figured out Loki’s plan, and came up with the plan to close the gate to the alien army in Avengers. In Age of Ultron, she stole Vision’s body and got him to The Avengers thereby keeping Ultron from becoming unbeatable. She’s always been the one with her eye on the ball of the characters.
Agree with everything…except GoG. It had a great set up, and introduced some great characters, but the story was ultimately a let down (and #2 even more so). And Pratt’s Quill just becomes annoying after awhile (he was cringe inducing in Infinity War).Ragnarok wins the comedic sweepstakes, IMHO.But Winter Soldier is da bomb! This scene, the ambush of Fury, and the street battle with Winter Soldier, set a high bar for dynamic, cohesive, kick ass action, that Marvel has yet to surpass. And the film provided intense, large-scale, yet personal, stakes like no other MCU film.
Black Panther’s CGI action was really silly (like, Spider-Man 2002 CGI quality, bodies becoming gumbo and stretchy as they swing around), and the big dumb CGI fight to end the movie did a disservice to what was a great story. Like, you have this super interesting villain that has a good point, and it’s all resolved with a big dumb CGI fight.I’d go GOTG/Avengers/Winter Soldier top 3.
Natasha gets some of the best MCU comedic lines in the truck scene with Captain America.“Alright, I have a question for you… of which you do not have to answer. I feel like if you don’t answer it, though, you’re kind of answering it, you know…”
Lol the third-act of Ragnarok is awesome, and Infinity War’s set pieces are great for the most part (especially the one on Titan).
Elevator > hallway.
“it offset the clunkiness of Ragnarok’, an all-too-common convoluted swirl of fists and CGI.”The fuck are you talking about?
Yeah, Thor coming down to Immigrant Song and lightning up folks on the Bridge like a powered up Kratos is an AWESOME sequence
And everybody gets this very specific little highlight and “walk of awesome.” It is very clear and particularly laid out.
Plus, after he torpedo-spins forward and starts running, there’s a camera shot that I seriously suspect is an homage to John Romita Jr’s Thor. There’s the crouched over running pose that always reminds me of his style, and the shot is extremely reminiscent of that. This isn’t the best example of the pose, but the only one I could find online.And right around here in the movie:
Fucking seconded. Everybody in Ragnorak had a kickass 70’s album cover moment in that final fight scene, and it kills me not to see that appreciated as it should be. Hulk’s slow motion leap at Fenris alone had me scrapping zipper.
Yea I don’t understand this. The 3-4 minute sequence scored to Led Zepplin at the end of Ragnarok is the best use of Thor’s lightning powers in any MCU movie and super fun to watch.
Yeah, it was awesome. Though Hulk’s fight with the giant wolf should have been more epic.
It has always amazed me how rarely Thor uses his true Thunder-God powers. The first time this struck me was during the Born Again run in Daredevil when Thor summons rain (with a really good set-up for Cap) to put out the fires Nuke has caused.I don’t think I’d ever seen the God of Thunder use rain as a tactic before that but it makes so much sense that he can.
His timely arrival in Wakanda in Infinity War is a close second though.
TBH, I wouldn’t even classify the type of action in Ragnarok alongside the type of action in WS. It’s just going for a different vibe.
Yeah, the easy line is always to praise the down to earth, brutal action while shaking one’s head at the the CGI punch ups, but there’s really something to be said for the mythic grandeur of Ragnarok’s final action sequence.
Sadly, both CW and IW showed that the Russos aren’t that good at the CGI punch ups because nothing they’ve done has really gotten near that kind of sequence.
Matter of opinion I guess, as I loved the fight sequence between the Stark’s group of Avengers and Thanos on Titan – especially when Doctor Strange goes up to bat.
Man, gotta disagree with you there. Well, in a sense. I think the Russo’s big CGI punch-ups are the best in the MCU, so I wouldn’t say they aren’t that good at them. But their down to earth action sequences do slightly edge out their CGI heavy stuff so in that sense you’re right.
Gonna have to disagree with you there. Well, partially. I think the Russo’s big CGI punch ups are the best in the MCU, so it’s a bit crazy to say they “aren’t that good at” them. But their down to earth stuff doe slightly edge out their CGI heavy stuff so in that sense you’re right.
That was my read of it too. The old guard critic shaking a first at the “new -fangled computer whats its” and celebrating good, old-fashioned grity fist-fights.
To be fair, down to earth brutal action is only praiseworthy if it’s well-choreographed, Well directed, and well-edited. There are other MCU films that have down to earth brutal action that doesn’t quite meet that bar.
I really felt Taika Waititi was like “Who’s got 2 thumbs & loves Peter Paul Reubens? This fuckin’ guy.”
yeah, this whole series highlights some cool sequences, but it does recontextualize a LOT of other stuff with little asides like that. Not sure what the purpose of that is.
Preach!
“convoluted swirl of fists and CGI.”
This is a complaint that should be leveled at Black Panther more than Thor:Ragnarok. BP had it’s best fight half-way through, the two men without powers or suits on the waterfall. The final train-track battle was a sloppy CGI nightmare.Not enough to ruin an otherwise good film, but it was not a highlight.
Agreed. The final solo fight was a video game cutscene. Still a great flick but totally agreed.
Also BP’s casino fight was gorgeously shot. Ryan Coogler is full of inspiration with actors on camera. The suit vs suit final battle seemed like something to get through so they could be unmasked again at the sunset scene.
LOVE the visuals when Okoye jumps down from the balconey level.
I’m one of the people who think that BP is very good but overpraised (come at me), but does anyone at all feel like sticking up for its final battle? It’s fucking terrible.
The final train-track battle was a sloppy CGI nightmare.Yeah, in terms of dueling CGI costumes, it reminded me of episodes of The Flash on CW.
Seriously. That final is brilliant and certainly not hard to follow at all. I really have no idea what they’re referring too.
Got to be honest. The comedy in Ragnarok was one of the few times in Marvel, where it did become excessive and obnoxious. Like, there were emotional scenes that never got to breath because we were constantly rushing to a joke.
I do appreciate your perspective. It doesn’t bother me and in fact is part of what I love, but I do appreciate your perspective.
I actually agree with you that the action in Ragnarok was dynamic and interesting. I normally have very little interest in action scenes (which, weirdly, makes me fairly tolerant of the cliched ones), but I thought Thor definitely created some beautiful and unique set-pieces.
i think they are talking about fight choreography and stunt work vs cgi dependent lucas film esque cartoon battles.
“it offset the clunkiness of Ragnarok’, an all-too-common convoluted swirl of fists and CGI.”I think I am directly addressing the comment made in the article. Anyhoo, I would also argue that the Thor scene is as noted below a very *different* kind of action sequence from the Elevator. But it is quite clearly meticulously planned out, choreographed (CGI or otherwise), and visceral/awesome. It’s far from the goofy shit in the SW prequels.
Absolutely nothing clunky about it. Skeletons vs people and Super Lightning Thor zapping Super Hammy Cate Blanchett.
Ragnarok’s final battle is a visual treasure, with practically every frame being a mini-Bosch painting or metal album cover. It’s always clear what’s going on, the composition of the sequence clears up any confusion and it’s directed to show off the personality of every character.In particular, the shot of Tessa Thompson in full Valkyrie gear entering the fray with fireworks in the background is the sexiest thing Marvel put to screen.
Oh, god, that Valkyrie shot. I find a use for that GIF seemingly every day.
In fairness, Hela vs Surtur IS pretty much a cliched 3rd act CGI sequence, however briefly it lasted.
Haha. I’m down with that. It’s also super short! And kind of taking the piss out of the entire cliche.
My only problem with the final Ragnarok fight is Skurge’s underwhelming last stand.
That’s the part that I couldn’t figure out. Skurge’s last stand at Gjallerbru in the comics is not just one of the best scenes in Thor, ever, but one of the best scenes in all of comics. Maybe without the narration, it just doesn’t work as well.
I blame Hela’s boring-ass fighting style, and the obsession with having her be “the one” to kill everyone.He should have hopped off the spaceship after Surtur was released, and gone down fighting Hela’s army to buy everyone more time.
My only problem with the final Ragnarok fight is Skurge’s underwhelming last stand.
Agreed. The only way to improve that fight would be to change the song.
OMG AMAZING
“They’re loud, hard to follow, with often uninspiring special effects. This inability to combine clarity with a grand scale is made even more glaring in Avengers: Infinity War, which takes us through the paces at least a half-dozen times.”Yeah I don’t agree with that one bit, except maybe the loud part. I find these Marvel action scenes refreshingly coherent compared to your average shakey cam action movie. And if theres one thing Infinity War definitely didn’t suffer from it’s uninspiring special effects
I’m going to throw my weight behind this one too.Yes, I’d say that there’s an argument to be made that too many of them follow a certain “bigger, better, louder” formula, but I wouldn’t say ANY of them are incoherent or hard to follow.
It’s faarrrrrrrrr from bayhem
Yeah, what’s up with this article. Examples of incoherent fight scenes in this genre: Bay’s Transformers. Nolan’s Batman Begins fight on the docks.The cartoons did a better job than those two, and they had less to work with.Even at their worst, Marvel fight scenes are anything but incoherent.
I do think a lot of the Marvel action sequences are more or less uninspired (with some notable exceptions), but they’re usually quite coherent. The fight on Titan is a good example. It’s pretty fun and creative and it’s easy to follow, but it doesn’t really reach any grace notes until the very end when it’s just Stark desperately flinging every piece of tech he has at the relentlessly advancing Thanos.
Yeah, I will say the thing the MCU action scenes are good at is making clear who is doing what with their powers. The Titan fight is a lot of money onscreen, but we can see how each hero is deploying their power kit throughout
There are plenty of criticisms you could level at the MCU action sequences, but I really don’t think “hard to follow”is one of them. The Dark Knight trilogy (much as I love it) had hard to follow fight scenes. Ditto the Transformers movies, and ‘Justice League’. By contrast, it’s amazing how uncluttered and smooth most of the MCU battles are, even when they have huge numbers of combatants.
I disagreed with the article you guys wrote about Tony Stark having the greatest character progression back when it was written and I disagree with it now. Captain America has a much better progression that is consistent and built on well throughout each of his appearances. As I said last year about Steve: He begins the MCU has a bright-eyed kid who believes in the powers that be and slowly morphs into an icon who questions authority and stands up for what he believes to be right.You mention that Tony gives into Steve in the first Avengers but remember that before that, Steve gave into Tony and figured out SHIELD’s actual plans for the Tesseract. That seed of distrust that developed there grew exponentially in The Winter Soldier when Hydra was revealed and led to his eventual decision to not sign the Accords in Civil War.Tony has had more appearances but IMO Cap has the better character arc and is the best character in the MCU. And this is my favorite movie period of the MCU.
He never really believes in the powers that be. His first act as Captain America is to ignore orders and go rogue.
Yeah, I don’t think Steve is really that different from when we first meet him. Indeed, I’d say that’s kind of the point, as laid out in his conversations with Dr. Erskine in The First Avenger, where Erskine tells him, in essence, don’t change, don’t compromise your own conscience no matter what happens or what you’re ordered to do. Steve was never a cog in the machine or blindly jingoistic.
A friend always jokes that Steve was such a bad soldier that they gave him his own platoon and let him do whatever because he wasn’t going to follow orders.And tbh, part fo that … inability to compromise – or inability to handle that without things exploding – did blow up in his face eventually.
Sooner or later someone’s gonna use the phrase “feet of clay” in connection with Cap’s inability to compromise. IMHO that phrase isn’t just overused but inappropriate: what we have here is more a matter of stress fractures in steel being pushed beyond its strength.
One of the first things he says to Erskine is, “I don’t like bullies. I don’t care where they come from”, and that remains his motivation. Are the bad guys within your won government? Then they still need to be taken down.
That’s not really true though. Steve joins the Army in 1942 and throughout his first year follows orders, including putting on a stage act to raise money for the government after he becomes Captain America. He also surrenders himself for disciplinary action as soon as he returns from rescuing Bucky and gives TLJ all of the intelligence he learned, later following his command as he takes down the Hydra bases with the Commandos. Then later in The Avengers, he blindly trusts Fury for half the movie.That’s not quite the same as the Cap of Civil War who openly distrusts anyone associated with a government agency.
Cap, consistently, follows orders until he doesn’t want to. he just wants to less and less. But he never blindly followed orders.
Isn’t trusting an authority figure who tells you what to do until they give you a reason not to following blindly? Just because he bucks when given a reason to doesn’t mean he isn’t following blindly to begin with.
It’s not blindly following if you haven’t been given a reason not to. If you continue following after being given a reason then that’s blindly following. But we probably just have different interpretations of the term.
The seeds were laid even before his transformation. This is the same Steve who took the flagpole down rather than climbing it. And he knew full well that that’s not what his trainers meant.
Okay, maybe not his FIRST act — that would’ve been when he went after Heinz Kruger, the guy who killed Doc Erskine. But yeah, that moment he went AWOL to go save Bucky and the rest of the 107th was the moment Steve well and truly became CAPTAIN AMERICA.(And BTW, why would he believe in the Powers That Be? Growing up as Brooklyn’s favorite punching bag is liable to give you a different take on unthinking obedience to authority …)
My problem with Stark’s development post-IM3 is that he’s turned into a scolding uncle.
He gives Steve a lot of shit for being reckless after having built Ultron and having personally antagonised almost all his own enemies prior to them becoming supervillains.
And unjustifiably so IMO. He’s at least 50% responsible for Ultron yet he makes it seem like it was an issue all of the Avengers caused. Cap had nothing to do with creating Ultron, so it’s ridiculous when Stark throws Sokovia in his face in Civil War.Stark has good intentions but he’s basically just a superhero example of rich privilege. He deserved to be in jail for creating Ultron.
I think Cap and Thor both have better arcs that Iron Man.Thor, along with Gamora, really anchors Infinity War, the big melancholy oaf.
Before we get started on these comments, does anybody want to get out?
*sweats profusely*
:: takes you out first ::
All y’all get stars.
*sees stars*
This. Oh yeah, this. The guy isn’t just sweating because he knows bad shit is coming down, he’s sweating at the idea of trying to take down CAPTAIN GODDAMN AMERICA.
Me: Yeah, I’ll get out here, thanks. Cap: OK, man, no problem. Meet me in the lobby. I’ll be the one who, after falling 20 stories, comes crashing through the ceiling and hitting the ground curled up on my shield. Good thing it’s made of Vibranium. The shield, I mean, not my bones. (Top 5 best scenes)
One of my favorite motifs in the MCU is Cap falling from a great height, and slowly picking himself up.
I just want you to know, Yummsh, it’s nothing personal.
It feels personal.
I was most impressed with how they were able to handle the issue of having such a cardboard heroic character as Cap as your lead: stick him in the middle of a morally complex conspiracy thriller and watch him sort everything out just by being the good guy.I do get a bit of a chuckle when the movie cuts back to Falcon and Crossbones still fighting in the climax, where you just want to say “You guys know everyone else is done, right?”
It kind of rhymes with Three Days of the Condor, where Robert Redford was a fairly bland blond guy stuck in the middle of a baffling mess.
I always giggle when Crossbones does the evil guy threat and Falcon just says “MAN SHUT THE HELL UP”
If you like that, you may get a kick out of the climax of ‘Shazam!’
I did! It was a great gag!
And then the end of their first encounter looks just like the end of Rocky III, with them taking huge swings at each other and BOOM smash cut to the next scene.
Just so we’re clear, the writers put Captain America in a cage match, the Russos interpreted/rendered it.
The movies got better and better with all the ways he uses his shield. And notably, without the mask/helmet, I felt more connected to Steve Rogers in his action scenes.
That boat scene really sets the tone that Cap leveled up on his offensive shield abilities since we last saw him
Nat is such a super bad-ass in this movie. She’s got a ton of great moments, but one of the best is when she drops into the freighter, whoops the living bejeezus out of like eight dudes, and then struts her sexy ass away like a damn supermodel. <3
And she gets great lines: “Hey, fellas. Either one of you know where the Smithsonian is? I’m here to pick up a fossil.” Three minutes into the movie, and I am on board.
“The bullet went right through my hip. No more bikinis.”“Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them.”
I love how much byplay Steve and Nat get in the movie; Evans and Johansson have worked in so many movies together (remember The Perfect Score?) that they have just an easy unforced chemistry onscreen.
The entire movie was loaded with great moments.“We’re not stealing, we’re borrowing. And get your feet off the dashboard.”I loved the whole back and forth in that scene. It’s right up there with “language!” later in Ultron.
And I love that it’s not romantic at all. They’re just good friends.
There’s a photo of them playing Tetris on brick Gameboys via link cable that made the rounds on twitter yesterday. Adorable as fuck
The Russos and Markus/McFeely totally get how to deploy Nat in combination with Cap, and Johannsen has great fun with it. They play up her duplicitous nature and like any real spy she clearly knows how to use her sexuality as a weapon. It serves to highlight Cap’s upright moral clarity and awkward, almost virginal straight-man act. They’re a delight as a mismatched buddy-cop pair.And yes, that shot of Nat’s cabooose in the freighter is… extremely noteworthy. Kang’s only human, people!EDIT: Accidentally typed an extra ‘o’ in caboose but that extra o feels like it was deeply earned by Scarlett and her personal trainers, so it stays.
I dunno if I would say “at all” but yea their friendship is pretty cool
Nat, “Shall we play a game? That’s from a movie-”Steve, “Yeah, I saw it.”
I was wondering why Steve would have seen WarGames before a more popular film like Rocky, but thinking about the thematic material of the former, I think it makes sense!
Their walk and talks in the Apple store and the mall are great.“Oh, where are you going?”“New Jersey.”And of course “I’ve been Aaron” is an all-time classic.
The Russos and the Cap writers have done such a great job with Nat, it feels like a whole different character from IM2 and the Avengers movies
She’s so much better written in TWS than in IM2. It’s like an entirely different character.
That’s my favourite Black Widow scene. She’s… fine.
Oh, she’s far more than fine.
That first guy who she says “Hi there sailor” to looks like he’s thinking, “I know she’s not meant to be here and is probably some kind of threat … but what if this babe is actually flirting with me?”
Totally. And she knows it!
I hear you. Scarlett was so hot in this movie – as she is in almost every movie she’s in
The elevator fight is absolutely the right choice here, but I often go back to that moment when Rogers has taken to the PA system to reveal the existence of Hydra and a nameless SHIELD operative refuses to launch the helicarriers, even when Rumbelow puts a gun to his head. He’s a total nobody who you can tell doesn’t even lift, bro, but he looks the ridiculously jacked special forces operative in the eye and says, “Captain’s orders.”
I love that scene too. The actor in that scene (Aaron Himelstein) also played City College’s lead debator Jeremy Simmons on Community. He’s great.
MAN IS GOOD
He even gets a joke in Age of Ultron, which I thought was a nice little touch.
The actor in that scene (Aaron Himelstein) also played City College’s lead debator Jeremy Simmons on Community.
That’s the same actor?? I didn’t even notice. I hope he survived The Snap. I love that Community episode.
The character is Cameron Klein, and he gets a shout-out from Fury in the post credit scene of Infinity War.
Wow, I never noticed that!
Someone pointed it out to me, and I’ve been sharing. I’m disappointed that Aaron Himelstein (the actor who plays him) isn’t mentioned on IMDB as being in Endgame. I mean, even a bit part like he had in Age of Ultron.
He was also the college age Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Bravest man in the MCU.
I think that might be my favorite scene in the entire MCU.
Not to be a stickler, but he did not look Rumbelow in the eye. Rumbelow was behind him, and he kept his gaze ahead, still looking at his screen.But it’s a great goddamn scene.
The fight scenes show you Captain America the soldier. The scenes where he can inspire the average SHIELD worker show you Captain America the hero.
The main protagonist and antagonist literally share one scene together in the second act, and they just talk. And it works. That’s how good this movie is.
“Bucky?”I get chills every time. I watched TWS with my sister, and she gasped SO LOUD when that happened. She had no idea.
That is a great scene but I’m pretty sure he’s referring to Cap and Alexander Pierce. The only scene they have together is their conversation in act two
Ah, right you are. Thanks.
“Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?”Such a great line. Winter Soldier might be the best movie in the MCU, is a top-tier superhero movie, and also just legitimately great.
I feel like this and Logan really get it, that you just have to make a great movie and stick superheroes into it. Just make Steve Rogers a regular soldier, and the movie works the same.
Have to disagree here. This is one point where “Winter Soldier” diverges from the 1970s man-in-the-crossfire conspiracy thrillers it’s modeled on, movies like “Three Days of the Condor” that starred Robert Redford.If it had been someone like Redford’s Condor involved, there would’ve been just one assassin in the elevator with him and Condor would’ve been clearly outclassed and on the verge of getting killed. Much the same dynamic would’ve played out even if Condor were some kind of ex-SEAL badass.But in this movie we’re talking about CAPTAIN GODDAMN AMERICA, who among other things takes repeated shock-stick strikes to the guts — something he’d have felt even through his combat suit, but which, far from paralyzing him, only seems to piss him off even more. No regular soldier can take that kind of punishment. Not even a SEAL can take can kind of punishment. But like I said, this is CAPTAIN AMERICA we’re talkin’ about!
So put Arnold Schwarzenegger in a 70s spy thriller and you have Winter Soldier
Um … nope, that doesn’t sound right. It’s rather hard to root for Big Ahnuld and rather easier to root for Chris Evans, whom many suspect of being a human Golden Retriever.
I hadn’t seen the film so I’m a bit stunned by just how dumb that scene was. Like really really dumb. In a CGI world where anything can happen no matter how absurd, after awhile it doesn’t matter what happens.
There’s always one…
And it’s always this one. I think he’s commented on every Marvel Moment article about how much he hates these dumb movies for babies that he’s never seen.
I haven’t interacted with MikeD before so I’m a bit stunned by just how dumb his comment was. Like really really dumb. In a snarky world where anything that happens has to be criticized no matter how absurd, after awhile it doesn’t matter who comments.
MikeD is a troll who puts a comment like that in every comic book film article. Ignore them.
And it’s even worse here because this isn’t a CGI scene at all…?
This inability to combine clarity with a grand scale is made even more glaring in Avengers: Infinity War, which takes us through the paces at least a half-dozen times.no
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: other MCU movies were fun, some of them were exhilarating, some of them were funny, but Winter Soldier was the first one that actually kicked ass. Every fight scene in this movie was completely gripping: the elevator fight is obviously a high point, but the damn film opened with a throwdown between Captain America and fucking Batroc the Leaper and it was…awesome?! How did that even happen? (Answer: they gave the dudes who made “A Fistful of Paintballs” all the money in the world and that turned out to be a brilliant idea.)
The shout-out to the score is also well deserved. Without beating you over the head, Jackman’s musical cues kept slowly ratcheting up the tension, especially during the assault on Fury’s SUV and the final battle across the streets of DC. Just amazing work from beginning to end.
The behind the scenes of that fight is cool, I know GSP is an all timer MMA fighter, but his athleticism in general is off the charts
I watched GSP for many years in MMA and for years he was considered the best pound-for-pound fighter of his peers. Major kudos to the stunt people, production staff and Evans himself for making Capt. look like he could keep up with GSP’s level of talent especially his quickness. When they opened with that fight the movie just had me right off the bat.
I loved an interview I saw with GSP (and I don’t follow MMA, so I don’t even know who he is), where he’s *excited* and proud to get his ass kicked by Captain America. So many real fighters want to be the world’s biggest badass when cast as fictional fighters, but this guy completely got and bought into just what Captain America was supposed to be.
GSP is French-Canadian so this is kind of funny to me. “Whoop my ass, America – yeah, I love it!” It’s like in Mean Girls when the fuzzy haired chick is all, “One time Regina George punched me in the face. It was AWESOME!”
I think one of my favorite moves in that opening fight is when Cap runs up to some dude, grabs his shoulder, jumps into his arms, gets CAUGHT by the dude, and then rolls forward, smacking the dude’s head into the floor. It’s quick and subtle, but it’s so fuckin’ cool. It almost plays like a prank. ‘Catch me!’
the best thing about this movie is that it feels like a crackerjack action movie that just happens to have superheroes in it. my fave mcu entry by far and the best surprise in the theatre.
It was a surprisingly tone-setting year for Marvel. By that time, I was getting tired of the pointless Whedon quips, and actually half-heartedly walked into the theater to see WS with a massive amount of skepticism that it was going to be any good. I walked out afterwards just stunned at how well it turned out. Same with Guardians of the Galaxy. Feige let the Russos and James Gunn both pick their own directions and style and go balls out.
For me this is one of the most important MCU films for me because it really got me back into Marvel films. As a kid, I watched Iron Man and the super hero films. But I stopped when I was a teenager. I missed Avengers and basically every other superhero film after Iron Man. In high school, I heard so much good shit about Winter Soldier. My friend said the action was soooo good. Being an action fanatic who loved The Raid and Raid 2, I checked it out. As a teenager, it surprised me how far the films had come. A freaking political thriller about government becoming corrupt as hell? A government figure like Cap has to stand his ground? Bone crunching action scenes? It blew me away and I’ve since been watching every single MCU film once it has come out. This would be my favorite if the Russo brothers hadn’t done more films. But they did and those are just as amazing if not more to me.
Jesus, Tony, how old is this guy?
Old enough to shoot webs!And I’m not talking about from my hand…
“As a kid, I watched Iron Man”“In high school, I heard so much good shit about Winter Soldier. ”*Weeps in old age*
I do not think the word “enervating” means what you think it means…;)
The entry of the Russo Brothers accelerated the homogenization of the MCU. Increasingly, the movies feel less and less distinct and fall into the “passable but forgettable” mold to the point where I have little to no interest in ever revisiting any of them.
lmao
“They’re loud, hard to follow, with often uninspiring special effects. This inability to combine clarity with a grand scale…”Im sure you also think all villains are too one dimensional & any time there’s a “dark tone” you have a problem with it.The question is, if you don’t like 90% of the content of comic book movies, why review them? Just because you have an outlet to run your mouth? Movie critics are the worst….
Maybe it’s because I didn’t see this in full until the build-up for Ultron (and a couple of things had been spoiled before that point) but I didn’t really care for this one as much as some other people. Like it’s a fine movie just not the top of the pack imo. The best thing it did for me personally was open the floodgates to let Agents of SHIELD cut loose. Some great stuff came after the movie’s release.
CA:TWS is SO damn good, but one scene that irritates me is the one where Pierce and Bucky are sitting in the dark in his kitchen talking about their dirty dealings, and the cleaning woman comes in because she forgot something. So, naturally he has to kill her. I get it, they had to demonstrate that he’s a bad guy, but do you think the cleaning lady gave one rat fuck about some shadowy figure sitting in her boss’s kitchen, or about whatever the two were talking about, none of which would have made any sense to her out of context? At least let her have witnessed a murder or something if she has to die.
The point was that even if she didn’t know what was happening at the time, her observation that Pierce was connected to The Winter Soldier and the mere possibility she may speak about it or be questioned about it in the future meant she had to be eliminated.
Like I said, I get it. It just bugged me.
Considering this dude is about to (or already has? I forget the sequence of events) unleash violent hell on a public freeway and become a very public wanted fugitive, I’m guessing it wouldn’t be good to have a woman come forward and say, “I saw that guy drinking milk with Mr Pierce the other night.”
“This inability to combine clarity with a grand scale is made even more glaring in Avengers: Infinity War, which takes us through the paces at least a half-dozen times”A stunningly godawful opinion.
So the whole “Marvel Moment” thing is pretty much a paid blowjob, right? Just not understanding why we’re supposed to sit here and pretend that the MCU flicks are of great meaning and significance. There are a lot of them and they make a lot of money. Nobody is going to recall these movies as great cinema.
Every time I’m in a crowded elevator, it’s all I can do not to say, “Before we begin, does anyone want to get out?”
The downside is that if you do say that, I think everyone else in the elevator is legally obligated to start beating down on you.
Chris Evans as Cap! The Best Chris! I will never get over Steve and Peggy Carter not getting to go on their date. Having her narrate part of the Avengers: Endgame trailer and including a scene of him as a pallbearer at the funeral of the love of his life was incredibly powerful and almost unfairly sad, and set a really dark tone for the new movie and specifically Steve’s role in it
From a heart breaking standpoint, Steve keeps getting kicked in the balls A LOT in this franchise.
You certainly hit that nail on the head—such an amazing fight sequence—one of the all-time movie greats.
Given how Christopher Nolan was stunningly bad with how he staged fights for his Bat-flicks, if Nolan makes another superhero flick, he needs to bring on the Russos to direct those scenes for him. A good leader knows when to delegate.
Yes, the elevator fight is fantastic, but god. DAMN. when he takes down the jet. I was so giddy during that scene.
That got me so hyped! After seeing Cap struggle against a couple goons with guns in The Avengers, seeing him single-handedly take out a military jet with nothing but his mighty shield was fucking cathartic!
ok. Avengers is a great film and Winter soldier is better in some aspects. But then how the fuck does Whedon make Age of Ultron right after? HOW!?! How do you go from avengers to winter soldier to…. AOE? it’s such a fucking bad movie. Like I am going through all of them in anticipation for endgame and I put it on yesterday knowing it was gonna be bad but usually that makes the movie better because you’ve eased yourself up but nope it was worse. There has to be an article about how bad AOE is. please write it.
My 3rd favorite from Marvel, behind Infinity Wars and Thor Ragnarok. It is so damn good! Right from the start when he meets, Sam and talks to him about things only another combat vet would understand. Then we are off to the races. The Lumerian Star, his disillusionment with SHIELD, seeing his best girl, Peggy again, the elevator scene, Robert fucking Redford! The Winter Soldier’s first appearance during the Fury chase scene which was also awesome. The reveal of it being Bucky! All just incredible! The deep infiltration by Hydra into SHIELD. Steve and Natasha on the run. Taking the fight to Hydra and the final brutal fight between Steve and Bucky! The movie’s so good it made Iron Man 2 better with one line, Garry Shandling saying “Hail Hydra.” That’s how fucking good it is! There is no fat on this movie, whenever it’s on I have hard time turning from it.
Infinity War — one war, not many. Have mercy on our poor heroes who couldn’t even win one.
To me, the Captain America films are the best series within the MCU and the ones that most feel like superhero stories. Especially this one, which is kind of surprising given that it’s a government conspiracy movie, and the main supervillain isn’t a guy with a codename or a costume. But that escape from SHIELD, the freeway fight, Falcon flying around being awesome – seriously, Anthony Mackie doesn’t get enough love for his work here – are all just pure superhero joy. Also, there’s an evil dude who’s a brain in a computer, and that’s pretty damn cool.
“I never said I was a pilot.”
AV Club has its second article about Cap in this series… and did it again. “Jingoist square.” Simultaneously arrogant and desperately insecure. Or just terrified of facing the notion of not feeling superior, of giving a shit. Bless.
“new, short-lived, high”
“MCU fights go down in the same way: They’re loud, hard to follow, with often uninspiring special effects.”Clearly you haven’t been watching the same films as the rest of us.
I’m not sure how the action in most of the MCU films is “hard to follow”, it’s about as clear as it can be for a superhero film, and rather well choreographed and edited. If you want hard-to-follow action sequences, try the DCEU films, or the nightmare that was the final fight in Venom. Good lord, that was bad. About the only thing more clear in modern action films is John Wick, and he doesn’t (technically) have superpowers.
Did you really mean the score was “enervating”? As in, drained of energy?
It’s weird how two people can watch the same thing, and see two different events.I was amazed at how specific and focused the action in Infinity War was. I remember thinking I was seeing something really special and unique in how grounded the insanity of the visuals was. Everybody gets a closeup. Everybody has a perspective, whether they’re crashing spaceships into someone, or turning a dimensional space rift into butterflies.I thought that would be a source of praise for critics, but nope. They didn’t notice. And the writer of this article saw the opposite.
Hell, comedy not only rescued the, it offset the clunkiness of Ragnarok’, an all-too-common convoluted swirl of fists and CGI.This inability to combine clarity with a grand scale is made even more glaring in Avengers: Infinity Warhelping the MCU hit a new, if short-lived, high.insert “this ain’t it chief” meme here
Also Guardians of the Galaxy followed Winter Soldier, so “short-lived high” seems a little disingenuous…
Ragnaroks final battle was thrilling but still a little cheesy and the actual moves pretty mundane. It was really about Thors transformation and realization. Caps elevator fight was a great example of how that character was taken to a grittier almost Jason Bourne level…while wearing a costume. Evan’s was at the core of making CA America’s Superhero and leader and heart and soul of Marvel. Something that even Captain Marvel hasn’t done. And he did it with raw physicality and delivering lines like “it feels kinda personal…I had a date…and we’ll do that together too”.
This article gets so much right, but so much wrong. If any MCU film manages to present action on a grand scale while still maintaining clarity it’s Infinity War. But man the action in Winter Soldier is so good. The Russos have truly been a blessing to the MCU. I’ve been so spoiled by their films that now any superhero movie that doesn’t have truly inventive fight choreography automatically loses a few points for me.
This is my favorite of all of the MCU films, easily. And beyond the fact that it’s a great, tense, fun, action-packed thriller of an action movie, I think it’s a major turning point for the whole franchise for a very specific reason: this is the first movie about an individual Avenger to feature another Avenger as a supporting cast member. Not a cameo, not a post-credits teaser, but an actual major role in the plot.
I’m sure there’s a version of this story where Agent 13 has a much bigger role, instead of Black Widow. But using Natasha instead is such a smart move – and like others have said, she is so smartly written throughout this movie. Her appearance in Iron Man 2 was nothing but a tease, and while there were moments in The Avengers, she was wildly inconsistent under Whedon’s pen. The Russos took those crumbs and used them to established exactly who this lady was, providing a fantastic foil for Steve.
It’s also a small miracle that Sam Wilson is such a fantastic and lovable character. Anthony Mackie’s charisma goes a long way to establish how quickly he and Steve would become friends. And let’s be real – a guy with a bird suit is a hard sell for a cynical movie watching audience. But his first appearance as Falcon got CHEERS from the audience. More people doubt Hawkeye’s legitimacy as an Avenger than they do Falcon, and that’s also largely due to how well the Russos handle his introduction.
You can see how well all of these characters playing in the same sandbox led directly to Civil War and Infinity War (obviously, as they were also movies done by the Russos), but also to Thor: Ragnarok’s heavy use of Hulk and Spider-Man: Homecoming’s Tony Stark appearances. People love watching the Avengers share scenes together. This movie was when they started embracing that idea more often than just the big team-up movies.