By Matt Fleming and Jarrod Jones. This is the ANTI-MONITOR podcast, where we only pretend we know everything, Rogers. This week, the boys continue their 2-week ‘Civil War’ celebration by watching arguably one of the best superhero sequels known to mankind, ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’. Before they go too crazy over their favorite shield-wielding warrior, Jarrod primes Birdy for the next film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by putting him through a rather difficult Marvel Comics quiz.
As always be wary for any spoilers throughout, and please enjoy.
ANTI-MONITOR: MATT — Captain America seemed like the forgotten Avenger for a while after his “simply fine” introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but his second solo entry into the film canon proved to be the single best effort Phase Two could have provided. With Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Joe and Anthony Russo managed to effectively bring Steve Rogers into the 21st Century, while building the MCU in a way that ended up utterly shaming Age Of Ultron. Ultimately, the Russos and Marvel made a pitch-perfect espionage film cira 1976, only with way better action and superheroes.
With The Winter Soldier, intrigue, suspense, action, and character are all balanced in a way Marvel has never matched with any films before or since. Steve Rogers juggles displacement and morality while the world collapses around him, and Chris Evans fills the role terrifically. Anthony Mackie soars as the man who would be Falcon, and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow finally gets some proper screentime. In all, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the culmination of years of Marvel Studios fine-tuning their movie world, only to find that they finally got it right.
ANTI-MONITOR: JARROD — (from my original review) “There are so many reasons for this film to falter, and after nine films produced in rapid succession since 2008’s Iron Man – with an ever-widening spectrum of quality – it’s no small wonder certain film critics are passively rolling their analytical eyes at yet another entry in the Marvel canon. It’s easier to dismiss Captain America: The Winter Soldier as a big, dumb, deafening placeholder for Marvel’s main course (Avengers: Age Of Ultron), than it is to take the film head-on.
“My primary worry after Thor: The Dark World was that Marvel, and the entire superhero action genre with it, may have peaked with 2012’s The Avengers. Well. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is every bit as exciting as The Avengers, and – even though Marvel could blithely coast from tent-pole to tent-pole until Age Of Ultron – it even bothers to inject some topical depth into its muscle-bound melodrama.”
CONSENSUS: Not content to be merely well-paced, thrilling and smart — Captain America: The Winter Soldier stampeded our expectations and became the best superhero sequel since The Dark Knight. — 9 out of 10
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