The Empire Strikes Back of Marvel

Rating: 9/10 (22 October 2014)

I'm getting fed up of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While The Avengers is amazing, many of the other Marvel films are just factory products and Marvel is failing to do anything bold. For example, in this movie they supposedly kill Nick Fury but then back out of it. However, I still like most of the films and this is an exceptional knockout blow and thus far, the best blockbuster of 2014. Captain America is finding adjusting to the modern world hard, and after being framed becomes a fugitive and tries to bring down a Shield conspiracy. What sets this apart from other Marvel films is that it's not just an action movie: It's a living, breathing narrative with characters we care about, a sense of tension and material to appeal to those who aren't fan boys. True, the film is in some ways just another Marvel movie and doesn't take a lot of risks, but the reveal of Shield being infiltrated half way through is genuinely shocking and the film is a dazzling mix of political thriller and superhero movie.
Chris Evans proves those who say Captain America is boring wrong, while Scarlett Johansson is strong as Black Widow. As usual, Samuel L Jackson is brilliant as Nick Fury and everyone else does a good job. The MCU has suffered from bad villains but this breaks that trend, with 2 awesome villains. The action sequences are totally astonishing and despite being full of huge explosions and massive crashes there is palm sweating tension maintained throughout. The screenplay is also great, and there is a sense of character development and emotion that aren't seen in most of the other Marvel films. While Iron Man 3, Thor The Dark World and Guardians Of The Galaxy were factory products to some extent, this actually does a few new things and best of all manages to be a great time even if its not your genre. Merging the comic book world with the real world and developing characters, pulling out the rug and blowing up everything is sight with great enthusiasm, Captain America The Winter Soldier is a brilliant, mind blowing and genuinely fascinating comic book slam dunk which hits with the force of Captain America's shield.
9/10