I realised I didn’t mention the wonderful ladies featured in the movie. And they do deserve the mention. 100%.
“Captain America: the Winter Soldier” may have amazingly interesting and powerful male characters, whose brilliant presence alone would catch audience’s undivided focus. Including Nick Fury and Alexander Pierce, and YES even that friendly but perhaps not so alert customer service guy in the computer store. ^_^ And perhaps also the almost “indestructible” being in the computer (I won’t be surprised if “it” appeared again somewhere in the next Marvel movie instalment).
However, after I finished writing, re-writing and editing and re-editing the previous post, I realised I have completely omitted the presence of the following amazing ladies, whose presence in the film, made BIG DIFFERENCE to the storyline. I am not a feminist (I am Homo Sapient female), but I am a believer in everybody (regardless of gender) having their special roles to play in this big wide world. And these ladies, were good at what they were supposed to do. Of course the actresses depicting these roles did great jobs, but I want to highlight the roles the female characters play in the movie itself. Since I couldn’t figure the way to talked about these ladies in the previous post, I am going to have a new post for them.
YES I am being long-winded here also to make sure any readers who have ventured their way here, know that there would be spoilers, and won’t get to see them without warning.
I know that in the previous post I warned about COMPLETE spoilers but actually for those who have seen the movie, they would know what I am talking about, but for those who have not, would be “disappointed” to find that the spoilers weren’t that “complete” after all. That’s because by nature I hate spoilers……so even while I want to be truly explicit, I actually couldn’t bring myself to do that……well, that being said, there are still SPOILERS ahead. LIke one review that I have read on this film, it is almost impossible to talk about the merit of this movie, without any spoilers.
=====SPOILER ALERT=====
BLACK WIDOW
Who can forget or ignore such dynamic presence, oh dear Natasha aka Black Widow.
She is a warrior, a kind of modern day Xena who doesn’t need any sidekick or Hercules, who is to me quite a loner probably because she had too many secrets, and because she has such realistic insight into human nature (I super love the scene when she replied the questioning with such fortitude and clarity of logical thinking near the end of the movie). Only the handful of people who knew her true background can truly understand her. Perhaps that’s why she showed the most urgency and anxiety when Nick Fury was about to die. After all, Nick really knew her. My eyes were fixed on her, her expression and desperate hope for Nick to stay alive, changed the way I view Natasha. At that moment, she became Natasha to me, not just Black Widow.
Another moment that moved me, was when she questioned Steve whether he would trust her to save his life. Natasha actually desired and needed friends. And to be trusted, must mean a lot to her, for she had been so exposed to espionage and betrayal. After Steve saved her life more than once, she might be opening the door to her inner circle to him, so his trust would be precious to her. And good thing he answered her positively. Then they became truly ONE TEAM, with Falcon and Agent Maria Hill, fighting the MONSTERS (both the super aircraft carriers with super horrible WMD in the truest sense of the term, and the ORGANISATION).
When she chose to reveal her identities along side all secrets related to the S.H.I.E.L.D., she did it seemingly without hesitation. When she was asked whether she was really willing to blow all her covers and reveal all her dark past, she simply threw the question back at the person who actually has more to lose and more to fear. This is real courage, girl! I am imagining Natasha thinking, “I am going to do what I will do, even at the expense of getting myself into trouble, so that you would not succeed at world dominion and mass massacre!”
In this respect, we see that Steve is not really the only one who insisted on following his rigid principles about what’s right and what’s wrong. Natasha, has her brand of justice and what’s right, and she also would give no qualms about following them through, with actions. I remembered she mentioned in the movie that she joined the S.H.I.E.L.D. for noble reason (memory too bad to remember exact words, probably I really should watch the movie again).
Natasha is not just sexy and charismatic in this movie, she has developed into a 3 dimensional believable character that the audience can empathise with. She is one big reason why “Captain America: the Winter Soldier” is not the usual run of the mill superhero movie, but a movie that rings true, and reflects real life a lot (of course no one can over-emphasis Steve Roger’s role in the movie, his great heart, dignity, loyalty, steadfastness……I do really respect him as can be seen in the previous post). Natasha, you are a tender heart covered in armour, and a true warrior on the side of human decency and kindness.
Regarding Natasha’s insistent recommendations of potential love interests for Steve, I actually suspect that Natasha had a crush for him (sorry Hawkeye). It is almost like she’s waiting for him to reply, “Stop that already, Nat, the person I hope you would recommend is YOURSELF!”
Perhaps she finds his consistent integrity highly appealing. For she of all people, would understand how rare, precious and important that is. When one has seen too much rain, sunshine would become so desirable, the reverse would be true too.
MARIA HILL
Agent Hill, without you, the entire operation would actually FAIL.
I didn’t expect her to be so important. I finally understood why when Nick Fury thought of her and wanted to meet her asap when he encountered troubling incidents. If she wasn’t around, who would help staged Nick Fury’s fake death? If she wasn’t alert enough and somehow managed to infiltrate into the enemy’s camp, how would she set Steve, Natasha and Sam free? If she wasn’t around, the last confrontation would be completely impossible. And WOW wasn’t she cool in co-ordinating the mission while at the same time shooting off the enemy with no great difficulty! Her actions were so fluid in that scene that I really really took my hat off her. It was so COOL, that to me it outshine the others’ cool feats. That was because I didn’t expect that of her (well, I mustn’t forget that Nick had his share of fantastic action scenes too, really impressive and fitting for the Head of the S.H.I.E.L.D.).
AGENT 13
Ah……when I watched the movie, I didn’t know you are Sharon CARTER! Yes the last name is significant.
Okay, so even Agents need to get their clothes washed. And I thought you were just a nurse, a neighbour who might very well become Mrs Captain America, or at least have a few dates with him. Who would expect you to be an agent protecting him? (Protecting HIM? PROTECTING him?)
When the final call was made to choose sides, not knowing the stories of the original comic series, I was really worried that Agent 13 aka Sharon would actually be from the enemy’s camp. Can’t blame me for thinking this, because the movie has featured so many twists already…of course I can’t help being suspicious of everybody…and after all Nick did say, “Don’t trust anyone.”
I was super glad to see her pulling out her gun to protect the brave computer tech guy who dared to obey “Captain’s order”. Boy, was I relieved! Fancy how I felt when I googled about her character and found out that she was actually PEGGY CARTER’S niece! Well…some unpleasant storyline came with the google results too…
PEGGY CARTER
Peggy, you will always be special, for Captain America aka Steve Rogers, and for viewers of the first 2 CA movies.
If you haven’t watch the first instalment of Captain America, you would still know that Peggy Carter is someone very very special to Steve Rogers. The short scene in the second movie of CA between the still young looking Steve and the aged Peggy in her 90s, was touching, heart-wrenching, bitter-sweet, romantic and yet tragic. If you have watched the first instalment, of course you’d understand even more.
That scene was poignant. Initially Peggy seemed to have full knowledge of how CA came back from his ice tomb. When she told him that when he doesn’t know what to do, the best thing is to go back to the beginning (exact words completely forgotten), and she being one of the founders of the S.H.I.E.L.D. and his first love, carried a lot of weight. He indeed had to go back to the origin, not of the S.H.I.E.L.D., but to the premise of why in the very beginning the S.H.I.E.L.D. was set up. No matter what were the origin motives, it definitely wouldn’t be the S.H.I.E.L.D. that has evolved through the years till it became the organization we saw in the movie.
But the next moment, the surprising twist……of Peggy suddenly realised that Steve is indeed BACK, revealed that though still alive and occasionally alert and has her memory intact, Peggy might be suffering from dementia. It was really heart-breaking to see how she was shocked to see Steve back (after conversing with him when she KNEW how he came back), and to see Steve’s shocked reactions……
Enough said……this is heart-breaking……the dance that never came to pass.
客里思天 