Captain America: The Winter Soldier is 'THE' best Marvel movie made to date. There I said it. It simply kills. While the first Captain America was phenomenal (we all know how much I love a period piece) the second does a good job of topping it. The Winter Soldier is extraordinarily written, directed and acted. I have absolutely no complaints with this film at all and that's saying something. I'll bitch about anything.
Steve Rogers is back after his stint in the Avengers initiative. Hes adapting to life in 2014 and soon realizes something is amiss. This movie does a great job of crossing over it's dissemination of S.H.I.E.L.D. with it's T.V. counterpart, 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D'. Watching M.A.O.S might also help in making this movie rise above the rest. It just goes to show that they got some great writers on board for this film as well as Marvel's AOS and helps it feel like a larger entity than it is. The Winter Soldier story arc isn't ripped directly from the comics. Instead its loosely based on several aspects from different time intervals in the Captain America universe. This isn't a bad thing. The writing and storyline for Winter Soldier is partly what makes this such an amazing film. This screenplay is simply fantastic! and does Captain America justice.
Here's 4 reasons to see it
4. Nick Fury
While Nick Fury has been a staple of Marvel Phase 1 and 2 movies, he stands out out in The Winter Soldier. I think mainly because he has finally shown that he is human and vulnerable. The Avengers portrayed him as as one of the most bad-ass non superheroes to ever exist. Jumping from crashing helicopters, appearing superhuman and escaping death over and over. But with the Winter Soldiers great writing staff, they set up Fury to be more down to Earth in terms of his longevity.
3. The Winter Soldier
Capt. America: The Winter Soldier tells a great story, even though its title character "The Winter Soldier" doesn't play as big of the antagonist as one would think, but more of a puppet for Robert Redford's master plan, but he is big part of the movie's success. Most fans of the comics will know The Winter Soldier's origins even though he's fairly recent (2005) but it translates pretty well onto the large screen. Especially his timely realization in the end credits. It's always great to see aspects of comic book movies stay close to their comics book roots in a way that appeases their fans. 'The Winter Soldier' character does it well.
2. The Winter Soldier/Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D tie in
For one of the first times in history we have a major motion picture and a major television show working off the same story line/timeframe. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D time line follows the theatrical release of The Winter Soldier perfectly. This is an amazing piece of work on all fronts, and must have taken A LOT of work and planning. They pulled it off flawlessly.
1. WRITING WRITING WRITING
The major selling point of this movie HAS to be writing. Direction was superb but the writing was fantastic. It has to be one of the best written comic book movies second only to The Dark Knight. This movie ditched aliens and a lot of the hockey super human aspects of superheroes (e.g. Iron Man 3 2013, the Avengers 2012) to focus more on a practical, real life take (e.g. Iron Man 2008, The Dark Knight 2008). While CGI was still a huge part, we saw less "magical" super powers and more straight out 'fight scenes full of fists'. This grounds the film much like wrapping the story around historical events (e.g. X-Men First Class) and it does wonders.
