Let me start by saying, I read ‘Captain America’, ‘The Flash’, ‘The Avengers’, ‘The West Coast Avengers’ & ‘Strange Tales’ Comics in the late 80’s/early 90’s
That said, Captain America & The Flash were my favorite all time Superheroes
I didn’t care for the first ‘Captain America’ Movie, though I really like Chris Evans as an actor (He was great in ‘Fantastic Four’)
But each time the Captain America character was in one of the Marvel Movies, his character improved, to a point that he is awesome
Now in ‘The Winter Soldier’ I immediately liked Sebastian Stan and his Bucky character
I’ve never been a huge Falcon fan, but Anthony Mackie is a great actor, and played him well
Moving onto the series
Episode 1
SPOILERS!
They began the Episode with a bang, aiming at all those people who love action in Superhero movies I think
I love action, but the best scenes in the original ‘Avengers’ movie (And in comic books), was all the character back and forthing in between action scenes
So, big action opening, then it slows way down to soap opera speed (The production isn’t in a hurry, and why should they be, they have time, it’s a series)
I felt it must have been a challenge to do the Winter Soldier character in episode 1, he was largely silent in the Marvel films, and in this format, he has to talk a lot more
The bad guys seem ok, nothing special
For me, bad guys always need to be strong characters, or who cares if the good guys defeat them
The best part about Episode 1, was the ending scene, when the new Captain America is announced
Very comic book, in fact when I was reading Captain America 30 years ago, part of the storyline was a new Captain America
Episode 2
Episode 2 was immediately better, because Bucky hooked up with The Falcon, though I wasn’t completely clear why they were working together again, maybe it was explained in the movies
That said, their chemistry was right back on point from the movies
The bad guys, however, were physically strong, but not interesting in the least
What really bothered me most about Episode 2 was that they introduced us to the new Captain America, who seemed like a really good guy, trying to do his best to help people…
…but by the end of the Episode, he was a full blown jerk… It didn’t feel right at all, flat out bad writing, bad directing, or both
Still, I’m looking forward to continuing to watch the series, if for nothing else, to watch the two lead actors and the Winter Soldier character in action
Nuff Said
Thanks for listening/reading
The Written Word 