This was definitely one of the most anticipated films of the year. If not for a certain other film that was arriving in a month, it definitely would have taken the title for me. I’m not going to deny that Spiderman has a slight shot at taking Captain America down….but it’s very unlikely! The Winter Soldier is definitely one of MCU’s best entries and it won’t be forgotten anytime soon! Spoilers approach depending on how you look at it…but I’d probably count them as spoilers.

The plot starts off with Steve Rogers as he humiliates the Falcon in a friendly jog. He’s called onto a mission and he takes on the mighty Batroc. Things get dicey from there as Captain America is told that SHIELD cannot be trusted. They’ve been infiltrated and now our Avenger must find a way to stop the world from falling into chaos. Good thing he’s got Black Widow and the Falcon to back him up! Another thorn in Cap’s side is the fact that an assassin known as the Winter Soldier is out to stop him.

The plot is definitely solid since conspiracy stories always have potential to be interesting. Still, we’re going to need a solid cast and some good fight scenes to make this work. Luckily, Captain America makes for a good main character. He may not be as charismatic as Iron Man or as epic as Superman, but Cap is a solid character. He’s finished adjusting to the new world in this film and he’s used to taking on missions. Has Captain America become the next GI Joe? Surprisingly, Captain America doesn’t seem to be the type to take prisoners quite as much as he used too.

It is loosely up for debate though since we can’t tell how badly he is harming his opponents. Captain America does hit a few humans with his shield in a powerful swing and I can’t see how they would be okay after that. He also throws his dagger into someone’s hand to stop him from pulling the alarm, which seemed to be added to make the film “gritty.” So, how much I like Cap really depends on how he handled the foot soldiers. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he just knocked them all out, which saves his character. I can’t say that I care for his Steve Rogers “form” but it may be that he just doesn’t have an opportunity to get any really good scenes. We only get to see him panic when Widow steals his flash drive (Serious panic as he quickly attacked her) and then let the Winter Soldier humiliate him. Rogers definitely overreacts when the going gets tough.

Black Widow is one of the main supporting characters and this time she has her electronic stingers. I’ve never been a fan of the Black Widow and there have only been a few exceptions. She was all right in the Iron Man anime and she was tolerable in both of the Avenger TV shows. It was really the movies that made sure I was not a fan. She didn’t seem to have a reason to be in Iron Man 2 and her scenes in Avengers made me root against her. (Banner had finally found his safe haven!) I will say that she looks better here than in the other two films, but she’s definitely not going to be one of my favorite MCU characters. She’s the hardened SHIELD agent so she makes sure to hit villains once they’re already down. Amidst all of this, at least she got a decent role to herself unlike the next character…..

The Falcon! I’ve never really minded the character and he’s actually enjoyable in the comics…usually. The problem with his role in the film is the fact that it was completely filler. They did not need him to be in the film and things would have worked out. Just about anyone could have put on a pair of tech wings and then proceeded to save the day. In his climatic fight, he couldn’t even take the quick win. Strength isn’t everything, but there weren’t many other scenes for the Falcon to prove his toughness. The Falcon wasn’t a bad character…he was just out of place. I’m sure that he could be a decent assist character in a future MCU film.

Nick Fury is around and he gets the usual hype, but this is not his most commanding appearance. He gets into a fight with the Winter Soldier and he gets into a disagreement with Captain America which is pretty impressive, but also a dangerous way to play the game. If you’ve been watching the Agents of SHIELD, then you know that Fury can be a little…dicey. His decision to have Black Widow nearly compromise the opening mission was also shady. His ending is pretty tragic and sudden, but maybe it was the right thing to do. Fury is a decent character, but he made some pretty rookie mistakes towards the end.

Maria Hill gets a brief role towards the end. She doesn’t get to appear for very long, but she does play a critical role in the film. She takes out her opponents pretty easily and coordinates the plan at the end. I dare say that she looked a lot more impressive than Agent Sitwell.

The Winter Soldier was the hyped villain for this film. They make sure to throw loads of hints that he’s Bucky from early on. Of course, you may have suspected that from the trailers and TV spots. Nonetheless, I’m sure that it was a shock for some moviegoers. I can’t say that I would have been very shocked because I probably wouldn’t have remembered Bucky from the first film. He wasn’t very memorable and he wasn’t my kind of character. Why has Bucky turned to the dark side? You’ll need to see the film to learn that!

Captain America fights the Winter Soldier a few times and they’re pretty evenly matched. I’m more than a little skeptical at the Winter Soldier’s rifle knocking Cap away from his shield, but I can let that go for now. Winter Soldier holds his own in his fights against Cap, but that’s usually because of his metal arm. Still, the Winter Soldier is a pretty epic villain and he’s much better than some of the other MCU threats.

Director Coulson doesn’t get to appear, but I thought that he deserved a mention…carry on!

The Winter Soldier isn’t the true mastermind behind everything. The real leader is not quite as cool and he can’t really fight….but he can talk a really good game. The more “heroic” he started to sound, the more that I knew that he couldn’t be trusted. I can’t forget to mention the fact that Stan (The Man) Lee makes his triumphant return. Someone actually steals something while he’s on duty, but that’s probably bad news for the miscreant!

I would talk about Agent 13, but she doesn’t really do much in this film. She gets a few scenes, but she’ll likely get a bigger role in the next film. The writers will need to make sure that she is not too similar to Black Widow since that can be a quick mistake. As long as she doesn’t bring Rogers into the dark side, she should be a decent character. I can’t say that her final showing was very impressive in this film though.

I’ve heard that this was known to be a lot more violent than the other MCU films. I can’t say that I noticed while watching the film, but I suppose that it was more violent than previous installments like Thor and Iron Man 2. That being said, there were no scenes that really made me cringe like in the Avengers. I wouldn’t say that the violence was over the top and the worst scene in terms of violence would probably be Bucky’s flashback or Cap’s dagger throwing scene. The gunshots weren’t too bad since they’re just basic wounds that disappear quickly.

Admittedly, I completely do not remember the film having a soundtrack. I was probably too caught up in all of the scenes and intense battles. Winter Soldier’s theme is the only one that I remember, but it was pretty good. That’s enough to give the film a thumbs up in the music category.

The film did a good job in not increasing the outlandish Captain America feats. In Avengers we saw Cap block Thor’s hammer and also jump from an enormous height without a parachute. In this film, Cap looks tough, but it’s definitely more realistic. Jumping from the glass building may cause some concern, but it’s definitely a lot more believable. Cap had a lot of trouble with Batroc, but that’s just the way that the ball bounced I suppose. It does hint that Batroc is at around Winter Soldier level. The hand to hand fight scenes in the film were definitely fun and are some of the best in the MCU. Getting some more fights like this in the next Cap film would be fun and maybe he can try these tricks on Ultron in Avengers 2.

Naturally, you’ll want to stay after the credits! There are two scenes this time. The first one shows two fighters who have been captured and they’re basically at the end of their ropes. Who are they and what do they want with us!? I wasn’t really a fan of that scene, but the second one is pretty intense. We get foreshadowing that will come in handy if you missed part of the ending. It’s basically an alternate way to end the film.

The film goes pretty smoothly and there is only one slow part. Things drag on a little when Black Widow and Cap go to search for the truth. We get some hijinx at the mall and then we get an “epic” confrontation with an old foe. I’m not going to say that they should have cut out those scenes, but I wouldn’t have minded if they took up a little less time. They had a really unnecessary scene where Black Widow and Cap have to pretend that they’re dating and their conversations were pretty awful for a while. This is not what I want to see in my superhero films!

Overall, this was a very good film. There isn’t much in the way of negatives for me. I addressed the part of the film that was a little slow and Cap’s portrayal may be a little dicey. For once, I think it’s okay that the other Avengers didn’t appear since the threat was pretty minimal. (It was a big threat, but they wouldn’t have known the full scope of it) The fight scenes definitely gave the film an extra boost and it didn’t really fall into any major holes. Superhero films should aspire to be like this one and now Winter Soldier can join the elites! (Avengers, Ghost Rider, Spider Man 3) I can safely say that it is the best MCU stand alone film. If you’ve liked any of the previous ones, then I highly recommend it.

Overall 8/10