Captain America: The Winter Soldier

There was a time in adventure movies when the heroine’s main role was to do something stupid, land herself in peril then wave her hands and scream a bit while she waited for a big strong man to rescue her. Happily, however, them days is over, as they say in revisionist Westerns.

Here, for instance, Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff (aka the Black Widow) is more than a match with fists, feet, guns and quips for any mortal man. Certainly in cleaning up the bad guys she is the equal of her superhero partner Chris Evans as Steve Rogers (aka Captain America).

In an over-plotted, overlong extravaganza of violent action and explosive special effects all you really need to know is that S.H.I.E.L.D., the all-American espionage agency for which Captain America works, has been infiltrated by Hydra. This is a subversive organisation, which, believing itself to be altruistic, plans to guarantee the world’s safety by killing 20 million people.

How this will bring about the desired effect is not altogether clear because Hydra’s sinister leader, Robert Redford, doesn’t explain it very well. And how Hydra, whose supporters seem to outnumber the loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. members by about 10 to one, has remained undetected for decades is an equal mystery.

Redford, incidentally, is a bizarre sight these days. His hair is as young as ever but his face is showing severe signs of age. At one point the youthful-looking (and apparently immortal) Captain America says to the Black Widow: ‘I’m 95, not dead’, a line that would have been more credible emanating from Redford.

Anyway, the whole thing is, of course, inspired – as so many films seem to be these days – by a Marvel comic.

And the Hydra guys, going about their mission, are utterly ruthless. They even send a small army to assassinate Samuel L Jackson, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Meanwhile, their chief killer, the eponymous Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) who appears to be as indestructible as Captain America himself and wreaks terrible havoc, is a figure of some mystery. Who exactly is he? Actually, the answer’s not too hard to work out.

So is the movie good of its kind? Since the target audience is clearly teen and 20-something males and much of the action consists of exploding cars, planes and buildings, you’d have to say it works. There’s not a lot to occupy the mind and what there is doesn’t bear too close an examination.

But the fights and effects are exciting and the acting is not at all bad. Evans, so bulked up that his boobs appear to be bigger than Johansson’s, is an amiable Captain America. Anthony Mackie is effective as Falcon, who fights alongside the captain, while the likes of Jackson and Johansson are really too good for this kind of movie, although I expect the money was highly welcome.

As for Redford, well, he really is looking very odd these days and you can’t help wondering whatever happened to that handsome young Sundance Kid.