Captain America: The Winter Soldier Review

Captain America: Winter Soldier Review
By Darrin Jones / April 6


Ingredients: If you liked the characters from Captain America: The First Avenger, the action and mystery of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, and actually enjoy watching heroic characters acting heroic, then you will love this movie.

Ever since Chris Evans was first introduced as Captain America in the First Avenger film, the character has really started to grow on me. But it is Winter Soldier that has really cemented the fact that Captain America is probably the last selfless heroic icon that truly embodies what America meant in the golden years post World War II and pre-9/11. That is, someone who genuinely believes in truth, justice, and the American way. Not with nativity but with hope. And that's the strongest recommendation for why Winter Soldier is such a good movie.

Set after the events of The Avengers -- and for anyone thinking about keeping up with these movies should get use to seeing that phrase a lot -- Captain America: The Winter Soldier immediately adopts a different tone than the previous Captain America movie. Taking a page out of Mission: Impossible and Bourne Identity series, there's a lot more emphasis on the covert workings of government agency S.H.E.I.L.D. and their shady dealings in the name of homeland security. Captain America is the lead of a small task force with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) when a recent mission triggers a ripple of questioning that results in an assassination attempt on Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson.) With the Captain and Black Widow unsure who to trust, they go on the run looking for answers with S.H.E.I.L.D. agents right on their heels. 

Of the two new faces brought in, Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and the mysterious Winter Soldier, they both do a fantastic job. Oh, and it's nice to see Robert Redford getting a decent part in movies again. But of course you can expect several other cameos and in-canon jokes that help flush out the world and keep the Marvel fanatics excited.
 
While Winter Soldier keeps up the quality of superhero movies we've come to expect, on it's own it's also a very good action movie. The fight scenes are well-done and do have a very visceral feel to them. And the special effects are top-notch. Just expect all that much if you're hoping to see the movie in 3D. 

Of the Marvel movies so far, I would have to rate this one among my top picks along with Iron Man 3 and The Avengers. So take that for all it's worth and find out where it rates for you. And if you're still holding out for a better superhero movie, this summer is going to have no shortage of flicks to choose from. 

Oh yeah. It's gonna be a good year.