Review of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) by Spangle — 27 May 2014

Easily one of my favorite movies to come out of Marvel yet, the sequel for Captain America is a solid, enjoyable movie that really attempts to go above and beyond its genre, while also retaining elements that just make it another superhero movie. In terms of the political commentary, Captain America's sequel soars above most other superhero movies. It uses its position as a popular movie to try and bring up things that it feels could occur in our world if we continue down the path we are going down. However, it then returns to stereotypical superhero nonsense and, generally, feels like a run-of-the-mill summer superhero movie. Sure, it is one, and is a good one at that, but that does not mean it could not step up in "class" a bit. On top of that, I felt the story was too much. The whole world is being threatened and all that it is being defended by is Captain America, The Black Widow, and Anthony Mackie? Really? Did Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor, call in sick that day or...? The plot was very interesting and really makes this movie what it is, but it felt more appropriate for the second Avengers movie, rather than the sequel for Captain America.

In terms of acting, everyone did very well. Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson, really led the way with that. Also, the character development was great and unexpected for this movie. The amount of development they did here, coupled with the ending and post credits scene, really set up the upcoming third film nicely.