Review: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) *Spoiler Free*

Review: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) Spoiler Free

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier One Sheet

I've seen a few reviews of Marvel Studios, Disney+ series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, where the reviewer's have said that Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson, A.K.A The Falcon was perfectly fine with accepting Captain America's shield at the conclusion of Avengers, Endgame, but he wasn't.

He clearly wasn't going to turn down the shield from his now very aged looking friend, Steve Rogers. He definitely accepted it with clear doubts about himself being the right choice. Hence his exchange at the time...

Old Steve Rogers : How does it feel?

Sam Wilson : Like it's someone else's.

Old Steve Rogers : It isn't.

Sam Wilson : Thank you. I'll do my best.

He wasn't dancing around, and over the moon to receive Cap's shield. He really didn't have the time, in that moment, to properly consider the implications.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is the jumping off point for Sam to really start thinking about whether he is really the right person to step in for Steve and carry the Captain America mantle forward.

If you're a fan of the Captain America movies, (basically any of the MCU movies with Captain America in them), then this series is almost a seamless continuation of the film's story arc for the key supporting characters, Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, Sharon Carter, and Baron Zemo, kicking off not too long after the events of Endgame.

Key to the series is the strained relationship between Sam and Bucky, who are somewhat forced to work together when an emerging terrorist group, the Flag Smashers, appears to be led by Super Soldiers. If you liked Sam and Bucky's brief ambivalence toward each other during the films then you get plenty of that here, and it's fun to watch.

While the series is only six episodes, each ranging from 47-57 minutes long, the series packs a lot in, building up its title characters into more well rounded individuals, and expanding on supporting characters in unexpected ways.

Daniel Brühl's, Baron Zemo is a particular highlight with his philosophical outlook that challenges Sam along the way. I'd say he's better in this series than he was in Captain America Civil War.

There are some great action sequences of the same level and quality you'd find in any of the Marvel movies. It never gets old watching Falcon in a fight. Like Captain America and his Shield, Falcon and his wings are just fascinating to watch. The way he incorporates his wings in battle, beyond just flying, brings a uniqueness that no other Marvel hero can emulate.

If you're all about the action then this series can be a little slow and 'talky' in some episodes. Which does give a few pacing issues from episode to episode. Personally I like all the 'talky' stuff. There's much character development (particularly Sam's home life) and political posturing that echos what we saw in Captain America, The Winter Soldier. It's a similar vibe to that film.

Unlike WandaVision there aren't as many twist and turns to keep you guessing, and it's not too hard to know how this series ends as it unfolds. However the real enjoyment is the journey. You may see the ending a mile off but how we get there is totally engaging. Not unlike a standard Marvel movie.

The series only miss step for me was in Emily VanCamp's Sharon Carter story arc. It's not that I didn't like it, I just don't think we get nearly enough time with her to understand some of the choices she makes.

Personally I like the character and what they tried to do with her but, as I said earlier, the series is trying to pack in so much. Sharon's character arc definitely suffers as a result. She's clearly had, arguably, the most interesting journey of the four continuing characters since the events of Endgame, yet we only get glimpses of where she's at and how she got there.

Overall I enjoyed The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. While WandaVision had me guessing more from week to week, Falcon told a much more relatable story that seems very reflective of today's world. It does get political with themes around racism and government ineptitude but it also has a lot of heart, family, and community themes that keep it grounded in the real world.

It may as well be an MCU movie. Don't not watch it just because it isn't. We're really fortunate to get this deeper dive into Sam and Bucky's world that the movies just haven't been able to explore.

Comments

Movie Review: Memory (2023)

S omething a little different for me in terms of movies I usually review, Memory is a film I was invited along to see by my partner, and both of us didn't know much about the movie going in, other than it was a film where one of the leads has dementia. The basic premise follows adult, special needs social worker, Sylvia (Jessica Chastain), who leads a simple and structured life. When Saul (Peter Sarsgaard) follows her home from their high school reunion the surprise encounter profoundly impacts both of their lives. The film starts out very awkward and disjointed to some degree, which I feel is intentional, to reflect that Sylvia, who is also a struggling single mother, is fairly resilient, she is, in many ways, just barely holding everything together because she doesn't have any other option. When Saul sees Sylvia at their high school reunion it seems like some unpleasant memories from her past are fast tracked into the forefront of her life, and things move forward fro...

TV Series Review: Velma (2023-2024) No Spoilers

A s a kid, Scooby Doo cartoons were something I used to watch fairly regularly. I wasn't a diehard fan but it was one of the better, of the many, cartoons I used to watch. I had heard about the new animated series, Velma , around the time of its release but it wasn't coming out on any streaming service I was subscribed to so it went off my radar pretty quickly. Quite by chance I signed up to a streaming service so I could watch DC Entertainment's, The Penguin, and noticed Velma was on that platform. I figured I may as well get my money's worth out of the subscription. I did know that Velma, herself, had been race swapped for the show, which made no real difference to me, though I do prefer classic Velma if pushed to choose. However the first episode of season one was a real shock to my expectations! No where had I heard this series was skewing very much into adult humor and themes. I was expecting something more along the lines of the original Scooby Doo show. Instead I...

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices. My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe? Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...

TV Series Review: The Office - Australia (Prime Video) (2024) No Spoilers

W hile I'm a late comer fan of The Office, only watching after the original and USA versions were both available on streaming services, I did watch them in the order of release i.e. I watched the U.K. version first. Now, with the release of the Australian version of The Office on Prime Video, I think it's best to approach watching this new version understanding that it is not those shows. More importantly, remembering the US version was not well received or as popular as it has become since streaming became a thing. I personally remember people often saying the original version was better, back in the day. Of course, the Australian version has analogues for all the same characters you're familiar with from the previous versions, with their characteristics, so you can easily see who is the Aussie version of each character. While there are actually 13 different adaptations of the series worldwide, I was surprised to learn this is the first time the boss has been female. No...

Social Media: It's All Fake News - Even That News You Shared, That Proves the Thing, Because It's Backed Up By a Credible Expert, is Fake.

Social Media profiles need a peer based rating system that locks you out for 30 days if your feed is one long stream of depressing boredom that bums everyone out. I don't watch or read the news anymore (mainstream or otherwise). From time to time, if something filters through that piques my interest, I'll take a bit of a dive to find out more. The recent US election is a good example. I even wrote a few opinion pieces in this blog. The Daily Show Is Not News Note that I don't count The Daily Show as news, because I did watch quite a lot of that during the US election. While they lean quite a bit toward the left overall, it's not a show you look to for context, since much of their humor is based on reframing context to get a laugh. The one thing The Daily Show does well is highlight how both Liberal and Right wing media latch onto one or two bullet point messages each day and run them through the mouths of every on screen commentator like they're all wind up parro...

Trump's 2024 Election Win Will Change Everything - At Least I Sure Hope It Does!

Trump by Leonardo.ai & TET A s an outsider looking in on the US 2024 election, right up until election day, it is beyond my belief that the election continued to be a 'close race'. It is even further beyond my belief that Trump won, without question. Even if the Democrats wanted to claim the election was rigged somehow (which I'm sure Trump was gearing up to do had the outcome been different) it would be hard to make the case, beyond a recount. There's no slim margin here. Trump clearly won. While I would've preferred a Blue win, I at least got one outcome I was hoping for. A clear winner on election day. If I could give the Democrats some free, unsolicited advice for the next election. Stop targeting the opposition as if they're somehow selfish, evil villains. That's not how political parties work. At the end of the day the all represent the public. The people. The everyday citizen who you're trying to convince that you have what it takes to meet t...

Movie Opinion: GhostBusters: Frozen Empire (2024) Some Spoilers

T here's one thing that can be said for 2016's, all female Ghostbusters reboot , and that is, it's not anywhere near as bad as Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire . Although you don't realize it almost all the key moments of the actual plot are spoiled in the movie poster shown here. It's a wildly over thought, and overly convoluted story, with much exposition, that boils down to a big end level boss, a beam of light shooting into the sky, all the captured ghosts escaping, and all the Ghostbusters teaming up to clumsily restore order again by the end of the film. Side note: That mayor everyone thinks is a dick is the kind of mayor you want. He really knows how to get things done in record time. I've never seen a building get condemned and the legal tenants get evicted so fast, ever! There's not much here that this franchise hasn't done before, in every film, only this time everything freezes too because... I don't know, I drifted off during that expositio...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog