Iron Man 3 and Thor The Dark World should start taking notes.

Rating: 9/10 (5 April 2014)

The Phase 2 Marvel Avengers tie-in movies have been kind of under a dry spell. Sure, Iron Man 3 and Thor the Dark World were entertaining, but they were no where near capturing the essence of the Marvel movies like The Avengers and before did. However, if there was any movie to bring light into this phase 2 of Marvel movies, it would be Captain America the Winter Soldier. Ever since the first trailer came out for this, there was lots of promise. So the question is, was that promise fulfilled? In this movie, Steve Rogers is still getting used to the new world after being frozen and whatnot. He has been taken up by SHIELD to do missions. During a mission, he discovers a secret behind SHIELD that could put everyone's lives in jeopardy. So Captain America, along with Black Widow, has to discover this secret and put a stop to what's going on. And even encounter the Winter Soldier. I loved the plot for this movie. It was well written and it certainly got me engrossed into the movie. One of the things that made the story shine was how it developed the characters. It made you really care about them and in some cases, fear for them. The acting in this movie is well done. Chris Evans does an awesome job as Captain America and I can't picture anyone who could play him better. Sam Jackson was a great Nick Fury, Anthony Mackie was a great Falcon, Sebastian Stan was a great Winter Soldier, and Scarlett Johansson was a great Black Widow. It's also just fun to look at Scarlett Johansson so yeah. The action in this movie is some of the best I've ever seen. It contains action that looks real, brutal, and gritty. You feel every hit that's blown. The action's exciting and certainly made me giggle with excitement. And yes, guys can giggle. Despite all of this, I have a couple minor, nit-picky complaints. First is that I feel there are a couple scenes that feel out of place. The movie as a whole is pretty consistent with its necessary scenes, but there are a couple parts in the movie that seem out of place. (SPOILER WARNING!) One of them is the scene where Captain America meets with the girlfriend he left behind back in the 40s. It is a nice scene in its own right, but it feels out of place because nothing like this happens for the rest of the movie (SPOILER OVER!). This doesn't happen a lot, though. There's probably about three of these out of place points. I also wish that the Winter Soldier was in this movie more. The Winter Soldier is an absolutely awesome character and he certainly is a menace. However, I think that he wasn't in the movie quite enough for this movie to be called "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". Maybe about ten more minutes of screen time would be perfect. Overall, Captain America: The Winter Soldier was fun, exciting, intense, and funny without the humor completely overshadowing the material. This is certainly one of the best Avengers tie-in movies. Yes, The Avengers movie itself is still my favorite in the series, but it's a close call between Iron Man and this. This is, without a doubt, my favorite movie of the year and you absolutely need to see it. And don't leave before the credits. Just saying.