Great sequel to the Captain America saga

Rating: Null/10 (24 December 2018)

This is an improvement on its predecessor. The first two-thirds of The Winter Soldier almost feel more like a Cold War-era espionage thriller than a superhero movie. The movie concludes with the expected special effects-laden battles and beat-the-clock action but those scenes are composed more coherently than related sequences in similar movies. And, although The Winter Soldier is available in 3-D, it's perfectly capable of being enjoyed in the less expensive 2-D format. The Winter Soldier is effectively paced with enough action to keep things moving but not so much that it overwhelms everything. One of the keys to the film's efficacy is that it takes the time to develop the relationships among the four key members. The narrative contains its share of unpredictable elements and isn't afraid to shake up the status quo.