Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Written by CinemaSerf on March 28, 2022

Picking up from his rather frosty denouement of 2011, "Capt. America" (Chris Evans) finds himself seventy years older but still with battles to fight. This time, he teams up with "Nick Fury" (Samuel L. Jackson) and his SHIELD agent "Natasha" (Scarlet Johansson) to combat the ruthless warrior known only as the "Winter Soldier". It doesn't take us long to discover that there is quite conspiracy going on too - with an attempt on the life of "Fury" before off we go on a roller-coaster ride of action adventure scenarios. The effects are great and the score works well to help keep the break-neck pace working well and excitingly. Evans is still just a little too pretty-boy for me, but the developing roles of Anthony Mackie, Johansson and a few cameos from the somewhat duplicitous "Pierce" (Robert Redford) all contribute well to make this a superior adventure film with a strong and characterful story underpinning it. It hasn't quite the charm of the first film, so I wouldn't say it is better - but it is certainly just as good, and as with the first outing, the 2¼ hours just flies by. Great cinema.