Movie Review - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Full disclosure – I have not seen the first Captain America movie, but I have seen all the Iron Man’s, Thor’s, and the Avengers, so I do have some general knowledge of Captain America.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier was overall an entertaining movie.  Keeping up with what seems to be a theme of the Avenger movies, there was plenty of action and comedy.  It’s hard to describe fully what the movie is about without giving too much away, but basically it’s the Cap in present day dealing with (obviously) the Winter Soldier, and the issue of who to trust (it’s way more complicated than that, but that’s a nutshell overview). 

There is a ton of action in this film and while 90% of it is awesome, I had particular issues with the sequence regarding a bus (again, trying not to give anything away).  The sequence almost looked as if it was filmed in a faster speed and just did not match with the rest of the movies action sequences.   Besides that one scene, the rest of the action was great.  A lot of hand to hand combat, gymnastics, and a pretty awesome elevator sequence.  I also enjoyed how much they used Cap’s shield as a weapon.  

A welcome new edition to the cast is Anthony Mackie as Falcon.  Now he’s one of my personal fav’s so I’m partial, but he fits in well with the cast and the relationship between Cap and Falcon seems like a genuine fit.  I don’t know much about the comics, but I sure hope Falcon is in future movies. 

Scarlett Johansson is much better as Black Widow this time around (compared to Iron Man 2 where I wasn’t sold), she brings some humor and badassesness, if that’s even a word?  While a fan of Chris Evans, sometimes I’m not completely sold on him as an action star, I think he’s much better suited in comedy and drama, his overall performance as Cap was good.  And of course Samuel L. Jackson…he has a much bigger role in this installment as Nick Fury and is great as always. 

Overall I give it a 3 out of 5.  I was entertained, not blown away, but it’s worth the admission price and seeing it in the theatres.