Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), PG-13, ★★★1/2

Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johannson).

After the Avengers, any superhero movie, including The Dark Knight Rises, tries to have a plot that raises interest for the audience in various tones and themes. Even though Rises was a great picture, the movie was more of a dark conclusion than a fun superhero film. The rest of the Marvel movies such as: Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, and The Amazing Spider-Man tried a bit too hard to create some fun adrenaline, but the filmmakers do not create an imaginative plot or story. This time, this Captain America sequel is on the top-tier level of Marvel superhero films in terms of action and story.

The film opens with Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) going on a quick morning run with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). After the latter is resting and the former catches up, they both formally introduce each other as Sam is a war veteran and he knows that Steve is catching up to know the ways of the 21st century. Sam suggest to listen to one of Marvin Gaye's albums to catch up along with additional topics on his list to research for on the Internet and in the library.

When Steve is called off for a mission, he and Nastasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow, (Scarlett Johannson) join other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, led by Brock (Frank Grillo) to save the hostages on the Lemurian Star, a SHIELD vessel, which is captured by pirates. As the agents and Steve, a.k.a. Captain America finish the mission, Steve notices Natasha transferring files from a computer onto a SHIELD flash drive. It was Natasha's own mission.

Steve confronts Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) about Natasha's motives. Nick responds to Steve that he would have been uncomfortable about Nick's mission, so he let Natasha perform the task. Plus, the flash drive has much information regarding SHIELD and it can easily be compromised. Nick also says that he cannot trust anybody, even those close working with him. Nick takes Steve down to an underground level where he shows Steve three Helicarriers, which are part of Project Insight: an operation that connects the Helicarriers to spy satellites triangulating positions on a suspected region to prevent any future terrorist attacks.

Fury tries to access the files that Natasha retrieved from the mission, but his access is denied. So, he has a meeting with Secretary Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) to delay Project Insight. Pierce agrees in exchange for Iron Man to be at his niece's birthday. After the meeting, Fury is driving and contacts Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) to meet at a rendezvous point until multiple vehicles attack him. When Fury gets away from the attack, he is attacked by a masked assassin, The Winter Soldier (Alexander Stan), using a rocket launcher to stop the car. But, Fury escapes using a laser weapon. Somehow, the mission is compromised. Who was behind the surprise attack?

Secretary Pierce (Robert Redford) meeting Cap. America.

Let me be concise: this latest superhero film is the best film in the post-Avengers era. Also, I think this movie is up there with Iron Man, The Avengers and Spider-Man 2 in the Marvel compilation of superhero flicks. In terms of craftsmanship, this movie is superb in terms of action and storytelling. I thought that the political background in the main storyline is quite useful as it makes modern references to what is going on in today's society. In my opinion, I do not know is anything is getting the work done in the Republican and Democratic sides of the legislative, executive and judicial parts of the system. Even, the personal sides of Captain America's story is quite complex as when a major event happens during the movie that has something to do with his past. There are many references to the first Captain America movie, Iron Man, and a hint of Thor.

Chris Evans is quite comfortable in his role of Captain America. Plus, I think that this is his most complex role to date as we see his character develop into a vulnerable state of adapting into modern society and strategic political solutions and also, reliving his past. Scarlett Johansson is still fierce as Black Widow and has a bit of chemistry with Evans. Anthony Mackie provides some humor and presence onto the screen. He creates energy when providing jokes or fighting with bad guys. Samuel L. Jackson is sharp, and Robert Redford gives a fantastic and subtly dark performance as the secretary trying to come up with the cold but right solution to change the nation. And, Alexander Stan did a great job as the Winter Soldier. He is really menacing and frightening just walking towards you with a huge weapon. At times, he was as equally frightening as the Joker in The Dark Knight.

This movie takes an ambitious chance by interweaving political themes and suspense into interesting scenes. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo made an astute picture that will cajole die-hard fans to pay attention to the political deceit as well as taken into the non-stop action. The action sequences, especially the car chase, are coherent to the story and it was mightily impressive.

There were minor problems with Captain America being shot and injured and then suddenly, he's back to normal. He was a bit inconsistent and also there were a few scenes in the beginning of the movie that felt unfinished. Also, the filmmakers did not introduce the Falcon too well. But all those problems aside, this is a summer blockbuster film that is disguised as an April film. Marvel Studios was very smart of releasing this picture in April. This is a strong entry to the Avengers canon and you are going to have a fun time after watching this film. Hail Captain America!

Note: Stay after the movie is over where there is a scene teasing the next Avengers movie in the mid-credits portion and a scene after the credits.

***1/2