Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Marvel Studio's Dark Knight

As the title of this review implies,Captain America: The Winter Soldier is good.  Really good.  Great, even.  Directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, whose only other credits include shows like Community and Arrested Development, Winter Soldier is a game-changer for the Marvel cinematic universe and not only redefines the self-contained world Marvel has made but also the superhero genre as a whole.

Winter Soldier picks up sometime after the events of The Avengers.  Thor's gone back to Asgard, Hawkeye's off doing who knows what, and Bruce Banner and Tony Stark are getting into science adventures together somewhere.  Steve Rogers, the titular Captain America (played to near four color perfection by Chris Evans) however, can't go back to the forties so he's stuck doing missions for S.H.I.E.L.D., accompanied by his own Seal Team Six-esque strike team that includes Black Widow.  Cap eventually grows suspicious of the defense agency, thanks in no small part to Alexander Pierce, head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury's boss played by always-great, Robert Redford.  Things get even messier for Cap when the vicious Winter Soldier, a half-mechanical walking path of destruction is set loose. 

The inclusion of Redford to the cast speaks volumes to what Marvel and the Russo brothers set to accomplish with Winter Soldier, a political thriller in the same vain as previous Redford starrers, All the President's Men and Three Days of the Condor, mixed in with the typical trappings of a superhero tent pole film.  While the film may lean closer to the side of the super-action movie spectrum, Winter Soldier is still the most politically aware superhero movie since The Dark Knight. 
 

Marvel's new film shoulders hot button topics like what true privacy means in our connected world on top of good old-fashioned political indecency (it's no coincidence that the Triskelion, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters, has a good view of the Watergate Hotel).  While Redford provides prestige to Winter Soldier, it is still Evans' movie, and he seems to have finally grown into his role as Captain America.  Cap, while iconic, can still fall into the same old-fashioned Boy Scout trappings that Superman is often also accused of.  True fans of course realize that Cap's strong moral compass is just as much a superpower as his strength and shield-throwing abilities.  Evans nails Steve Rogers' polite demeanor but also the soul and angst of a man out of time.

While much can still be said about the performances and ethos of The Winter Soldier, one of the main audience draws of any big superhero movie is the action, which is just as big, if not better, than The Avengers.  The Winter Soldier could very well be the most violent Marvel Studios film to date.  All of the gunplay and car wrecks on crowded streets sell the quasi-realism the film is aiming for, and while there is plenty of action here, it is always in service to the story and not against it.  The opening action scene alone, set on a hijacked S.H.I.E.L.D. boat, features more awesome Cap in action moments than Avengers and Captain America: The First Avenger combined.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier succeeds on multiple fronts; it offers high quality big screen spectacle while still having a purpose.  While sometimes that purpose might seem lost among all the gunfire, it still stands tall next to other greats in the action film genre.  While far more successful than Iron Man 3 in terms of balancing source material with creativity, both films go to show that Marvel Studios is willing to be a little more grown up with its film adventures.