Captain America Movie Breaks The Box Office Record For April

Nobody will ever accuse Marvel of getting their marketing campaign wrong for the superhero films that have been filling up theaters for the last five or six years.

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” was the next blockbuster hit, in a string of successes for the Disney ran franchise.

In fact, “The Winter Soldier” hit its stride at the box office incredibly early and managed to become the highest grossing film ever released in April, by debuting with over $96 million in earnings.

Let’s take a look at “The Winter Soldier” and examine what made it such a success.

Captain America is the most human superhero

When you enter the realm of comic books, you have to prepare yourself to experience some pretty insane things.

Whether you are reading about a race of Norse Gods from another planet who are endowed with magic through giant hammers, or about a kid bit by a radioactive spider, things are gonna go down pretty weird.

So it is refreshing to see Steve Rogers, a.k.a Captain America.

He was born a regular kid in Brooklyn with a small body and a big heart. Through hard work and determination he was granted the right to sacrifice himself for his country. Throw in a scientist with an almost magic serum and there you go – Captain America is born.

But what makes Captain America, portrayed by Chris Evans in the Marvel franchise, so special is that he would be amazing with or without his abilities.

Sure, Captain America is super strong, super fast, and super smart… But these are all exaggerations placed atop what was already a man of strong moral fiber and great heart. The powers just give him a vehicle to show off what makes Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers.

“The Winter Soldier” is a complex tale

For those that have not seen “The Winter Soldier” yet, tread lightly in the following paragraph. “The Winter Soldier” follows the Captain as he undertakes the most trying mission of his life.

Abandoned by those he trusts, adrift without someone to point him where to go, Captain has to make the tough choices in regards to people he thinks that he loves and cares about.

Throw in the relationship with his first love, who is now dying of old age and Alzheimer’s, and you have a character that is literally watching his old world pass away.

The world is different. The politics are different. There aren’t any more clear-cut baddies, like the Hugo Weaving led Nazis, because nothing is as it seems.

Chris Evans and Scarlett Johanson: Incredible chemistry

Perhaps the strongest portions of “The Winter Soldier” reside during the interactions between clean-cut Captain America and the wispy Black Widow.

Captain knows what he stands for and what he is willing to do to protect it but he sees a more morally gray figure in his “friend,” the Russian Black Widow. When the two interact on screen you can tell that their characters are constantly re-evaluating themselves by using the other person as a mirror.

Does the Black Widow need to be so gray when heroes like the Captain exist? When news came out that Scarlett and Chris Evans wrote their own dialogue for their interactions, it all made sense. The two have undeniable chemistry both on and off the screen and it’s a boon to film viewers everywhere.

While it is easy for film critics to scoff at something like “The Winter Soldier,” I’d caution them to check out the film first. “The Winter Soldier” is a morally complex and well acted trip through the reinvention of what a superhero is and what a superhero can be.