I’ll start off by saying that I genuinely enjoyed Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Overall it was likely on-par with the first movie, and thus the second best movie in the MCU (the first being Iron Man). CA:TWS was also far superior to (IMO) the awful Iron Man 3 and mediocre Thor: The Dark World.
More importantly, however, it did the one thing that nearly all the Disney Marvel films missed - that is, have some social commentary and meaningful character development.
That being said, there were a few things that I believe could have been done to make the movie even better.
4. DON’T INCLUDE THE FALCON (OR LIMIT HIS ROLE)
While Falcon was cool to see on screen, he honestly served little purpose in the movie. Had he been cut out, or at most made a cameo it would have served the plot better. What he added to the story could have been done in another way Including Falcon means less time for Captain America. Which leads to my next point...
3. CUT BACK ON BLACK WIDOW’S SCREEN TIME A BIT
Black Widow has a very important role in the film, however, had her screen time been cut back just a bit (perhaps introduce her at a later point in the movie or have her in only specific scenes) we’d have more time to see Steve’s day-to-day life and own interactions. Further, her constant joking/conversations about dating became tiresome and largely out of place.
2. BETTER ESTABLISH AGENT 13 AKA SHARON CARTER
Agent 13 is an important character in Captain America’s life in the comics, yet she only gets a handful of scenes in the movie, none of which establish her connection to Peggy - likely leaving most movie-goers unsure of the entire point of having her in the movie.
1. FOCUS MORE ON THE WINTER SOLDIER
The biggest problem I had with the movie, was its failure to live up to the promise the title suggests. The movie is called Captain America: The Winter Soldier, yet plays out as AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D: THE RETURN OF HYDRA. The Winter Soldier is given so little focus for the majority of the movie (especially compared to Alexander Pierce and/or Crossbones) and is given no development. He essentially comes off as a mere, mindless goon until the last 10 minutes - which is incredibly disappointing.
Thus, had the movie focused more on Captain America vs the Winter Soldier, with a larger supporting role for Agent 13, it could have elevated it from a good superhero movie to one of the greatest ever made.
But overall I liked Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and am interested to see where they take these characters in the future.
My score: 7.8/10