I never saw this one in cinemas, instead watching it for the first time in 2016 right before the release of the third Captain America movie, Civil War. This is the first time watching it since then, and like revisiting Guardians of the Galaxy 1 recently (another 2014 release), I was happy to see The Winter Soldier still holding up well. It combines paranoid spy thriller stuff with the usual large-scale MCU action well, but I do think it's at its best when it keeps the action grounded. I quite love how the sci-fi elements are down-played here, mostly saved, in a way, for Guardians Vol. 1, which was the most sci-fi-heavy MCU movie at the time of its release.

It's just great to see what looks like real explosions and car crashes, and such ordinary locations used for much of the action (until the final act). I feel like they were trying to replicate the action of The Dark Knight here, and they pulled it off pretty well. It's also very reminiscent of the Bourne movies... but yeah, they do end up doing the usual MCU thing of making things blow up to a pretty ridiculous level for the climax. This and Shang-Chi are the two big ones where I loved the style of action they went for in their respective first two acts, but found the action near the end to be not quite as impressive, even if it's "technically" bigger and more spectacular.

Still, the ending works well enough here, and the film does do a solid job of setting up the world-ending stakes stuff and building up to it. But I think the film's at its best when it's just Captain America on his own, with only a handful of people he can trust. The first two acts are largely great, and then I think the third act is still good, but not quite on the same level.

It's also a bit weird how many people get shot here, with bullets definitely hurting some more than others, but even then, there is a sense of real stakes here, for much of the movie. And I think pacing-wise and when it comes to action, it's much stronger than either the first or third Captain America movies.