After watching Winter Soldier for like the 7th time, I think I've finally narrowed down the number one thing that bugged me about this movie. For the second stand alone Captain America movie, it was certainly setting itself apart from both the first Captain America movie and the Avengers follow up. But here, it feels like the writers took an extra step to further distance itself from the previous movies. When Fury is showing off the brand new heavily armed helicarriers to Steve, my immediate reaction was that these were designed to better combat another potential alien invasion. Having all those canons and pin-point accurate long range turrets would definitely have been useful in New York. Heck, even Fury brings up New York as a means of getting this program started. But instead, it's going to be used for.... combating terrorism? I get that SHIELD was always meant to fight organizations like this, but the way it's executed just comes off more as a "right thing to do, wrong reason to do it".
It's like if the sequel to the original Star Wars movie featured the rebels designing their own Star Destroyers in response of the Death Star just so they can combat Tusken Raiders. I mean, Nick had the perfect means to get Roger's support. A way to effectively combat alien threats or potentially bigger threats in general should the Avengers not be enough. But instead it's all about terrorists. The only way this plot point works is if you get rid of the Avengers movie entirely. Nick Fury making the call back to New York would now be regarded as a call back to 9/11 which would make the carriers directly responding to terrorists make a lot more narrative sense. The only thing anyone ever talks about in this film are their reactions to terrorism. Not once does the notion of another surprise alien invasion come into discussion. It's like it never happened even though they try to push the invasion as the 9/11 event of this universe.
It's like if the sequel to the original Star Wars movie featured the rebels designing their own Star Destroyers in response of the Death Star just so they can combat Tusken Raiders. I mean, Nick had the perfect means to get Roger's support. A way to effectively combat alien threats or potentially bigger threats in general should the Avengers not be enough. But instead it's all about terrorists. The only way this plot point works is if you get rid of the Avengers movie entirely. Nick Fury making the call back to New York would now be regarded as a call back to 9/11 which would make the carriers directly responding to terrorists make a lot more narrative sense. The only thing anyone ever talks about in this film are their reactions to terrorism. Not once does the notion of another surprise alien invasion come into discussion. It's like it never happened even though they try to push the invasion as the 9/11 event of this universe.
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