Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Well here we are again folks.

Marvel is back at it again, trotting out their newest addition to the second-wave Avengers films with Captain America: The Winter Soldier – and I’m back at it again writing reviews. Hoorays all around!

Steve Rogers aka Captain America (Chris Evans) is working as an agent of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D) protecting the US from terrorists, pirates, and probably a whole host of other nasty things.

Protecting America from THIS ONE GUY.

While his super-soldier abilities make him a perfect storm trooper, Rogers’ ideals and moral code don’t sit well with the covert operations that frequently undertakes.

After a botched mission, Rogers finds himself questioning whether or not he wants to continue serving as an agent of the state under S.H.I.E.L.D director Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson).

Unfortunately this moral crisis comes at a terrible time when he suddenly finds S.H.I.E.L.D under attack from an unknown source.

His trust issues are compounded when he and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) are forced to go underground.

Also, there’s a mysterious assassin called The Winter Soldier running around and generally making things difficult for the heroes.

"Hey, you wanna see a magic trick?"
NO, WRONG MOVIE!

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a great film and feels like a natural continuation of the established Marvel universe.

It neatly answers the question of “where were the other Avengers during Iron Man 3?” – he was probably off-shore on a covert mission...or something. Maybe it isn't so neat, but it's a pretty good guess.

Super DUPER covert

It also builds on the already-planted ideas of Steve Rogers’ isolation and temporally-induced moral displacement (which is a fancy way of saying he feels like 2014 is weird, you guys).

While it builds on established themes, the film doesn't repeat The First Avenger and goes in its own direction.

That one dance number was pretty weird, though.

The Winter Soldier(the movie, not the character) cranks up the paranoia and while some of the twists were foreshadowed, others revealed themselves satisfyingly.

The interaction between Rogers and Black Widow was interesting and complicated and to see a relationship slowly and naturally blooming over the course of two/three movies was a rare treat.

You know what they say, right?
"Friends who uncover secret government plots together..." 

As much of the film relies on paranoia and subterfuge, I won’t talk much about the villains aside from the Winter Soldier himself, who is an imposing figure despite not speaking for more than three-quarters of his screentime.

Look, I say "menacing" but these photos are too good not to use.

The action is fantastic and frequent, but at no point did I feel the film reliant upon it.

In all, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a solid addition to the franchise and feels like a comic book with a perfect mix of levity, snappy dialogue, spy plot and varied action.

"I don't care if you're Robert Redford or whatever.
Y'all motherfuckers better shake my hand when I ask."

Highly recommended.

Hey! Anthony Mackie is in this film too! And he's awesome!

(By the way, I think I’m going to start a new rating system because I hate giving films “stars.” From now on I’ll be rating films “highly not recommend,” “ would not recommend,” “recommended,” and “highly recommended.”)

Birdman! Get in here! Ha ha! Cookies on dowels...