Very good movie, the best from Marvel Studios?

Rating: 9/10 (4 August 2014)

Marvel Studios took a bold step back in 2008 with Iron Man (2008), which was both critically and commercially successful, but sadly things only got worse and worse from then on. When they announced Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it was clear that there was potential, seeing as how the first half of 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger is probably some of the best material in superhero origin movies.
'The Winter Soldier' delivers as much as it possibly could; Chris Evans becomes Captain America in this movie and absorbs the role of this patriotic ex-soldier who goes from seeing the world in black and white to noticing the gray in between and carries this entire film. Scarlett Johansson plays the Black Widow once again and she finally shows some more than just being cool and agile, but she's not a character that'll stay with you 'til the end of the year; at least you will remember she was here. Anthony Mackie is good as Sam Wilson/Falcon, even though he is very much two-dimensional and a comic relief, but he works and his action scenes flying (that could be counted with the fingers in one hand) are really impressive. Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier is, to me, on par with Chris Evans in both performance and overall character, being the only (?) other person from the 40's to be in present day and having his memory constantly erased to be a mercenary. Robert Redford and Samuel L. Jackson are good as well. The performances aren't exactly top- notch, but they're (arguably) the best on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Like Watchmen, this film takes the 'does the end justify the means?' question and uses it as a recurring theme throughout the film; there is also, as mentioned earlier, a lot of learning we don't live in a world in black and white anymore, and there's trust as well. Considering how much themes I've mentioned, this could've been as good as The Dark Knight, but it sadly is not. There are a lot of themes and a lot of commentary (that I'll get to in a minute) which could definitely be taken more seriously had there not been so many scenes that were dedicated mostly to comedy, but the way it's done it is, still, arguably the best usage of themes in the MCU.
The social commentary is mostly about, again, the ends justifying the means and more importantly, vigilance being the price of safety; in Benjamin Franklin's words ''He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither'' with (S.H.I.E.L.D.'s) Project Insight, which consists of targeting all possible threats and neutralizing them.
The score is mostly forgettable, which is a disappointment considering Alan Silvestri's jaw-dropping Captain America score in the first movie.
The villain is overall HYDRA, which means trouble, since we don't get to know Alexander Pierce(basically who represents HYDRA in this movie)'s motivations. Bucky is a victim, not the villain.
The film is, however, saved by technical aspects. The Russo brothers did a great job of mixing practical effects (God, I missed those) and CGI to create a more grounded in reality superhero movie that has action you actually care about.
Action, excitement, emotion, themes, commentary, solid performances, an intelligent script, and good characters make Captain America: The Winter Soldier one of the best Marvel films and hopefully also one that means they're finally starting to take things more seriously.
9/10