By Clifford T. Hofferd
Nothing Ever Truly Goes Away
Despite the allies victory of Nazi Germany in World War II Nazi ideology and followers of said ideology still exist. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Hydra still exists as well (they just found a better way to hide themselves).
Having thought he left the past behind, Steve Rodgers had was confronted with having to get with the program so to speak. SHIELD does things that many people wouldn’t like. Clandestine (and sometimes criminal) acts are carried out to neutralize threats before they happen. What nobody seemed to notice was that Hydra worked its way into SHIELD and grew from the inside.
Trading Freedom For Security
This movie is about trading freedom for security. There are some very disturbing real world parallels involved as a massive agency that collects all kinds of Meta data in bulk amounts is infiltrated and corrupted by people who do not have our best interests in mind. They want to launch giant death machines that target people based off a computer algorithm.
Psychohistory
If I weren’t trying to keep this review short, I’d get into another more complex area of discussion involving psychohistory (an analysis of which you can read at my blog). But as it stands this movie already covers a lot of topics I already enjoy.
Negatives Of This Film
Some of the negatives of this film include some underutilized characters. Despite having his name in the title The Winter Soldier is an underutilized character merely acting as a hired assassin to Robert Redford. There are also leaps in logic where a group that has infiltrated a massive body like SHIELD didn’t go undiscovered until now (then again the jerk Senator from Iron Man 2 turns out to be a Hydra agent).
Senator Stern: “Hail Hydra.”
Complex themes and some thought provoking topics lead this to be a good movie. But some underutilized characters and leaps in logic prevent it from being great.
7.50 Metallic Arms out of 10.
Clifford T. Hofferd is a movie critic living in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. Follow Clifford’s blog at thengpblog.blogspot.ca
