Most people probably would have answered "Iron Man" when asked about their favorite stand-alone Marvel movie since Favreau's adaption hit the cinemas in 2008 but in 2014 our beloved Marvel superhero received some serious competition. At this time "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" hit the cinemas. Having never been a huge fan of the first movie or of the hero himself in "The Avengers", my hopes for this one were pretty low and I even considered not watching it but gladly I did!

Steve Rogers alias Captain America (Chris Evans) still tries to accustom himself to the new era. He and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) regularly observe secret missions by the order of SHIELD 's director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Soon he learns that SHIELD got infiltrated by agents of HYDRA and additionally the world 's most dangerous assassin the Winter Soldier is in pursuit of him.

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" takes Marvel movies to a new level. When watching a Marvel movie you can usually expect a lot of well-done action, a great protagonist, a little bit of a love story and enough humour to keep yourself entertained. "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" brings all those elements typical of Marvel to perfection and even adds something new. Besides the Winter Soldier being for Marvel's standard an extraordinary villain with a great emotional impact on Chris Evans' Captain America, the movie can be viewed as a political thriller taking place in the Marvel universe as well.

If you are a Marvel fan you probably will love this movie such as if you are a fan of action movies in general. The only recommendation before watching this film would be to be familiar with the first Captain America movie (and in the best case "The Avengers" as well) otherwise you might not understand every notion of the movie fully.

To sum up, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" is my favorite movie of 2014 and every fan of comic book adaptations should watch it!