Espionage Superhero

Rating: 7/10 (17 January 2015)

As Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) struggles to embrace his role in the modern world, he teams up with another super soldier, the Black Widow, to battle a new threat from old history: an assassin known as the Winter Soldier.
This was a very clever plot idea. Rather than the super villains of other heroes, have Captain America take on his own spy agency. This is the sort of thing one might expect in the Nick Fury comics, but Cap fills the role in nicely here. (Apparently Cap is replacing Fury, as now we see that he had the "Howling Commandos" in World War II, a group formerly lead by Fury in the traditional continuity).
Apparently the Russo Brothers wanted to keep visual effects to a minimum, and this was a wise choice. Unfortunately, the effects kept in look really bad. How this got an Oscar nomination is unclear, because the scenes are just so animated-looking. Cap on the plane, attacking it with a shield? Could probably have been done without effects, and now looks silly.
At least we finally got to see Samuel L. Jackson in an impressive car chase.