Stonking! Now this is more like it, after the disappointments that have been Iron Man 2 and Thor 2, Captain America gets a sequel of substance and sparks. It manages to blend everything required to make a great superhero film, lashings of derring-do heroics, action bonanza, adventure, some sexy sizzle and of course the key, a story with brains and mystery elements.

True enough to say that the considerable contributions of Black Widow and Falcon (and Nick Fury of course) keeps this as a lively Avengers spin-off movie, which is no bad thing at all, but it's still the Captain who dominates things, marking himself out as a viable main man. In fact the whole film has the old school comic book feel, yes there's the grandiose pyrotechnics - unsurprisingly amped up for the big finale, but there's an adherence to serial thriller conventions that is, well, rather warm and comforting.

With the Captain getting some surprising amount of emotional depth and humanity courtesy of the perfectly cast Chris Evans, the viewers have much to care about. Themes of Bondian world domination and global security crisis keep things nice and fanciful, while the unheralded work by the effects guys is modern cinematic art. There's some adherence to genre formula, and a bit of Marvel universe copy-catting going on, but this is one of the best films from the Marvel stable. A rich sequel indeed - more Captain America please. 9/10