Good film, just a little bit...

Rating: 7/10 (28 June 2014)

... samey. Not that it is anything like the first Cap'n America outing, but just that all these Marvel movies are starting to tread a very similar path.
By that I mean the plot is entirely predictable and refuses to be anything other than that. There are no surprises here. Just a tried and tested formula that, whilst it works, leaves you ultimately feeling a little let down.
It's kind of difficult to write this review, because although I enjoyed the movie, I also think it didn't live up to the hype. There is plenty of action and effects but little else.
For example... The Cap is from the era of World War 2. All his friends and family are gone. Yet there wasn't much in this film to really make you feel for the guy's predicament. There are references and so on, but the script didn't really try that hard to make you feel sorry for the proverbial "Man out of time". It felt more of a "Oh isn't this sad.... moving on..." kind of thing that doesn't really do him justice.
Also, though it was obvious they'd bring him forward through time to the modern day setting, I can't help but miss the first movies' setting. Call me old-fashioned, but there is something comforting and right about seeing a superhero beat up Nazis that just isn't there with their modern day descendants in Hydra.
That said, the story thread involving his supposedly dead buddy from the "good old days" was a nice inclusion but, again, I don't think they really did it the justice it deserved. It was there, but it was almost like (as above) that they wanted to get the personal aspects of that out of the way as quickly as possible.
One other thing I noticed... I know the Cap is superhuman because of the serum he was given, but it seems to me he's even more super in this outing than in the first one. He's not superman, of course. He can't fly but boy! Can he fall well! The thing I like most about Cap'n America was that he was the most normal seeming of the heroes. I hope they don't take that away from him in future.
Finally, please, please stop shoehorning Stan Lee into every Marvel movie. It was nice to begin with but now it is just embarrassing. It's also incredibly immersion breaking. You know he's going to be there, somewhere, at some point in the film. Then, just as you begin to really get into things, up he pops! It's bloody annoying and it needs to stop. With Stan Lee it was just a passing shot to begin with. Now they're giving him lines, for God's sake! Just stop it! Anything that pulls you out of the fantasy world the movie creates is just wrong and the sooner Hollywood and its directors (sadly I'm looking at you all too often, Peter Jackson!) understand this, the better.
There. I'm done.
SUMMARY: Good action movie. Primarily Eye candy over substance but enjoyable anyway. Personal story threads feel rushed and an afterthought. A decent sequel, but a little over-hyped, as usual.