This film marks a turning point in the MCU. All of the preceding films in this franchise were sort of gimmicky and silly but the Russos made a genuine political thriller in the superhero genre. A very intriguing concept.
There is definitely still a lot of campiness to the characters, silliness in the plot, and absurdity in the physics that require a bit of suspension of disbelief.
Steve is still a man from another time and they still give him every opportunity to be an old man, which is kind of endearing but the quippiness of it does get annoying. The best parts of this film are when he applies his rudimentary ethics, that were developed in a time of clearly defined bad guys and good guys, to the modern world. This film adopts the criticism of the war on terror that gained momentum in the US and Europe between 9/11 and the release of this film, which puts Captain America in clear contrast with Iron Man and his three "anti-terrorism" movies. This film coming out after the Snowden and Chelsea Manning leaks also gives it teeth in its criticism of mass surveillance, metadata collection, and covert war crimes.
I still don't really like the idea that a shadowy organization is behind all of the terrorism in the world. And it really doesn't make sense that Zola kept Hydra alive given the events of the first film (and how did he go from Nazi Germany to USA to USSR? Soviets were much more harsh on Nazis than America was). The real cause of turmoil in the world is Capitalism and the systems built to uphold it at any cost. But that isn't something these characters address until 6 years after this film's release.
I can handle the nonsense that comes with the concept of superheroes so long as their existence is explored in a cultural or political context. This film does that and it is very cool.
There is definitely still a lot of campiness to the characters, silliness in the plot, and absurdity in the physics that require a bit of suspension of disbelief.
Steve is still a man from another time and they still give him every opportunity to be an old man, which is kind of endearing but the quippiness of it does get annoying. The best parts of this film are when he applies his rudimentary ethics, that were developed in a time of clearly defined bad guys and good guys, to the modern world. This film adopts the criticism of the war on terror that gained momentum in the US and Europe between 9/11 and the release of this film, which puts Captain America in clear contrast with Iron Man and his three "anti-terrorism" movies. This film coming out after the Snowden and Chelsea Manning leaks also gives it teeth in its criticism of mass surveillance, metadata collection, and covert war crimes.
I still don't really like the idea that a shadowy organization is behind all of the terrorism in the world. And it really doesn't make sense that Zola kept Hydra alive given the events of the first film (and how did he go from Nazi Germany to USA to USSR? Soviets were much more harsh on Nazis than America was). The real cause of turmoil in the world is Capitalism and the systems built to uphold it at any cost. But that isn't something these characters address until 6 years after this film's release.
I can handle the nonsense that comes with the concept of superheroes so long as their existence is explored in a cultural or political context. This film does that and it is very cool.