By Bob Garver<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/cap-america-218x300.jpg\" "\\"cap")
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Regular readers know that I\u2019m usually quick to attack Captain America. I argue that he got his powers from taking questionable injections and I consider him a glorified steroid case. I can\u2019t do that with \u201cCaptain America: The Winter Soldier.\u201d Injections can\u2019t make our hero so tactical or incorruptible or handy with a shield. So already things are looking up.<\/p>\n
The new film finds Captain America a.k.a. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans, at his most charming) carrying out various missions for spy\/superhero agency S.H.I.E.L.D. Good old S.H.I.E.L.D, they\u2019ve been a dependable home base for The Avengers since 2008. That\u2019s all about to change, as the agency has been compromised by evil organization HYDRA. There are undercover bad guys left and right, and this possibly includes senior leader Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford). I suppose it\u2019s just as well; doesn\u2019t it seem like the good guys have a bit of an unfair advantage with a huge organization like S.H.I.E.L.D. backing them up?<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Captain America does have some help, including fellow Avenger Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). I\u2019ve often said that Black Widow deserves her own movie, and she still does, but at least she\u2019s all over this one. We also get a new hero in Falcon (Anthony Mackie), a hang-gliding master who can, for all intents and purposes, fly. And it wouldn\u2019t be an Avengers movie without an appearance by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the mysterious S.H.I.E.L.D. director who warns Captain America not to trust anybody right before he is neutralized by a HYDRA assassin known as The Winter Soldier.<\/p>\n
The film goes to great lengths to keep The Winter Soldier\u2019s identity a secret for as long as it can, which I found a strange move. The implication is that it\u2019s some sort of familiar character. But \u201cCaptain America: The First Avenger\u201d mostly took place in the 1940s, so everyone Rogers knew from that era should be either dead or really, really old. Maybe it\u2019s someone left over from one of the other \u201cAvengers\u201d films or a debuting character from the Marvel universe? When the character\u2019s identity is revealed, you\u2019ll understand why the film built it up as a big surprise.<\/p>\n
HYDRA wants to take over the world with a device that can target and eliminate large groups of people based on biographical snippets. The message is supposed to be that we shouldn\u2019t be so accepting of the government collecting personal information and that a world under constant surveillance isn\u2019t really free. This is the wrong movie for that kind of message. Why take it seriously when the consequence presented is an unrealistic doomsday machine?<\/p>\n
The action scenes are about as fine as you\u2019ll see in an \u201cAvengers\u201d movie. The fighting is crisp and the editing isn\u2019t distracting. Unique to this film are the many creative uses for Captain America\u2019s shield. My favorite is whenever he builds up momentum, hops on it, and uses it as a sort of street-sled. I just wish there was a scene set in the snow so he could use it as an actual sled. You\u2019d think that a film with \u201cWinter\u201d in its title would have at least one scene like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaptain America: The Winter Soldier\u201d is one of the better \u201cAvengers\u201d movies. Captain America has become a more likeable hero and the film provides some much-needed development for Black Widow and Nick Fury. The story does seem a little routine at times, but the film makes up for it by promising that the routine is about to change. If nothing else, the film serves to prove that Captain America deserves his spot in The Avengers.<\/p>\n
Two and a Half Stars out of Five.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaptain America: The Winter Soldier\u201d is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, gunplay and action throughout. Its running time is 136 minutes.<\/p>\n