Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Expectations:
Not only is Captain America the "First Avenger," but he is also the "Best Avenger"! There is no doubt in my mind that the first Captain America film was the best pre-Avengers Marvel flick, and I was hoping that Captain America: The Winter Soldier could follow that up and become the best of Marvel's "Phase 2" films. Unfortunately, many of the plot details for the film were under wraps, so I wasn't quite certain what to expect. At the same time, it is quite nice that Marvel now has the power to hold in the big secrets of the films. In fact, that power is what made everyone trip over the big twists in Iron Man 3, which may have inflated expectations for The Winter Soldier. Anywho, my expectations were high, because of the greatness that was The First Avenger...

Plot:
The end of mindless superhero films may be fast-approaching, as evident by the BLATANT political themes presented in The Winter Soldier. In case you didn't know, Obama is watching you, and he is going to destroy you because Robert Redford said so! And Rob Red is the man!!! However, on Captain America's (Chris Evans) end, there were just a few too many things going on for him to really be making a political statement. Black Widow's (Scarlett Johanssonn) continual need to be insignificantly significant took up an unnecessary amount of screen time, and, in the end, the film probably should have been titled Captain America: S.H.I.E.L.D. & Friends. The film wasn't a total bust, but I truly believe it had great potential. At one point, the trusting, old-fashioned Captain had a moment where he didn't know who was with/against him. That moment was probably the most intense Marvel moment ever! Unfortunately, in less than five minutes, he figured out who to trust again, which left me disappointed at what could have been. Even with this disappointment, the action was absolutely great, and Cap had no problem with anybody he faced.

Characters:
As a result of the numerous storylines, there were waaaay too many characters for any non-Avengers film. Like I said, Captain America is THE MAN! Why would you want to be distracted by minor characters? The answer to that question can probably be found in the fact that The Avengers: Age of Ultron needed a lead-in, which is quite unfortunate.

Negatives:
Hayley Atwell was absolutely amazing in The First Avenger, but there was no need for her Peggy Carter to show up, ever again. Captain America seemed to be moving forward and accepting the 21st century, eliminating the need to bring his past back into the picture. Additionally, Toby Jones's Dr. Arnim Zola was awkwardly brought back into the picture, although he was a bit more necessary, in the grand scheme of things. Although Robert Redford's Alexander Pierce was quite important to the storyline, he was the one significant character that I did not care for, but hopefully you will like him!

Positives:
My main man Danny Pudi had an extremely short appearance as some sort of computer guy, and I just wanted to be sure to give him a shout out. Without him, Community would no longer be on the air and no one would know what the term "butt-dial" means (look it up... he was the first to say it). New to the Captain America crew, Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson/Falcon was a fun addition to the film, and I truly hope that people reward Mackie with larger roles in the future. Finally (and I never thought I would say this), Cobie Smulders' Maria Hill actually fit in quite well with the rest of the cast. Her short time on screen was quite significant, and she nearly redeemed herself for being the only negative in The Avengers... but not quite.

Conclusion:
Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a great Marvel film, but it could have been so much better. There was just waaaay too much going on, which greatly scattered the focus of the film. Really, Captain America had very little riding on the outcome of the film. Instead, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Black Widow took center stage, which would have been fine, if they didn't already have an entire TV show dedicated to S.H.I.E.L.D. Additionally, if Black Widow could have had her own film, instead of showing up in others over and over and over, neither Iron Man nor Captain America would have had to worry about her. Regardless, I would certainly suggest that you check out The Winter Soldier, especially if you like to keep up with the events of the Marvel universe. You miss this one, and you might as well skip The Avengers: Age of Ultron. I give Captain America: The Winter Soldier 2.99 out of 5 stars.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Expectations:
While I didn't quite understand what was going to happen in this movie, I did hope that I would be impressed with the storyline. All I did know about the movie was that it was going to be about the British version of the CIA. At least that's what I thought. This movie has received a lot of Oscar hype and even brought Gary Oldman his first ever nomination for best actor, so you just assume that it is going to be good. There were many great names attached to the film, such as Colin Firth and Tom Hardy. Everything about this movie pointed toward it being good, but I just had no clue what it was about. I don't know about you, but I love it when I have no clue about the movie heading into the theater. Everyone remembers how clueless they were when they went in to watch Inception, and some remember how clueless they were when they left. Based on this cluelessness alone, I had to watch Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Plot:
While I won't give away much here, I will say that this is the most complicated and in depth storyline of 2011. No other movie this year even came close to making me wonder what was happening, but Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy had me wondering the entire time. The problem was that I never really figured out what I was wondering about. Maybe I'm just not as smart as I think I am, but I left that theater not really knowing what just happened. The movie started very slow, and there were a lot of useless people walking around. I thought I was following it quite well, but I guess not. I can't really say if the plot was great or not, just because I didn't understand it.

Characters:
As I said, this was a very star-studded cast, and it certainly didn't hurt the end product. Colin Firth was great as usual in the role of Bill Haydon, one of the top dogs in the British Intelligence. Another one of the top dogs was Toby Esterhase, played by David Dencik. Esterhase was a good character, but I just didn't understand how someone so nervous could possible work for the British Intelligence. Tom Hardy's character, Ricki Tarr, added a lot of depth to the plot, but I didn't see why anymore depth was needed. He was important but unnecessary, if that's even possible. Last, but not least, Gary Oldman was not impressive as George Smiley, not in my opinion at least. He certainly wasn't bad, but I don't understand how he could possibly merit an Academy Award nomination on this performance.

Best Character: Toby Jones is one of the eeriest actors on planet earth, and he added a great eeriness to his character, Percy Alleline. Many of you might remember Jones from Captain America. I just don't understand why he is so scary, but he just is.

Worst Character: Peter Guillam, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, was probably the most useless of the useless characters. If they would have cut his character out, I think Smiley (Oldman) would have been a lot more interesting. They spent too much time on Guillam's back story, and it didn't matter one bit.

Conclusion:
I honestly don't know what to say about this movie as a whole. I promise that you HAVE to pay great attention to every single detail, but I still can't promise that you will understand. Although I did understand bits and pieces, I will have to rent this movie in a few months to have complete closure. The biggest problems I had with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy were the very slow opening and the very quick ending. Not to discourage you from watching, but I just didn't understand. When I left, I wasn't quite as clueless as I was when I got there, but I was close. You may love it, though. Who knows? Because I didn't understand, I am not going to give a rating for the movie. If you are super curious, just go watch it...