Marvel's best stand-alone film yet

Rating: 9/10 (4 April 2014)

It's been mentioned several times before, but Marvel is steam-rolling through box-office numbers with movies that seem to get better with every release, and their key to success has been making great genre films that just so happens to have their superheroes in them. Winter Soldier follows the blueprint - you can now check "espionage-political thriller" off of Marvel's do-to list. And they do it RIGHT. (I'm looking at you, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is, hands down, Marvel's best stand- alone film to date. Let's go through the rundown

The main cast does an A+ job. Chris Evans shines, Samuel L. Jackson does Nick Fury justice, Anthony Mackie makes us care about Falcon, Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier is just right, and an especially great job by Scarlett Johansson, who really gets to cut loose with Black Widow this time around. ROBERT REDFORÐ as Alexander Pierce is a great fit, UFC star Georges St-Pierre as Batroc was terrific, and even many of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s lesser agents get some time to shine.

If you're following the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s TV show (and you should be, the 2nd half of this season has been TERRIFIC), then you'll be treated to a few bonus nuggets here and there. It's as if the show was slowing biding its time until Winter Soldier, as S.H.I.E.L.D. is a central focus of the movie, and will undoubtedly have massive effects on the show going forward. (This week's episode should be insane )

If you're a Marvel fan (of course you are) with some knowledge of where the movie universe is heading in the next few years, then there's a few Easter Eggs sprinkled in to get you excited as well. Pay attention, because they're quick

We opted for 2D this time around, but the movie was still visually beautiful. I wouldn't call 3D necessary, but I'm sure it would look great if you wanted to go that route. (If you see it in 3D, please let me know your opinion.)

Where this movie absolutely shines is in its story. Winter Soldier will keep you guessing and hit you with at least 1 or 2 more twists than you were expecting. Seriously, Jack Ryan take notes. - The final battle is EPIC.

The action is top-notch, but if there's one knock on Winter Soldier, it's that some of the action scenes suffer from that dreaded "shaky- cam", which is just a terrible thing to do when you've got so much great combat going on. It's not throughout the whole movie, but it's enough to notice.
The million dollar question: Is Winter Soldier better than Avengers? I say no but its 2nd only to Avengers as Marvel's best movie. And if you like espionage and internal politics in your action, then you might think differently.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier scores a 4.5 out of 5 on the ‪#‎BDBOS‬. Go see it. NOW.
Do I have to remind you to STAY THROUGH THE CREDITS? Two bonus scenes: one midway, another at the end. One of them will get you very excited
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