While I’ll never discount the thirst males aged 18-34 have
for seeing things blow up, the main reason Marvel’s cinematic universe has
taken such a foothold in the pop culture consciousness can be boiled down to
two main things: immaculate casting and a surprising focus on character
development. These both reached their apex for Marvel with the coup that was
Chris Evans as Captain America – with his matinee idol looks and effortless
charisma, Evans brought to life a character that seemed anachronistic at best
and outmoded at worst. What Joe Johnston did so admirably with the period piece
Captain America: The First Avenger is make the character not just
an integral part of what Marvel was trying to accomplish with their initial
wave of films, but make his old-fashioned notions of heroism and love of
country feel vital and necessary. If Robert Downey Jr.’s motor-mouthed Tony
Stark is the quippy face of the franchise, Chris Evans’ work as Steve Rogers
comprises its heart and soul.

The Avengers dealt with the ‘man unstuck in
time’ aspect of his story, save for the occasional pithy one-liner. My biggest
concern was bringing Captain America wholly into the modern age,  in an era of unmanned drone strikes and
unchecked government surveillance, that we’d drive a stake into the heart of
his patriotism. I shouldn’t have been worried. Captain America: The
Winter Soldier is a thrilling bit of pop filmmaking. It continues the
character work that caused us to fall in love with these characters in the
first place while reasserting the absolute necessity of the characters’
altruism and self-sacrifice. The rare modern picture feels breezy despite a two
hours plus running time. Taking most of its cues from the acclaimed comic book
story from Ed Brubaker’s run with the character, The Winter Soldier finds
Captain America at odds with the very military branch he’s attempting to serve.
The titular Winter Soldier proves a formidable enemy determined to wipe both he
and his compatriots (Marvel movie regulars Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders
and Scarlett Johansson all have big parts to play here) off the map entirely.

The Russo Brothers may have seemed like another left-field
choice to direct a major action franchise (their only two previous film efforts
were the small-scale comedies You, Me and Dupree and the wildly
underrated Welcome to Collinwood), but the work they’ve
accomplished on the small screen while cutting their teeth on such critically
acclaimed comedies such as Community and Arrested
Development proves a perfect match here. A sense of levity allows what
could’ve proven relentlessly grim to become fantastically entertaining. More
surprising, though, is their deft handling of the film’s numerous action
sequences, creating the most polished mayhem seen yet in a Marvel picture.
These sequences escalate logically and feature brutal fight choreography – this
sets the bar high for not only future Marvel movies but also summer action
blockbusters full stop. This is also the widest cast of characters outside of The
Avengers that any one film has had to deal with, and instead of feeling
overstuffed, the Russos allowed each their own moment to shine (we finally get
to see Sam Jackson’s Nick Fury do something other than glower and stand in
corners). It even allows for the introduction of Anthony Mackie as new ally,
Sam Wilson, who integrates into the proceedings wonderfully, having a different
chemistry with the leads than we’ve seen to this point.

The superhero genre is here to stay at this point, but
instead of feeling abject dread at this costumed takeover, Winter Soldier
suggests an infinitely malleable canvas that could keep evolving for Marvel for
years to come. This is a paranoid thriller that speaks to our modern unease
that also features giant airships blowing each other out of the sky, without
any cognitive dissonance generated by combining these elements. It’s summer
filmmaking that entertains and also deepens our connection to these characters
while allowing newcomers to step into the universe with relative ease. If only
all big budget filmmaking could prove as effortlessly entertaining, our summers
would look a whole lot brighter every year.