The latest Marvel movie, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier“, hit theaters April 4, and has grossed just over $96 million in the film’s opening weekend.
In theaters for just a couple of days and obviously doing well domestically, the film has also already topped $300 million worldwide, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The entertainment publication names the Captain America sequel as the “top April opening of all time.”
We first met the Captain when Marvel and Disney brought the super-solider from comic book pages to the big screen in “Captain America: The First Avenger ” (2011).
Captain America is sometimes described as a little boring compared to the other Marvel superheroes, but in this flick the action is bigger than the first one. If you like action, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with this movie, given that the plot rarely goes 10 minutes without some sort of action sequence. One of the best sequences happens when the captain takes on a group of men trying to arrest him in an elevator. Brothers and directors of the film, Anthony and Joe Russo, successfully build tension as more and more men get on to the elevator. An action sequence in such a confined space creates one of the most memorable moments of the movie.
Captain America, played by Chris Evans, was originally set during the 1940s with the United States fighting in World War II against an evil organization called HYDRA, a similar group to the Nazi party.
This narrative is continued in the sequel, but takes place in present day. The Captain sets off on missions for SHIELD, the secret government agency he works for. Once the super-soldier finds out that the organization is corrupt, the film goes on the exciting journey of how they will defeat the new-found antagonists or of course, millions of people will die.
The film stars movie veterans like Robert Redford, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson and Anthony Mackie. Viewers will remember Jackson and Johansson from previous installments of the Marvel Comic movies, but Redford and Mackie are new to the franchise. Redford plays a new leader for SHIELD and Mackie joins the cast as a new wingman for Captain America.
Overall the movie—like most Marvel films—combines comedy, action and romance to make a pretty decent movie. Though it lasts for over two hours, you won’t be disappointed if you make a trip to the theaters to see this film.
The next Captain America is set to be released in 2016, but fans of the super-solider will see him next summer in the sequel to “The Avengers” (2012), “Avengers: Age of Ultron“, which hits theaters May 2015.
