I had the opportunity last week now working on AMHQ at The Weather Channel to go and pre-screen Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I wrote a review on it, which unfortunately, did not make the website. So I decided to post it here. No worries, there are no spoilers here. Mainly it was a technical review with an emphasis on potential weather connections. Here is the article as I submitted it below:
Let me begin by saying I am a HUGE fan of superheroes. My knowledge of the comic lore and background stories are limited to the information gathered from my comic enthusiast and the little digging I've done in the Marvel wiki. In general though, I love movies.
Captain America, The Winter Soldier was an excellent film. There are some hiccups in it just as in every film (as well as I'm sure with the details from the comic) but overall I will go see it again more than once and likely for full price. I'm always looking at the stories and how they are told as well as the graphics and as a Meteorologist, I always see when the environment or the atmosphere aren't just right, or in certain circumstances are VERY right.
I love the detail the VFX artists have done with the smoke and particle animation. When you see the S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet and the Helicarrier's propulsion systems and the interactions of smoke and anything that gets sucked through or the downdraft from them the smoke moves in an INCREDIBLY realistic way. I remembered this from the first movie and they did a great job with that. Overall the atmospherics in the film were very good. Clouds, the little bit of rain that was in there, some icing effects, all looked really good. Some of the water in portions of the climax of the film seemed just a tad off. But water is hard to render, I give a little bit of leeway there.
There was a great attention to detail in keeping Cap in the Avengers universe. Characters names, actors and technology from Iron Man 2, 3, and The Avengers all made it in there, even some items from Thor (if you look hard enough). Continuity was preserved from The First Avenger with characters and actors and locations as well which keeps the universe and the suspension of disbelief in tact.
As far as some of the other effects and editing in the film. (Let me preface this by saying, I can pick out the little things that many people may not see, its a curse). That said, I give you the warning to turn away, now, and skip to the next paragraph else you will not be able to unsee the little problems in composite editing. There's an initial flying shot of the helicarriers with Quinjets on them and there's great detail it all looks so realistic the way it was rendered, until you see the real video of people working on them. There's just something that doesn't fit, they stand out of the smoke and volumetric fog a little too much, and they are a little too clear and they look flat overall. What really freaked me out was a scene with an older woman who was being played by a younger woman. I don't know why they chose NOT to use real make-up, but it really looked like they didn't. It looked like they had an actual older woman act out this scene and THEN they added the mouth and eyes of the younger actress...it just looked REALLY wrong. Either that or they rendered out an old lady and stitched together the live action younger actresses features. It was jarring. I think there may have been some actual skydiving footage (similar to that from Iron Man 3) in some action sequences...and if not. It looked very realistic.
I have an intimate understanding of PTSD and how it affects veterans, especially those that were in the infantry, like Captain America. I appreciate the detail and the depth to which the film touches the effects of traumatic events for veterans. The film might be fictional, but the details surrounding Cap and The Falcon's PTSD are very accurate. Also they do a great job showing how hyper aware they can be particularly in the elevator scene that was released last year. Cap notices all the little details about the men getting into the elevator and correctly assesses them as a threat. Also incredibly accurate of those with military training. The weapons handling was believable as well as the types of language the military men and women used.
All in all its a great film with some continued great acting from Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson. Robert Redford portrays a prominent character and Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker, The Adjustment Bureau) does a great job as The Falcon.
My recommendation? Go see it and get lost in the Marvel Universe. #ITSAMAZINGOUTTHERE
