A worthy sequel indeed

Rating: 7/10 (1 April 2014)

So the story starts with terrorists hijacking a SHIELD ship. Cap and Black Widow are sent in on it. Cap thinks their mission is strictly hostages, but Black Widow was ordered also to get some files. Back in SHIELD HQ, Nick Fury is denied access into the files from the ship. He then gets attacked by the Winter Soldier. Escaped the hit, Fury goes to Cap's place and warns him of a compromised SHIELD, and only they know. Fury then got shot while Cap failed to catch the shooter. At the hospital, Fury seems to be dead. SHIELD Director Pierce then summons Cap. Cap doesn't share Fury's info with Pierce, thus Pierce makes Cap a fugitive. Cap escapes and meet Black Widow. They try to figure out what's in the file and discover an abandoned old facility in New Jersey back from Cap's old war time. Turns out that Zola, a German scientist recruited after WWII by US government was also secretly a member of HYDRA, rogue Nazi splinter bent on a new world order. Zola died in 1972 but preserved his consciousness in the facility. He reveals HYDRA's plans, involving taking the three new SHIELD helicarriers. At the same time, a missile is launched to wipe them out.
Escaped danger, Cap and Black Widow goes to Sam Wilson to hide, and Sam reveals Falcon project. The three 'kidnaps' a SHIELD official, and interrogates him on HYDRA's plans. Winter Soldier kills the official right after, and attacks Cap and friends. Black Widow got shot in the fight, and it's revealed that Winter Soldier is Bucky Barnes. Cap and friends then got caught by SHIELD, but Hill set them free and then brings them to Fury, who actually faked his death. Cap and friends then get into SHIELD HQ and announce the HYDRA truth to everyone. After a firefight the HYDRA cabals manage to launch the helicarriers. Cap and Falcon fight their way into the helicarriers to insert a hack so Hill can control them. After Cap and Falcon succeeded controlling two of them, Winter Soldier comes and battles Cap on the third, breaking Falcon's suit. Cap and Winter Soldier then face each other there. Cap inserts the hack to the helicarrier's control but Winter Soldier shoots him. Hill gains control of all helicarrirers and Cap ordered her to destroy them, with him still inside.
Black Widow sacrifices herself under Pierce's threat and Fury kills Pierce. The injured Cap tries to help Bucky Barnes regain his memories, but he attacks Cap. Bucky then regains his memories, but Cap has fall onto the river below them. Bucky then saves him and then disappears. Fury goes on with his faked death and goes to Europe to hunt down the remaining HYDRA members.
The fight moves and choreography is way better than any other Marvel universe movies so far. Now not only Black Widow moves fluidly, but now Cap does too. In this installment, Cap does a lot more juggling moves with his shield and also acrobatic attacks, including somersault kicks. There's also the nice touch of Cap getting back in touch with the now ill Peggy Carter.
From my standpoint of one who doesn't really follow the comics, the insertion of the Winter Soldier into the story, as a way of introducing a new main antagonist into a title which is already a franchise, is indeed quite smooth. The unsuspecting intro of Bucky Barnes from the memorabilia room start this well, though if you look at this scene individually it feels stupid and not quite logical. Why would Cap be strolling to a museum to look upon memories of himself, when prior to that he already said that internet helps him greatly in catching up?
The next thing is that you see Winter Soldier blowing Fury's car with a shot mine. For me another non logical thing happened here. If Nick Fury can escape very easily from the Winter Soldier after having being inside of a car which was turn upside down, why is it so hard for him to escape the shooters with no superhuman abilities?
The gimmick of having silly jokes in the middle of hot action is kept and inherited from the previous Marvel universe movies. This include the "Air conditioning fully operational" reply by the car AI during the car chase scene. Yes, product placements in a movie is so common these days, but I think we see one too much black Chevrolets in this movie. Yet there is also a store placement of Apple Store in this movie, way to go Apple!! LOL.
I say we don't have much to criticize about the cast, because they primarily continue on from the other movies. The acting is good, even though not in the range of any awards. The cast gets creative enough as to develop their own dialog, as Evans and Johansson do. On costumes, the idea of Cap getting a new uniform is quite nice, though he ditched it and goes back to his old colors. The music scoring is barely there, just enough to help build the mood of the scene.
Overall for me this 7 out of 10 scoring movie is good, not because it presents something new, but because it can live up to its name and be the worthy sequel, as compared to the stupidity done in Iron Man 3's antagonist. A recommendation is a sure thing from me, of course.