Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Two words: Hell yeah! It seems the only movies I've been to see in the theaters lately with the exception of the Evil Dead remake and Star Trek Into Darkness have been superhero movies. And I'm okay with that because they've been pretty damn good lately. Captain America: The Winter Soldier can be considered as yet another notch in Marvel's increasingly impressive arsenal of movies. This time we may very well have what can be considered as the true rival of The Avengers in terms of movie goodness. 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier continues a popular trend of making an even darker sequel while striving for even greater spectacle and it really works in this movie for the most part. I really enjoyed the first Captain America movie even though it might not garner the same praise as Iron Man or Thor, but I can't imagine this movie not being considered one of the best sequels of all time. This movie is a flatout damn good summer action/superhero flick with a good story and a better cast. 

Naturally, Chris Evans and Samuel L. Jackson return to kick ass in their respective roles as Captain America and Nick Fury, but it's made pretty obvious from the beginning that the two characters don't always get along. In some ways, Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. represent some of the very things Captain America has always stood against, but it all comes down to the tremendous amount of time that has past since 1945 and how shitty this world and society has become. The greatest generation has given the torch to... us. I'd feel pretty out of it if I was him, too. 

I don't know about you, but I had been waiting for Nick Fury to actually get a bit of plot time. He's always been the guy in charge and until this movie he hasn't really been given a chance to flex his muscles. Well, I can now rejoice as this movie is largely about Nick Fury and his association to S.H.I.E.L.D. Samuel L. Jackson actually gets to shoot at people in this movie. That's reason enough to see it.

Scarlett Johansson (schwing!) co-stars as the Black Widow, this time as a sidekick of the Captain. She is a perfect representation of our cynical times and her character makes a for good dichotomy with Captain America. It's a shame they didn't get it on and make some superhero babies in this movie, but maybe they are saving that for the sequel. 

I was actually pretty surprised to see Robert Redford (I hadn't seen the previews), but he was an excellent addition to the cast. I think more of these Marvel movies should give more veteran actors a chance to flex their muscles in these bombastic technological marvels of film.

I think one of the reasons I liked the first Captain America so much was the presence of Tommy Lee Jones and I'm glad that the casting gurus behind the second film chose to get one the "old guys," too. 

As for the Winter Soldier himself... I think his character and his duels with Captain America could be one of the more uninteresting things about this movie. I wasn't blown away by his character or his background. However, there is a reason for this and it is a nerdy one. This is me, after all. 

The relationship between those two isn't that different from the relationship between Naruto and Sasuke in Naruto and later Naruto Shippuden. After a couple hundred episodes over the last few months of that I understandably thought, "This same character relationship again?" as I watched the movie. Of course, it's not exactly the same, but there are similarities. 

Still, that doesn't take anything away from how good the movie is. It just means that I've been watching too much Naruto Shippuden. 

Anyway, great flick. My advice? Watch this movie!