Thor: The Dark World underwhelmed me. A run of the mill nonsense plot with some epic action and Loki getting some funny lines.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier steps up to the plate and throws a curveball. In fact it takes a wrecking ball to the Agents of Shield. It strips it bare as a malevolent, infected bug that is not fit for purpose.

Captain America has to go off the grid when Nick Fury tells him to trust no one. Shield agents are going rogue. Fury is left impotent and the ultimate question the movie asks. Is Robert Redford's character Alexander Pierce a turncoat?

The Russo Brothers hark back to the 1970s conspiracy thrillers when filmmakers focused their attention in wrongdoing at the heart of government in an era of the Watergate scandal. Movies such as Three days of the Condor and All the President's Men, both starred Robert Redford.

The Russos wanted to imitate this with a Marvel twist. With the revelations that various governments in recent years in the name of national security have monitored vast amounts of computer databases to track our internet or phone usage. This film has touched a nerve.

We still get Marvel action heroics with big action set pieces. Captain America is more questioning but Chris Evans still cannot bring much life to what is a sturdy but dull comic book character.

He still gets a better deal than The Winter Soldier who seems to be in deep freeze. Scarlett Johansson and Anthony Mackie provide able support and the veterans Redford and Jackson ask us to think about the here and now.