Captain America, old dog, new tricks!

It seems that Captain America: The First Avenger wasn't everyone's cup of tea.  I thought it was great, and I was REALLY looking forward to Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  The return of one of my favourite characters within the MCU, coupled with elements from one of his best comic story arcs.

With everything that Marvel Studios has going on at the moment, they could almost be forgiven for leaning (not resting, just leaning) ever so slightly on their laurels.

Wrong.

(Before reading any further, please go and see the film.  Spoilers ahead!)

Through the various trailers in the build up to The Winter Soldier's release we were fed tidbits of information that hinted at the potential demise of Nick Fury.  Boy does that story element turn out to be small fry!  Marvel Studios go one step further and tear down S.H.I.E.L.D altogether.  To me this shows that they aren't afraid to tackle big, bold story themes that shake things up, and reminds me very much of comic book type story telling.

Alongside this all out action, you have an overall film feel that harks back to the spy classics of yesteryear.  With suspense, tension, and great characters alongside the action that you would come to expect from a Marvel blockbuster.  With Robert Redford in particular playing his part brilliantly.

All of this doesn't even include my two favourite elements to The Winter Soldier!

The first is the introduction of Falcon.  The MCU has introduced us to Gods, Alien Superpowers and Enhanced Super Soldiers.  The closest to a non super hero is Tony Stark.  Although a genius, playboy billionaire and creator of The Iron Man Suit isn't my idea of non super.  Even Black Widow and Hawkeye exhibit some extraordinary abilities, and if Marvel Studios decide to explore their backstories further in stand alone films, I wouldn't be surprised to find some kind of genetic modification or enhancement being introduced by way of differentiation to us mere mortals.  Falcon, however, changes all this.  Before donning his wings we first meet Falcon as Sam Wilson, jogging around The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.  Here he is repeatedly lapped by Captain America, each time Rogers calls 'on your left' to alert Wilson to his passing.  On each pass Sam gets more and more frustrated.  Catching his breath post run, we also see that Sam Wilson is not supporting the trim, muscular physique of Rogers.  From the very beginning we are shown that Sam Wilson is a man, a soldier like many others around the world.  Doing his duty in the hope of making the world a safer and more just place for us to live.  This makes his later heroics all the more special.  You don't need to be superhuman to be a hero in the MCU.

Second is the now familiar Marvel end credit sequence.  Although the word is already out that we will be seeing Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, I really like how they've been introduced at the end of The Winter Soldier.  Their captivity (at one can only assume to be the hands of Hydra) is sympathetic to their 'children of Magneto' backstories.  Is the possibility of an introduction of X-Men into the MCU too much to dream of at this point?

Captain America comes of age...

We've had the new trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier for a few days now.  In case you haven't seen it yet though, here it is...

You may notice the new outfit worn by Steve Rogers.  There was always going to be a certain amount of redesign going on for the new film.  Though for me it signifies something of a theme that I feel to be running through the trailer.

Think back to Captain America: The First Avenger with Rogers sporting the red, white and blue of his nation's flag.  Some found the film as a whole jingoistic, and whilst I'm one for finding patriotic chest beating in films nauseating (the flag against the building in The Amazing Spiderman being a prime example), if you can't do it in CAPTAIN AMERICA when can you?! 

Now back to The Winter Soldier trailer and Rogers' new outfit.  Gone are the patriotic colours, replaced by more muted, darker colours.  Only the silver star remaining across his chest.  We also have Robert Redford's character telling Rogers, "to build a better world, sometimes means tearing the old one down...and that makes enemies".  Immediately following this we cut to Nick Fury walking into a room.  This may well be a completely different scene, but add this together with several shots of Rogers looking pensive, thoughtful and uttering the line "I joined S.H.I.E.L.D to protect people" and it looks like you have Rogers considering who his enemies really are?  We know that Rogers had concerns with S.H.I.E.L.D and their development of Hydra weapons in Avengers Assemble, so we already have an element of distrust there.  Gone are the days of World War 2 when it was everyone vs. The Nazis.  The Winter Soldier I hope gives us chance to further explore the complex modern day world of technology and terrorism that Rogers now finds himself in.  A time when the enemy isn't so clearly defined.  All of this will ultimately bring to the fore the characteristic of Captain America that I love best.  He's just a man.  He remembers what it's like to be the little guy, and that's who he's trying to protect, regardless of who that puts him up against.

We haven't even said anything about The Winter Soldier himself yet!  It remains to be seen how true to the Winter Soldier storyline they keep.  The basic idea is straight forward enough to not necessarily need much tinkering with.  If you keep watching until the very end of the trailer, you'll see one thing's for certain.  The Winter Soldier is a bad ass.  In pursuit of The Winter Soldier, Captain America throws himself out of a window onto a rooftop.  He then follows it up with his signature shield throw, and The Winter Soldier simply turns round and catches it out of the air.

April 2014 can't come quick enough...