Captain America: The Winter Soldier Blu-ray 3D Review

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Blu-ray 3D Review

Released on September 9, 2014 by Disney/Buena Vista

Movie: 4.5/5

It has been two years since the battle in New York where The Avengers faced their biggest threat yet. The memory of it, however, has not faded much, leaving a sense of fear and insecurity in the leaders of S.H.I.E.L.D. Thus it has not sat idly by. We see that in that time a section of S.H.I.E.L.D. has instead been working quietly, but steadily, on the biggest weapon the world has ever seen. 

The movie wastes no time at all, and in the opening moments Captain Steve Rogers (a.k.a Captain America) and Natasha Romanoff (a.k.a Black Widow), along with S.T.R.I.K.E., are seen being dropped off on a ship to save the original passengers who are being held hostage by terrorists. S.T.R.I.K.E. is a subsection of S.H.I.E.L.D. focused on preventing and dealing with terrorism. The ship belongs to S.H.I.E.L.D. While they are taking down the terrorists one-by-one, Captain Rogers stumbles upon agent Romanoff downloading information off the ship’s system. Seconds later they are attacked, but Captain Rogers does not forget the incident. 

Once they have successfully recovered the ship and gone back home Captain Rogers goes straight to Nick Fury, wanting to know why he was not fully briefed on all of the team’s missions, after all he was supposed to be in charge of the operation. Nick informs him that it is important to compartmentalize information. No one person should know everything about S.H.I.E.L.D., except for him. This way if anything goes terribly wrong in S.H.I.E.L.D., at least some information will be contained. Nick takes him somewhere into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s headquarters and reveals to him what they have been working on: three Helicarriers have been created and are just being finished. A Helicarrier is a massive vehicle carrying the best and most efficient weapons. All three are controlled via spy satellites and are to target and eliminate threats before they even attack. Also, all three are to be deployed in a few days. 

Captain Rogers is stunned at the sudden position of offense S.H.I.E.L.D. has taken upon the world, saying the people are not supposed to live under fear, but live in freedom. That is why he joined S.H.I.E.L.D., and that is why he decided to become Captain America. Suffice it to say Nick is not persuaded in the least, and Captain Rogers leaves wondering what he should do, or if to do anything at all, about his current responsibilities as a S.H.I.E.L.D. member. Then we see Nick Fury trying to access the data agent Romanoff acquired from their mission, but all of his access privileges have seemingly been revoked. Suspicious, he delays the launch of the Helicarriers. Then he calls agent Maria Hill and asks her to rendezvous with him. While driving he is suddenly attacked by assailants which appear to be various members of law enforcement. As he seems to be escaping a mysterious man with a mask and a metallic arm appears in front of him and explodes Nick’s vehicle: The Winter Soldier.

From then on Captain Rogers and agent Romanoff are thrown into a series of twists and turns where they have no idea who to trust and who is behind Nick’s attack. While investigating these events they stumble upon a conspiracy that has been brewing for decades, and they realize the mortal danger the whole world will be in if those Helicarriers are launched. They enlist the help of newcomer Sam Wilson (a.k.a. Falcon), and together they risk everything to try and stop their deployment. 

From the very start all the way to end, Captain America: The Winter Soldier features incredible action, including many different kinds of action pieces: from gun fights, to explosions, to car chases, to hand-to-hand combat, to battles in the air. Captain America: TWS seems to have included every kind of stand-off between good and evil, with most, if not all, making for top-tier suspenseful and exhilarating sequences to watch and experience. 

However, that is not all. It is also good at keeping the story moving and making it interesting. We also get to see more into the personal lives of Captain America and Black Widow. Both make a good team, and it is only improved when Falcon comes into action as well. The performances are all good, and it is nice to see Chris Evans improve his acting with each movie. Scarlet is great as Black Widow, I can not see anyone else playing this character. Anthonie Mackie (Falcon) is a welcome addition as he provides for some comic relief and entertaining dialogue which only enhances the fun of the film. Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Redford are also good, but that is just expected knowing their history as actors. Cobie Smulders (agent Maria Hill) and Frank Grillo (Brock Rumlow) both have shorter screen time, but the time they do get is not wasted, and I feel (mild spoilers:) Rumlow might come back later on even if he has just appeared in this film (end of mild spoilers). The only weak spot I encountered in the film was in the conspiracy theory. While it makes complete sense, I felt the story was hitting our suspension-of-disbelief a bit more than it should have. However, this is the only complaint, and even while knowing the story the movie has plenty of replay value. 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier only builds upon the already great Marvel Cinematic Universe. While not perfect, it is definitely pretty high up there, and I do think it is better than The Avengers, if only a little at least. After watching Guardians of the Galaxy (three times so far btw, and best Marvel film so far), I can not wait to see how The Avengers: Age of Ultron will turn out. With the addition of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch it can only become better; and although Disney is really making it harder upon themselves to top each previous Marvel film with the new one, they have been doing it successfully so far. Let us hope they can keep doing this and stop at the right time before it starts to become bad. 

Picture Quality: 5/5

3D Quality: 4/5

The film is presented in the film’s wide, and original, format (2.40:1) and it features a mostly bleak atmosphere with a lot of “steely” colors. Shades of grey and blue are the most common. However, it also contains some reds and other vivid colors which are presented accurately. I am 99% percent sure the movie went through some color grading to keep the intended bleak look, so to see that these vivid colors (as well as skin tones) are presented with accuracy is appreciable. Detail ranges from excellent to great and I did not spot any digital artifacts. Even with so many scenes featuring a mix of CGI and camera-captured footage the video quality is outstanding. 

This blu-ray version has the additional disc that contains the 3D version of the movie. The film was converted to 3D in post-production, but thankfully it is a good conversion overall. Even in the big action sequences the 3D is good, if not better. Missiles and debris pop-out of the frame without being distracting, while depth (things that seem to be “inside” the frame) are the focus, and rightly so since a film with too much pop-out would only become gimmicky and distracting. Although the added dimension is not as awesome as say Titanic (which in my opinion seems like it was natively shot in 3D, and which even looks better than some natively-shot 3D movies), it is still good and provides more immersion into the movie. The only weakness in the 3D were some scenes with wide and large backgrounds where the depth was not entirely convincing and seemed a little forced. 

Sound Quality: 5/5

Captain America: TWS’ 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is pure demo material. From beginning to end the film features an extensive array of sounds with different dynamic ranges. Explosions and gun shots are clear and have great fidelity. Hits, crashes, punches, all sound realistic and not overdone. Voices are never drowned in all the action and stay clear always. Sequences of subtler moments are not overlooked either: in the offices and halls the speakers keep busy with atmospherics and other effects to accurately represent these settings. Really, I do not see what else I could say,  it is excellent in every aspect. It gave quite a workout to my system, in a good way. Perfect sound all around. 

Special Features: 3/5

Special features come in short, but with one that is pretty substantial. This is an audio commentary by the directors and screenwriters. It is actually very interesting and is kept relevant throughout. The other ones are a couple of behind-the-scenes that are both short, along with a few deleted scenes (only about 4 minutes in total), “Steve Rogers Notebook” , and a gag reel. 

Overall: 5/5

This is a must own for just about anybody. Unless you despise action movies and/or comic book adaptations, I do not see how anyone could not enjoy this movie at least somewhat. The action is off the charts without becoming repetitive or exhausting. The story is interesting and moves at a fast pace. The acting is good all around and it is nice to get more character development from these heroes, especially Black Widow. Another great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe that is sure to please fans and just about anybody that enjoys movies. Technical merits come in the form of a perfect transfer (both audio and picture quality) with the 3D conversion ranging from good to great. The only drawback overall would be a lack of more special features, but since all the other attributes are great, they more than make up for it. Again, a must own.  

Note: the screen captures of the blu-ray above should not be taken to be good representatives of the quality of the transfer as they have a lower resolution than the blu-ray, they are compressed, and in motion it may look different.