MARVEL PRESENTS CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

year: 2014 rating: *1/2

“Lotta things you don’t know about me,” Nick Fury tells Captain America… And he could also be talking to the theater audience since so far, through several films, the monotone, monologue-spouting S.H.I.E.L.D chief has been kept on the peripheral…

And now he, along with former Russian agent Natasha, can step into the co-lead spotlight, which sadly winds up casting an extremely dull glow on everyone…

Especially our hero, Steve Rogers, who literally starts out in a brisk, humorous pace and then has a bland pop culture conversation with fellow soldier Sam Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie, a forced sidekick eventually donning his winged-costume befitting a bad cartoon...

Perfectly suited for other Marvel ventures, the new character Falcon awkwardly contrasts to the gloomy plot that's part James Bond, part political thriller: The latter where Robert Redford, as a stiff-suited wolf in sheep's clothing... setting up giant drone flying machines to "protect" the country... fits like a dreary glove.  

Between spurts of bombastic action are lofty conversations about American defense, questionable freedom and glimpses into the first movie including a pointless visit to Steve's old stomping grounds… This occurs after Sam Jackson’s Fury has his very own car chase leading to the introduction of a stealthy, long-haired assassin with limitless fighting skills, equal to Captain America, and whose real identity adds to the melodrama. (Tony Stark, where are you? These people take themselves way too seriously!)

The only good parts that seem worthy of – or that were already wasted and/or spoiled on – theatrical trailers happen much too fast while the head villain’s wag-the-dog goal is not only cliché, but for a  world derived from comic book origins, and following up the cinematic spectacle that is THE AVENGERS, this uneven, uninspired SOLDIER is no fun at all...