Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Thawed in the modern day at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger and revealed to the world to be as brave as ever in The Avengers, World War II hero Cap (Chris Evans) is now working for S.H.I.E.L.D., the super-secret, super-powerful organization of good guys. But his Greatest Generation standards of right and wrong are often a square peg in the round hole of our post-9/11 world. Case in point, the launch of a new ultimate weapon calls into question the meaning of freedom, security, and whether one must be sacrificed to preserve the other.

His concerns prove justified when a lingering 20th-century evil returns, compromising global security at its highest levels and… well, all hell rapidly breaks loose. Cap and his small band of patriots must run for their lives even as they mount a nigh-impossible plan to strike back against the shadowy foes. Chief among the sinister forces is the mysterious Winter Soldier, an enhanced assassin who’s Cap’s equal, and his identity will make a tough battle even more complicated.

Pay attention, because there are a lot of twists and surprises, and be advised that this movie will make a lot more sense and have greater impact if you’ve seen The First Avenger. The story also ties into Season One of the weekly TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (also out on Blu-ray) to an extent that no other crossover has ever attempted, successfully expanding upon the drama, tension, and paranoia of these game-changing developments.

The 2.4:1 Blu-ray image is outstandingly sharp, evident in the world-weary cragginess of certain actors’ faces. The special effects, so bold in their intentions, boast a remarkable subtlety amid their grand scale, achieving the desired verisimilitude. The color palette appears to have been deftly manipulated in post-production, with many sequences possessing a notably distinctive character of hues. Despite its digital origins, The Winter Soldier displays an inviting organic look with minimal video harshness.

The 7.1-channel soundtrack is as aggressive as this intense movie demands, with engrossing sur- round involvement for the hyper- real technology, along with one of the wildest car chases in a long while, swooping helicopters, and countless bullets. That’s in addition to the deadly missiles, fired with a gleeful disregard for our nation’s defense budget. The high resolu- tion of DTS-HD Master Audio maintains the singular ringing of Cap’s mighty shield as it whizzes through the air and clangs from speaker to speaker. The low frequencies are clean and precise, convincingly underscoring all of the old-school combat when not rattling the entire room with the copious, epic destruction!

The basic Blu-ray edition that we reviewed arrives on a single dual- layer disc, supplemented by an audio commentary featuring the directors and screenwriters, plus four deleted/extended scenes with optional commentary. There are also three featurettes, ranging from the informative to the tediously cloying, although two of them are almost laughably brief. The studio appears to have abandoned their “Marvel One-Shots,” a string of short, interrelated films released across the past five official Marvel Universe Blu-rays. With the next mega-smackdown event approaching—Avengers: Age of Ultron—I can’t help but feel that the blockbuster Winter Soldier deserved more.

As a movie and as an audio/video treat, however, this smart, serious Captain America sequel is downright heroic.

Blu-Ray
Studio: Disney, 2014
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audio Format: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
Length: 136 mins.
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo
Starring: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie