Marvel kicks it up a notch.

Rating: 9/10 (14 April 2014)

It would have been very easy for the second stand alone Captain America movie to simply bring back the Red Skull and pick things up right where THE FIRST AVENGER left off, Cosmic Cub and all; but the Russo brothers, who directed the third Cap go round, CAPTAIN America: THE WINTER SOLDIER, have given us a marvelous thriller that speaks very much to the fears and concerns of the 21st Century rather than just another super hero face off with a criminal mastermind determined to take over the world just because he can.
WINTER SOLDIER has Steve Rogers working for Shield in the aftermath of the events of THE AVENGERS and taking orders from Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, but this straight shooting hero from the 1940's has a tough time operating in the gray area that this kind of work demands, and when Shield decides to go the preemptive route, Cap has real problems; as well he should be, for I won't be giving anything away if I reveal that Shield has been infiltrated by one of Marvel's great invisible empires of evil and they're out to use all of Shield's high tech weaponry to bring their own version of "order" to the world.
In the end, it all comes down to Chris Evans's Captain America and a small group of allies to save the day and take down a mammoth conspiracy just in the nick of time. This brings Steve Rogers face to face with the Winter Soldier, aka Bucky Barnes, his best friend from their World War II days, now a revived super soldier just like Cap, but one whose memories have been wiped clean, making him the perfect assassin. Every super hero needs an antagonist who is his equal, and in the Winter Soldier, Cap gets a foe who can go toe to toe with him and then some. Their fights are spectacularly staged, especially a running street battle and their climatic throw down on the helicarrier. In fact, all the action scenes are terrific, the highlight has to be when Cap takes out that elevator filled with Shield agents all by himself.
The script and casting do a terrific job with The Black Widow and The Falcon, played by Scarlett Johannsson and Anthony Mackie respectively, fleshing out their characters nicely and making them compliments to the Captain: the Widow can be ruthless when the situation calls for it and the Falcon can fly, the one thing Cap can't do. Robert Redford brings all the gravitas of his fifty years in movies to the role of Alexander Pierce, the head honcho who likes to get his way. Sebastian Stan is back as Bucky, Cap's former best friend and now worst enemy, a potential villain who has the potential to rival Loki as a fan favorite. Who misses the Red Skull? But Toby Jones returns in a very pertinent cameo as Armin Zola. And Samuel L. Jackson takes Nick Fury to some places we haven't seen his intimidating character go before. As for Chris Evans, he is still doing a masterful job at making what some consider Marvel's dullest hero vibrant and relevant. The only casting problem I had was when Gary Shandling showed up as a Senator, it took me completely out of the movie.
WINTER SOLDIER does an excellent job of expanding the movie version of the Marvel Universe; we are introduced to Batroc and Jasper Stilwell among others, and that is Ed Brubaker, the writer of the original Winter Soldier comic book arc, as a scientist in one scene. If there is any complaint, it would be that Brubaker's original story was stream lined for the movie, leaving out some elements the fans loved.
As for the post credit sequences, they do a nice job of setting the stage for the next Avengers movie, when they go up against the evil Ultron. We meet some new characters for the first time, including one of Cap's oldest foes. It does a great job of leaving us wanting more.