Sadly underwhelming

Rating: Null/10 (26 April 2014)

The film was merely entertaining, nothing more.
(In my IMDb evaluations, a 7 is 'entertained' - if possible, I would downgrade this film to a 6.5 because it could have been, should have been, more).
I wasn't gripped at all, I did not really care.
I watched a generic bad vs good action flick, with a mediocre script, at least performed by good actors (minus Scarlett Johansson, who, in my view, is utterly talentless and whose acting abilities compass two main expressions: Pout (in a variety of versions) and lascivious smile, and always that monotonous, expressionless voice that apparently some label husky and sexy. Well I don't. Every film she is in automatically becomes downgraded in my book, though she was used according to her abilities here and did not offend too much ^^ SJ is not to blame for the silliness of the plot...)
The plot. Oh my. Hydra. Geez. Recorded Nazi minds. Ouch. I did not dislike the idea behind the algorithm or the means to carry out the 'cleansing', just coupling it with Naziism and 'Hail Hydra' felt so lame and made me cringe. Arrive in the 21st century, Cap. Scriptwriters/producers: reboot the Cap!
And Robert Redford was, while at first glance a nice choice for the role of villain, in an interesting, unusual, this could be fun kind of way, so unconvincing in the role - due to the script but also, I must say, because his acting just did not match up. It felt like HE was not convinced of being a bad guy, because it is just so not him...^^ When Tom Hiddleston plays Loki, I find myself rooting for him, feeling his dilemmas, understanding his rage. Okay, maybe bad example (he is the master :-)), I just wanted to point out how a baddie can be fascinating and involving and fooling you - and still have you rooting for him (or her). Doc Ock worked in Spidey1 (original), as did The Joker (oh, let's take Jack Nicholson AND Heath Ledger as examples - both worked better than Redford), or Justin Hammer - okay, I love Sam Rockwell, so whatever he does is genius in my eyes.
Anyway, Redford was a disappointment beyond the script.
Then, the superfluous characters. I even go so far as to say the Winter Soldier himself was superfluous. The idea of linking the film to the first Captain America film was nice, but visiting Peggy Carter and the museum should have sufficed, or write a different story around it. As it were, the film titled after the Winter Soldier had very little of him in it, a scrap of backstory, a hairstyle that made me think (hope/wish...) 'he' could have been Ms Romanoff, and such a lazy, unexplained, unexplored change of mind at the end that it was insulting. The rogue soldier was superfluous, as was Jasper Sitwell (though I liked him - and his name for some reason, haha - there was just too little of him to be of importance), and the neighbour agent. None of them important or essential.
Now to my major problem with the film: Lack of conflict. The story began with at least some conflict established - CA weary of Nick Fury's mode of command, doubting, questioning - I thought, nice, this could be going somewhere interesting. Finding a friend in someone who left the army, also struggling with loss - the beginning let me think the film might have depth.
Well all this was abandoned for 'The bad guys are the ones shooting at you'. Hmph. Nice quip, but also back to simplistic black-and-white for Captain America, who somehow forgot about his doubts etc. because everybody (EVERYBODY!) was after him, haha. That got the action going but a good storyline was sadly lost. But by then I had long lost hope for anything better anyway, because the Transformers-shooting sequences had wearied my interest.
Alone the Fury car-scene was neat, and the visuals in general, I especially liked the half-distance and behind-the-shoulder camera positions, they worked really nice in 3D. (The make-up throughout was horrible by the way)
The film was not as offensive to me, or as bad, as Man Of Steel, but it was extremely unfulfilling nonetheless. I had hoped for more.
So, in the end, an action flick with some laughs, boring and uninspired twists, a mixed-together, unconvincing plot, nice visuals, nice acting - not a complete loss, but somehow the disappointment follows me days after watching it.