![]() As the series closes, the audience ravenously anticipates the next chapter in this rage-filled aggressor.Īnd as a now life-long fan of Wyatt Russell, I cannot wait to see what he does with the character in future Marvel shows. He loses the mantle of Captain America but later dons a new identity that better fits him, visually and thematically. government that brought him to prominence. In the end, Russell’s Walker is completely abandoned by the U.S. It’s not an endorsement of his actions, of course, but there lives a comprehension of who this man is and why he has done what he did. ![]() Russell’s earlier hang-dog performance rests in the back of your mind, so you understand the rationale behind all of his later choices. It’s a challenging moment to watch as blood spatters on the stars and stripes shield. Yet, thanks to Russell’s performance, I wasn’t left adrift with the character of John Walker. It’s as if all the shame bottled up in those first episodes now comes flooding back but channelled into pure, white hot rage.įaced with the death of his best friend, Walker erupts and brutally murders an antagonist. He lunges at everything with the force of a feral tiger. From that moment on, Russell’s performance become one of vengeance, of rage, and of a school yard bully suddenly empowered with superhuman strength. So, it’s no shock that, given the chance, Russell’s Walker steals a single vial of the Super Soldier Serum and takes it for himself. Russell gives us an expertly crafted performance that works not only on the dialogue-driven surface but also the physicality of a man faced with superhero competition and completely failing to measure up at all. He breathes insecurity in the face of Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). He completely fails to deliver on the promise of the Captain America mantle, and Russell plays that inadequacy to perfection. His action scenes, although strenuously attempted, all fall flat. Every interaction plays out like someone let the air out of his balloon of self-confidence. Walker knows that, and Russell subtlely injects that into all of his early scenes in the film. He’s just a man carrying a shield that he will never fully deserve. He lacks an injection of the Super Soldier Serum to put him on equal footing with the other supers at play in the series. The rest all falls to Wyatt Russell’s tremendous performance to bring it home.Ĭast as Capitan America rather than built for the job, Russell’s Wyatt exists as a man constantly playing catch up. ![]() ![]() The perfectly realized visual of Walker in the Captain America outfit thematically underscores just how ill-suited he was for the role. He always appears as a child playing dress-up. It’s more that Russell’s Walker doesn’t have that perfectly chiseled Chris Evans / Steve Rogers jaw to fill it out. It’s not that the headpiece was ill-fitting. Perhaps too much camera presence as his greatest moments always seemed to be staged moments earlier in the series.īut all you have to do is look at Walker’s ill-fitting headpiece as Capitan America to know the role doesn’t apply. He appeared a perfect fit as he had that rare blend of “aww shucks” corn-fed Americana and camera presence. Chosen by the government to carry the thematically heavy Captain America shield, Walker was a decorated member of the U.S. That frustration, that struggle, sits at the core of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s John Walker, marvelously played by actor Wyatt Russell with a gradually escalating sense of deadly futility. What if you’d done all the right things, made all the right choices in life, but you still weren’t good enough? ![]()
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