An Honest Review

Rating: 10/10 (5 November 2016)

OK, I wrote a fairly negative review about Captain America: The First Avenger and it was based really on the feel of the movie. It was so cheesy, so over-done with CGI that you thought you were watching a computer program....and you really were. That is EXACTLY what you were watching.
I'm glad to say that Winter Soldier comes back with a vengeance. In fact it is the polar opposite of The First Avenger.
This time when Cap gets in a fight it actually looks like he got into a fight. It looks like he's fighting people and not the green screen. Car chase, that looks real too, shoot out looks real, the Falcon flying looks real.
The First Avenger suffered from Star Wars Prequel syndrome The Winter Soldier suffers from nothing.
Finally Chris Evans owns Captain America. He won that role with this film and all doubts about his performance is cast away. It's refreshing because of the worry he caused in the first film.
The plot is fantastic, the introduction of Falcon was great. Anthony Mackie does a great job as the Falcon, out shining every other side-kick in the MCU. In fact, he's so good, you kind of want him to drop the side-kick role and get his own film. He can carry it.
Scarlett Johansson, that was a bit of a problem...she looked orange. It almost maybe gave you the impression that make-up was trying to give her a Donald Trump look.
Orange Scarlett was sort of distracting, but in Winter Soldier she had more screen time than almost any other film and she too owned the part. Sure, Natasha doesn't have any super powers but she took Buffy the Vampire Slayer's title of most beat down rough and tumble kick-butt female lead.
It's not only a stellar addition to the MCU, but it raises the bar for anything to follow and can stand alone as a great spy movie.