Captain America doesn’t really have any super powers. He’s a super soldier, armed with a shield that doubles as a boomerang frisbee. His agility, strength, healing and endurance abilities make him slightly more difficult to kill than you or I, but let’s face the facts… he’s a G.I. Joe at a fancy dress party.

Chris Evans plays Steve Rogers, the soldier turned superhero, also known as Captain America. He’s a solid actor, and has the physique and chiseled looks to play a superhero. Unfortunately, his icy disposition is enough to make Tom Cruise warm and cuddly by contrast. The first Captain America movie suffered for it’s lack of charm and while talented, Chris Evans is only human. We could blame the cryogenic freezing, the time warp or even the movie subtitle, The Winter Soldier, but there’s no escaping the actor’s cooler-than-ice nature.

You, Me and Dupree directors, Anthony and Joe Russo, are probably not the first people you’d approach to direct a superhero film. With a mostly TV comedy directorial background and a so-so feature film track record, the sequel still seemed like a bit of a long shot. This, despite the experienced screenwriting team of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, behind Thor: Dark World, Captain America: The First Avenger and many other action-fantasy films.

Being another superhero sequel, about a Wednesday superhero, casting a steely-eyed lead, relying on Michael Bay’s “low budget” screenwriters and the directors who brought us You, Me and Dupree, you can understand how most people were pleasantly surprised when Captain America: The Winter Soldier passed all expectations.

The sequel to Captain America is a step up from the original and essentially functions, in Anthony Mackie’s words, as “Avengers 1.5”. Chris Evans works better as part of a team, as demonstrated in The Avengers, and the film-makers have added some serious star quality to Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s ensemble by reprising more substansial roles for co-stars, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.

“You know we could be related, right?”

Johansson’s on top of her game at the moment, both in terms of acting and celebrity. She brings with her a wave of star quality and sassy charm as Black Widow, giving Steve Rogers a run for his money and fans an another dollop of sexy, cool, melt-in-your-mouth Scarlett. Then, the undisputed king of f-bombs, Samuel L. Jackson, finally gets a chance to be more than a figurehead and mascot for S.H.I.E.L.D. He throws his weight into a critical role and gets some reasonable screen time in the process.

The cast is reinforced by Robert Redford in a tip of the hat to Three Days of the Condor, a pivotal role for Anthony Mackie, a welcome Marvel debut for How I Met Your Mother’s Cobie Smulders, a first-class henchman in Frank Grillo and a wish-it-was-Jared-Leto-but-he-also-rocks performance from Sebastian Stan.

As we’ve come to expect from an estimated $170 million budget, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, is visually spectacular and jam-packed with cool weapons technology, epic action set pieces and lavish production values. In an effort to keep visual integrity, the Russo brothers opted to use CGI as sparingly as possible. There’s still plenty of CGI eye candy, but this commitment just adds weight to a sequel that really tries to stay as grounded in reality as possible.

This respect for reality is one of the film’s cornerstones, building extensions on proven science and technology to keep the action in our realm of experience. This aspect adds gravity to the star-spangled superhuman, whose man-on-the-run story often features him as a shield-bearing Steve Rogers, with the most fantastic elements of celebrated costume super soldier and time capsule warrior already part of his museum-certified past. It’s easier to relate to this old-fashioned, yet celebrated army hero living in a modern world.

“I feel more like a Charlie’s Angel than a Hell’s Angel.”

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is surprisingly funny, throwing a number of jokes relating to Steve Rogers catching up with the future and his superhuman-living-among-humans status. It plays a lot like a comic book, leveraging a well-balanced blend of pulpy comedy and thrilling superhero action to great effect. The writing keeps the man-on-the-run from authorities plot taut and the characters grounded with free-flowing entertainment value.

While Captain America has about as much charm as RoboCop, a strong team effort pulls this sequel though its paces with great imagination, memorable scenes, solid acting and fluid storytelling. The star-spangled soldiering, the advanced weaponry and the bravado… makes Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the sort of film the G.I. Joe franchise would have loved to make. Instead of Cobra, it’s Hydra… and each of the super soldier characters would have been right at home as G.I. Joe regulars.

Despite it’s team-orientated G.I. Joe and Avengers influences, this is still a Captain America movie and a terrific follow-up to Captain America: The First Avenger. Steve Rogers may not have any real super powers, but this smart sequel’s secret weapon as one car manufacturer (ironically, not Chevrolet) would put it… is the power to surprise.

The bottom line: Enthralling

Release date: 28 March, 2014
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