It's rare to go into a movie with high expectation and leave as satisfied as you hoped you would be. After a successful, but somewhat rocky start for the First Avenger; Captain America stitches himself onto the flag of Superhero movie greats (Batman, Spider-Man, and Superman). With the amount of advertising, there was a real fear this movie was destined to be over hyped. Every passing bus, commercial, or billboard was exploding (quite literally) with either Winter Soldier, Nick Furry, or Cap himself. I promise it does not disappoint. It was like Three Days of the Condor meets Jason Bourne with a syringe of Super Soldier Serum. If that doesn't intrigue you, then I assume you don’t have a pulse and I’m amazed you are reading this.
Captain America the Winter Soldier reunites us with Steve Rogers (Chris Evens) as he tries to adapt to our modern world. As he copes with being lost in time he continues to work black ops missions for S.H.E.I.L.D. where he starts to suspect that the values he signed up for are no longer the Priority. Honor and doing what is right is replaced with fear in this world of spies and espionage. During a seemingly routine mission for the Captain, he uncovers a plot of mass annihilation with S.H.E.I.L.D. holding the pen. Rogers teams up with The Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and new comer, Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to uncover the deadly secrets surrounding Nick Furry (Samuel L. Jackson), the leaders of S.H.E.I.L.D., and The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). With abilities that oddly resemble Steve’s own; this metaled armed ghost assassin (who looks like a mash up of every Mortal Kombat character) seems to always be a step or two ahead of our heroes. It all boils down to the age old thriller/crime/mystery genre question, “Who can you trust?”.
The story is full of fantastic performances and fun twists and turns that keep you guessing throughout the amazing action and stunning visuals. The story and action weave around each other like a flawless double helix that ends with a movie that can rival The Avengers… with just Captain America. Think about that… It’s like going to see a Beatles reunion concert, followed up by a George Harrison solo concert and saying it’s on par. Yeah. That good.
