CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER - What Are The Critics Saying?

With a mix of effective character moments, viscerally thrilling action, humor, intrigue, and surprising heart, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of Marvel Studios' strongest entries to date. This one is in fact a game changer. [9/10]

Winter Soldier hits its marks, and hits most of them strongly. If you’re a fan of the ongoing Marvel movie saga, there’s a lot to chew on. If you enjoy “which side are you on” conspiracies, the twists and turns satisfy. If you like team-up action with great chase sequences where you can put your brain in neutral and let the screen wash over you, a medium popcorn is probably required. Just make sure to engage your brain again for the ending.

For whatever reason, Captain America seems to be the character that the folks at Marvel Studios are really best at translating to the big screen. Joe Johnston’s Captain America: The First Avenger was an immensely fun period adventure with wonderful themes about duty and honor, and The Winter Soldier only furthers and expands on those ideas while replacing The Dirty Dozen approach with something closer to Three Days of the Condor. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a spectacularly-made, tense, thrilling ride, and whether you go to the theater for the blockbuster action or the exciting story, you will leave more than satisfied. [5*]

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is an ideal middle chapter in a larger story. The performances are charismatic, the story is surprising, and the action exciting. Plot wise, there’s some complex stuff going on ,which you’ll definitely need a conversation or two to get straight. When that happens though, you’ll be on pins and needles to see what it all means for everything Marvel moving ahead. There are some problems, but even acknowledging those, it’s hard not to fall in love with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. [7.5/10]

The first “Captain America” had a lot of great ideas, but its vacillation in tone and occasional failures to deliver the emotions for which it was clearly aiming made it one of the lesser recent Marvel movies. This time around, however, it's a movie that's raising the bar on what we can expect from the ongoing adventures of these men and women in tights.

All that said, there is a lot to like here. It looks great, it sounds great (Henry Jackman's score is a keeper), is performed strongly across the board, has some heart and soul behind, isn't afraid to be a little weird sometimes (another character from the first movie makes a very odd, very enjoyable return at the mid-point), and certainly more so than "Iron Man 3" or "Thor: The Dark World," feels like its own beast rather than the latest $200 million episode of the Marvel TV series. And maybe it's because it gets so much right, that what it gets wrong feels all the more frustrating. [B-]

The central conflict of this film is completely absurd – and may have far-reaching implications for some of the other Marvel properties – but the series continues to luck out with its ace casting choices, zippy dialogue and fast action. Despite all the explosions and ridiculous technology, you still care about Steve Rogers, whose anachronistic seriousness trying dutifully to fit in to our jaded times is as apt a metaphor for remix culture as anything else. This entry won’t win any new converts, but anyone already invested in this series is going to have a blast. [8/10]

Captain America may not flex as much box-office muscle as his Marvel stablemates Iron Man and Thor, but there's a steadfast band of fans who pledge allegiance to Captain America: The First Avenger as possibly the best of all the Marvel superhero films — other than The Avengers. These true-blue enthusiasts will not be disappointed in this second entry in the series, which takes the bold (for Marvel) step of reducing CGI spectacle to a relative minimum in favor of reviving the pleasures of hard-driving old-school action, surprising character development and intriguing suspense.

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" may not be the perfect representation of the comic books but that's actually a good thing. Instead, it gains huge points by working as a standalone movie set in the world of espionage and world politics that's different enough from previous Marvel movies to be more accessible for non-comic fans than anything Marvel's done thus far. [8/10]

Consistently entertaining, it clips along with the swagger that Marvel has earned as the dominant force in modern blockbusters, steamrolling over the sillier plot points. And the end result does at least help to bring around some seismic shifts to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a brave move from a studio unwilling to rest on their (ridiculously successful) laurels. With a string of gratifying action sequences, and a breakneck pace leavened by a frequently witty script, The Winter Soldier stands alone as a solidly entertaining blockbuster. [4*]

With Steve and the rest of the Avengers having each taken sizeable steps on their own personal journeys, it makes it even more exciting to see how these characters interact with one another once they reassemble next year. To that end, make sure you stay watching through the credits. Captain’s orders. [5*]