A great continuation of the Marvel Universe

Rating: 8/10 (29 April 2014)

Once again Marvel's brilliant cinematic universe is continuing to expand with it's universe being shaken by it core by this great film. This somewhat surprised me seeing as the first Captain America was a fairly standard film offering nothing but character origins and exposition in the lead up to the avengers. Similarly this one has a lot of that too, the difference being that it had a good story and exciting actions sequences to go with it.
The film follows a much more realistic plot than the previous Marvel films as Captain America becomes on the run from SHIELD with it being corrupted from the inside and starts to hunt him. At the same time as this he has to deal with the new threat of the Winter Soldier and the mystery of his identity.
Despite the tense tone of the plot, the film still gets in a lot of good humour just like the rest of the Marvel films, one of the best being a glimpse at a list of all the things Captain America has to catch up on over the past 60 years, which I'm sure will have us all reaching to the pause button when the film comes to DVD.
Also just like the rest of the Marvel Universe we have a strong sense of comradeship within the film as characters like Black Widow, Nick Fury and the Falcon all come together to face the threat and fight very closely as a team. This theme is particularly emphasised when they become uncertain of who they're able to trust from SHIELD leaving them more isolated and more reliant on one another as we really get to see within the fight scenes.
Some of the fight scenes really are impressive with a good mixture of hand to hand combat, gun combat and a lot of shield based attacks. One fight scene stood out more than any other though which is Nick Fury's first full fight as we watch him fight off a small squadron after he is ambushed in his car. Not only is it the first time we see Fury in a full combat situation, but it's also an impressive scene with some great use of various weapons, incredible tension as he becomes quickly overwhelmed and some really good humour thrown in to boot possibly making it one of my favourite action sequences so far this year.
The only problem I had with the film was that the Winter Soldier himself was not as well done as the trailer had led me to believe he would be. Obviously they explain the mystery of who he is and why he's doing this, but it comes late in the film and we don't really get to see much of the aftermath of how the Cap deals with it and instead chooses to focus more on the action. Saying that it does seem like they will be going in to it more in the sequel so hopefully we'll see more of him in the next one to improve upon it.
In spite of this small flaw this remains a great addition to the Marvel Universe and really raises my expectations for both the Avengers and the rest of the Marvel universe that's yet to come. A huge improvement over it's predecessor this one is definitely worth a watch.