Marvel's Best to Date

Rating: 10/10 (5 April 2014)

10/10. It's a phenomenal movie, and and instant all time favorite action flick for me. The action and fights are so, so , so well done. You can almost feel the thuds as Cap slams his shield into someone, or as Black Widow uses some crazy luchadore takedown move. The creators did a good job of framing the camera and shooting in a way that lets you get a great feel for the action. The action in this is simply state of the art.
The story is good, even outside of "comic book movie standards", which can tend to be a little campy and goofy. This story goes much, much deeper than "good guy vs. bad" and even touches on some issues in today's society relating to things like social media and government surveillance of the populace. All in all the story hits on a nice espionage angle, and it definitely provides a breath of fresh air to the "Hulk smash" solutions that Wolvie, Thor, Iran Man and umm.. The Hulk tend to resort to.
Character wise, I was impressed with the development they brought with this story. I was kind of "meh" on Cap's character before now, feeling that he was overshadowed by the other Avengers (namely Iron Man and Thor). Cap has always been the boy scout and loyal soldier in "First Avenger" and "The Avengers", but the creators took this movie as an opportunity to take his shining example and really flesh it out. He really comes across as a patriot and a man of high moral standards and integrity... yet is also 93 years old and out of place in our modern world. IMO, after this movie Cap is right up there with Wolverine and Tony Stark in terms of charisma. This is a character you want to see more of because he is the absolute embodiment of the "selfless hero".
And they really didn't overdo it with the heroic posing or bad boy attitudes that are so common in some other franchises... *cough* Iron Man *cough* Wolverine. Not to say I don't like those characters... But Cap offers something on the other end of that spectrum. It's a fresh improvement to the Avengers/Marvel lineup, and I'm really excited to see where Marvel is able to take this cast in the future.
Now I just can't wait for the DVD.