‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ May Be the Best MCU Movie And Here's Why
With so many movies within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), it really is hard for fans to pick their favorite or to work out which one is actually the best. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of those movies, but is often overlooked by many fans. Those who do remember it tend to say that it is one of the weaker entries in the franchise. It is understandable though. As a character sequel, it is sandwiched between The First Avenger and Civil War, two movies that were extremely popular and regarded the strongest entries in the franchise. However, the Cap sequel is actually more important than people remember or give it credit for. Therefore, today we are going to look at why it is a contender for best MCU movie. Warning, some SPOILERS ahead for those who have not seen it.
The MCU was known for its ability to marry good humor with serious storytelling without leaning too much in either direction. This was not always the case though. Some of the earlier movies took a bit of a darker tone and those were the ones that fans disliked the most. Winter Soldier fell into this darker category. The First Avenger ended with Steve Rogers aka. Captain America (Chris Evans) crash landing Red Skull's ship into a frozen ocean to save several lives, and resulting in him being frozen for several years. He woke up in the 21st century and was greeted by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and S.H.I.E.L.D. This meant that Winter Soldier needed to address Steve living in an age he knew nothing about, which it did. The sequel provided us with a different view of the ultimate hero. He was at his most vulnerable. While the first film was basically all about him and why he was the right choice to become this superhero, the sequel depicted a character who now lived in a world which was not his. All of his friends and the woman he loved, had either grown old, or passed on. He was basically alone in this unfamiliar world. The first team-up movie The Avengers, which took place chronologically between Cap's first and second outings, did not focus on the individual characters. Once the team was no longer needed, each character went back to their respective lives. However, Steve had nowhere else to go, and remained working with S.H.I.E.L.D. With this is mind, Winter Soldier was not really a superhero film that we have come to know. It was more of an espionage thriller with realistic villains.
Thanks to some handy information from the revived, albeit in a digital state, Doctor Armin Zola (Toby Jones), we learned that S.H.I.E.L.D had actually been infiltrated by HYDRA. This was the evil cult from Cap's first adventure, who were basically an extension of the Nazi's hell-bent goal of global domination via an amalgamation of science and magic. With years to operate in the shadows, HYDRA was actually able to grow exponentially, infiltrating many organizations, and having various people in position of power in its ranks, including the U.S Senator in Iron Man 2 who demanded that Stark hand over his suits and technology. This revelation made us view some events that have happened up until this point in a different light.
In Winter Soldier, HYDRA specifically aimed to hijack the new helicarriers and used them to eliminate current and future threats to HYDRA. Armin Zola had created a program which identify future targets by analyzing their past. This meant literally millions of lives were at risk. Of course, Cap, who was at ground zero during all of this, would have to step in. He could not do it alone, however. Natasha Romanoff aka. Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) appeared again to help Steve along with Nick Fury, and Maria Hill (Colby Smulders). The movie also introduced Sam Wilson aka. Falcon (Anthony Mackie) who we now know would become a huge part of the overall story. While Steve and his team tried figure out who was the mastermind behind everything, they came face to face with the eponymous Winter Soldier, a new enemy who was not unlike Captain America himself. By the end of the film it was revealed that the Winter Soldier was none other than Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Steve's childhood best friend who was believed to have died in the first film. This truth broke Steve's heart, and you could see the emotions played on his face. He went from doing all he could to stop the Winter Soldier, to then refusing to fight his friend. It was a classic movie plot twist.
The movie also gave us real moments of genuine panic by making us believe that Nick Fury had met his match and was killed. While it turned out to be a fake death, the scenes and emotional displays were so real that many were completely convinced the beloved character was gone for good. It was not an easy task to pull something like this off.
In addition, Winter Soldier was the Russo brothers' first entry in the MCU. They would go on to direct Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame. They clearly knew what they were doing when building up the tension in the story throughout the series to the satisfying conclusion in Endgame.
When compared with other movies in the MCU, Winter Soldier was not very well received by the audience. It followed the immensely popular Avengers, and went down a totally different route from the fancy flamboyant superhero movie trope, favoring a more classic story of infiltration and deception. For me, this is what makes it a contender for best MCU movie. Give it a watch again and pretend that the other films did not exist. When evaluated by itself, you will see what I mean.
Until next time!