Starring: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Mackie
THREE STARS out of five

 

Steve Rogers, aka Captain America (Chris Evans), is back and adjusting to life in the modern world. Unfrozen for his assignment with The Avengers, missing most of the seventy years since World War Two ended has understandably left him feeling a bit displaced.

No time for reflection though, because there is a new threat to world peace.

He’s taking orders from Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) of S.H.I.E.L.D and has never had a problem falling into line to defend his country before, but now the super soldier is starting to question his superiors. There's a suspicion that S.H.I.E.L.D have become too powerful and all-pervasive, sacrificing civil liberty in the name of security.

Taking charge of the latest film in the Marvel franchise juggernaut are brothers Anthony and Joe Russo.

A strange choice, as arguably their biggest film to-date was the romantic comedy You, Me and Dupree, but they let The Winter Soldier's whopping $170 million do most of the work, leaving little opportunity to assess them as directors.

Regular and spectacular action set-pieces keep the film ticking along at pace – such as when Captain America tackles a high tech fighter jet with just his wits and his shield.

Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow is a refreshingly strong role for a woman in an action film.

Instead of just being a sexy sidekick, she is a pivotal member of S.H.I.E.L.D, beats up the bad guys as comprehensively as anyone else, and is the brains to Rogers very muscular brawn.

As you would expect from a Marvel film, it's entertaining, slickly made popcorn cinema. But stuffing a film full of CGI-heavy fight sequences, stunts and explosions doesn't make it stand out enough from a similarly flashy crowd.

That said, the sight of Jenny Agutter bashing a few henchmen's heads together raised a big cheer from the audience.

Being set during World War Two allowed predecessor Captain America: The First Avenger to play with the superhero genre and the time period.

While The Winter Soldier doesn't become as po-faced about saving human-kind as The Dark Knight trilogy, it's just not as much fun as when they were fighting the Nazis.