Marvel showed pretty clearly in Iron Man 3 that they are not afraid to take risk, bend comic stories and venture into unknown territories. I was pleasantly surprised by Captain America : The Winter Soldier because Marvel is able to do surprise audience like never before. This movie has mostly everything a fan could ask for. A political drama, conspiracy theories, Chris Evans portrayal of a "out of his time" superhero who is trying to blend in with the world and thinks that "Internet is helpful", typical Marvel's laugh out loud moments and above all some mesmerizing action sequences. Threat in this movie is not as big as the one in Thor :The Dark World since only our tiny planet is at stake rather than entire 9 realms with imaginative difficult to pronounce names, but thanks to some very smart blend of direction, acting and close to perfect background scores, threat seems to be much bigger and more importantly, real this time. You actually care for the fate of entire planet and characters. You do come face to face with the full potential of SHIELD and its structure, its influence on world politics and when the actual villain is revealed, you just cannot hide your excitement. SHIELD acts as a central character in the movie and shows itself to be far bigger and complex than what we suspected after watching all the Marvel offerings. There is Nick Fury as usual hiding secrets, keeping secrets and digging secrets but watching him vulnerable in this movie is much better than watching him acting all almighty in Avengers. Chris Evans shine in this role and I can imagine he won't be at the bottom of favorite Avengers list after this movie. His portrayal of Captain America is near perfect. Scarlett Johansson is a surprise package in the film portraying Black Widow character. She gets ample screen time presence this time, even in scenes where she is not kicking someone. It is actually the first time we learn something about Black Widow, duplicity in her character just adds tension to the already built suspense in the movie. Sebastian Stan is good in his portrayal of winter soldier. He is a perfect nemesis to Captain America in the movie. I bet you haven't seen such creative combat scenes between these two ever before. Action here is not as loud as Thor movies, it is more real, every bullet which find its target hurts, every punch delivered matters, it is so enjoyable to watch just because it is so real. I wish I could write about some more characters but that will be giving away some key points. Please be assured there are some great character comebacks, some you expected, some you didn't. I was a little let down by the climax of the film by its simplicity after the real motive of the real villain is revealed, but of course you have to remember its a Marvel film, there doesn't exist any situation alien/political/social which can't be solved by few explosions and kicks. Overall it's a highly entertaining film from Marvel, I will put it behind only Avengers and first Iron Man, this movie deserves your weekend. And of course it goes without saying, don't dare to leave your seats until last credits have rolled out, you have probably all heard the rumors about Joss Whedon directing the end credit scene. Yes it is awesome and offers an insight into the next Avengers movie.