10 Really Annoying Moments In Captain America: The Winter Soldier
7. Pierce's Villainy Is By The Books
Like Ozymandias and his poisoned champagne or Blofeld and his collapsing bridge, baddies with their true villainous extents slightly shrouded are required by Hollywood law to have some seemingly innocent item turn out to be a deadly weapon, and in the case of Robert Redfords Alexander Pierce its the all-access badges he hands out to the members of the World Security Council. But with his villainy already revealed to the audience, its obvious the passes will have some sort of secret second function, despite the movie acting otherwise. In fact, much of Pierces story is very familiar to cine-literate audiences: hes the leader whos secretly behind all the bad stuff, with a small mistake of his own (not deleting all of dead Nick Furys credentials) leading to his undoing. To the film's credit, it works hard to stop the character turning into a rote villain. Redford plays his as flawed, yet totally devoted, lending a humanity that makes up for any lapse of logic, and the script finds a smart way to approach these moments (Natasha's plans backfire when her previous face mask trick leaves her wearing a badge and Fury's dead eye is revealed) that stops them eliciting more than a second of eye-rolling.
