Action over content

Captain America: The Winter Soldier 3D’ is the ninth installment of the Captain America series and is said to be a sequel to ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ and like all Marvel Studio/ Comics (remember Captain Marvel and his bettanoir Sivana!) it resorts to visual fantasy in an age of miracles with jingoism as part and parcel of the process. To start with Captain America Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) runs into his former counsellor Sam Wilson alias Falcon (Anthony Mackie) who gets him to come back to the espionage game he knows so well.

They work for an agency called S.H.I.E.L.D..s (whatever it stands for) but while rescuing the crew of an Algerian vessel attacked by pirates Rogers/America joins forces with Natasha Romanoff alias Black Widow (Scarlett Johanssen) already on one of her secret missions. There is also S.H.I.E.L.D.s director Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford with a probable facelift) who proves to be a dicey customer and agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) provides feminine relief. There’s Nick Fury (Samuel L .Jackson) who’s lost an eye in action and lest we forget the Winter Soldier of the title James Buckey Barnes (Sebastian Stans) whose old self is frozen in time and a new identity provided to complete the platter.

Now in this anything’s-possible scenario we have king-size aircraft/vessels built for speed, men who sprout wings and fly at will and falling humans (falling or thrown off skyscrapers) being quickly rescued. There is also some mumbo-jumbo of brains being computerized after a person is dead. Action is the name of the game and we have bursts of them with Rogers eliminating over half a dozen adversaries in a lift, though how he enters it is a mystery. To balance the action are attempts at humour like this one Question: Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Answer: If they shoot at you they are the bad guys. Ha ha.

The Russo brothers Anthony and Joe have a whale of a time orchestrating this magnified puppet show but it is Trent Opaloch who catches the eye with some caressing camerawork. In a film of this nature acting is a minor prop. Chris Evans in the lead role goes through the motions and the blonde Scarlett Johanssen apart from being easy on the eye delivers some witty lines. Anthony Mackie and Samuel L Jackson get their regular cameo space in this more sound than fury entertainer.