Brand new Captain America story from the MCU, I’m here for it. I was a bit confused by the slightly blurry black and white “Marvel Studios presents” opening screen that replaced the bright red Marvel Studios animation that ran clips from all the previous movies. But just like The Falcon & The Winter Soldier TV/Streaming series, they jumped right from the black and white title card into an action sequence with Sam Wilson as the winged Captain America taking down a whole squad of bad guys. I wonder if the whole MCU thing, celebrating the past movies, is now gone and this is a totally new thing. It very much felt that way.

I don’t know, I’m not a comic book guy, but I loved the movies because they told stories about flawed humans, usually with extraordinary “powers,” having to find a way to do the right thing, at the same time not taking themselves so seriously that they couldn’t laugh at how ridiculous the situation often was. I know some very vocal fans hated the Falcon & the Winter Soldier. I wonder what things were changed in the story from what they wanted to tell because of things like the COVID restrictions and changing deadlines that seemed to curtail some storylines. 

I love that the series writers told the story of Isaiah Bradley, a Korea War era veteran whom the government did super soldier experiments on and then put in prison for 30-years to hide what they’d done and how that treatment echoed Sam Wilson’s struggle to assume the Captain America mantle, knowing how poorly much of the country would react to a Black Captain America. I thought that was an important story to tell.

The movie acknowledges the challenges and begins with the problem that former General, now President, Ross had with the Avengers and Sam Wilson as the new Captain America. I do wonder how the movie might have been different if the late William Hurt had survived to play the role one more time (last seen being outsmarted by Scarlet Johansson’s Black Widow in the 2021 prequel). But if you can’t have William Hurt, there isn’t anyone who can play “cranky” better than Harrison Ford. 

Besides Ford, there were a lot of new faces to deal with and not that many familiar faces from previous Marvel adventures. Is this one of those movie budget problems that Deadpool was always wisecracking about in his movies. I get that the Avengers have long since disbanded, but you’d think when the shit hit the fan that someone would pop out of the woodwork to help out ol’ Sam and his young sidekick and chatter mouth tech-expert, Joaquin Torres. I mean, as much as Red Hulk is all over the movie poster and previews one would hope that the old green dude would make a noisy appearance. 

I enjoyed the adventure and there were some great moments between Sam, Torres and Isaiah Bradley. They kind of sped through whatever the issue was between Ross and his daughter. More time could have been spent there and more time with Ross’s anger issues and whether he really was trying to be a “better person.” Not bad, but I do miss when the movie was about all of the players and not just what looks like a solo adventure. Enjoy. 

[Movie viewed 2925-02-18 at Orleans Cinemark]

Also, in honor of the movie I built the following BrickHeadz:

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Tags: Captain America, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Marvel Cinematic Universe, modern mythology, video Wednesdays 

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