Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The fifth one

I'll try to resist any America puns I can.
Probably going to be spoilers.

Marvels star spangled hero returns (I tried.) for his latest venture and we see a post battle of New York Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) struggling to place himself in modern day Washington DC. Splitting his down time between taking thirteen mile jogs around the Washington Monument and doing undercover stealth missions against Algerian pirates, he's torn up about his current fate and as a familiar face tells him 'he can't go back to that time'. This film changes the game a little and at times feels more like a political thriller than your average comic book movie, at least until the third act The Winter Solider is more spy vs spy just with extraordinary people in it.

Evans has found his Steve Rogers. What sets him apart from the other members of his team is that at heart he's a genuinely good guy among the good guys, sadly for him he's a man lost in time and struggling to come to grips with the modern way of warfare. He was never happy with what he had to do in the forties but as he puts it to Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and his controversial project Insight, "This isn't freedom, it's fear." There's an endearing innocence about Steve compared to his morally grey team mates.

Most recognizable would be Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, self assured and flirtatious all the while proving that the super hero business isn't just left up to the guys. Full of witty comebacks and all said with a wry smile, Johansson is having fun with it and yet at times there are allusions to her dark history that was mentioned in The Avengers, it's at these points Johansson shows her range and happily steps away from being a one trick pony.

Thankfully compared to Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World the comedy doesn't seem shoehorned in or takes away any seriousness from a situation, newcomer Antony Mackie stars as The Falcon, an ex para-trooper with a flight harness you can't help but want to try out, visually it looks incredible while he weaves in and out of explosions and cannon fire and really steals the majority of scenes he's in. Hopefully we'll see him in the sequel or the next Avengers because the guy brings humor whenever it's needed.

Our seasoned veterans in the film come to clash quite often and their chemistry is somewhat lacking. Samuel L. Jackson breathes charisma as S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury and often comes to clash with Cap himself an how things should be handled, but when he butts heads with world security council member Alexander Pierce (spy movie veteran Robert Redford) the connection doesn't seem as fierce. Both of them actively stand out in the ensemble and by themselves thoroughly convince you but it seemed Redford was just coasting off what felt familiar to him and didn't try much new.

Last but not least and my favourite part as a comic book fan is the films title villain, The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). So anyway spoilers he's secretly Bucky Barnes from the first movie. Captain America's best friend. Fell off the train? I honestly wish they'd made his apparent death more momentous in the first movie because although it's alluded to near the start of the film the reveal that he is the brainwashed villain lacks a little. That doesn't change the fact though that he's the perfect match for Captain America, equally as fast, skilled and strong (a robotic arm will do that to you) as his old friend but fights in a much more brutal manner. Paying no heed to collateral damage and even putting fear into someone as skilled as Black Widow you know he's a big hitter. Stan shows his range between slowly regaining memories lost for 70 years to uncontrollable rage as the memories come back whilst fighting his former friend, it's the first marvel villain since Loki that's had such an impact on the lead characters and the audience themselves, something the past few films have lacked monstrously.

All in all you know what you're in for here, classic action with witty repertoire between provocative characters with all the classic cameo's, Easter eggs and an epic post credits scene that I don't feel at liberty (geddit?) to talk about. Go see it already.

Robocop

Review Numero Tres!

Oh Dear.

Full disclosure, I really enjoyed the 1980's version by Paul Verhoeven so it's going to be hard for me to be unbiased here.

Take a shot every time you read the word Robot.

Also spoilers.

In the far off future of 2028, Detroit still remains a breeding ground for violence and crime, the powerhouse company Omnicorp has robot soldiers overseas rather than fleshy soldiers and wants to bring them to the states for use as law enforcement. The original film is known for its moral messages about humanity that echoes throughout its entirety, the new one does include some messages. There is a scene early on after we see Samuel L. Jacksons character, a charismatic TV host (and one of the films few saving graces.) speaking with a reporter out in a war zone witnessing how the robotic soldiers handle things. What ensues is a horrific shoot out which mirrors the use of unmanned drones in our society. It's a powerful message but gets dropped almost immediately after the scene ends, a wasted effort really.

Soon enough we meet our hero Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) he's a likable enough tough guy cop who's also a family man, and his relationship with his wife and son is quickly established as being incredibly ordinary. That is until his car explodes due to a bomb planted by a crime boss. Uh oh. Omnicorp jumps on the bandwagon after Raymond Sellers the companies CEO (played menacingly by Michael Keaton/Batman) they need to show the world that robots are A OK, so with consent from Murphy's distraught wife Clara (an emotion she plays for the remainder of the film) they get him suited up and Robocop is born. 

Waking up Murphy meets Dr Norton (Gary Oldman) a compassionate scientist at Omnicorp who created Robocop and is at odds with Raymond Sellers. slowly Murphy realizes he can't move and see's himself in the classic chrome suit, on further asking to see what's left of him the suit pulls away and both Murphy and the audience realize he's now nothing more than a face, brain, a pair of lungs and a right hand? This scene would have been great if it wasn't for the hand, I get where they're coming from, on one side he's still a human with a conscience and on the other he's the metallic and iron hand of the law but the one human hand makes him look comical, and it's without a doubt impractical. Would you punch a washing machine with your hand? Same basic concept considering he fights predominantly giant robots. 

Another interesting deviation from the original is that Murphy retains his humanity from the get go, he even has a flip up visor for his face as apposed to the bolted on one (a monumental scene in the 80's version) between awkwardly trying to remain a family man despite the leash put on him by Omnicorp we get some of the better moments of the film, Rick Mattox (Jackie Earle Haley) plays a generic douche bag who puts Murphy through his paces in training exercises, we see through the robot visor how Robocop fights crime using the power of trigonometry and an overuse of the colour red. 

I paint a bad picture but it surprised me how much better it was than I had imagined. I mean the new black suit is cool right? That isn't to say this is something to immediately go out and see, while not being an awful film it does drag along slowly and is laden with one dimensional (some would say robotic) characters who you feel nothing towards. We live in hope that the trend of rebooting classic 80's movies ends here. 

I'm looking at you Die Hard.