Now the long: As you can probably glean from the above, I managed to actually see Captain America 2 in the theater on opening weekend. That, in itself, is an achievement, and a testament to my status as a Captain America fangirl. Of course, I would have seen it had it looked like crap. But, it didn’t, so I feel justified.
Suffice it to say that, like many reviewers have stated, this film ups the ante for Marvel movies. The bar is set high on many levels. Story, action, cinematography, acting…it’s all top notch. I’m no film reviewer, so I can’t really go into the nuances and subtleties of what makes a great film great. I can only give you my visceral, gut feeling.
And that feeling is that this has supplanted The First Avenger as my favorite superhero movie.
The story and character development in this one were amazing. In the end every major character goes through a character arc, and comes out changed in some way. And I really liked that, even though it was a Captain America movie, both of his partners got major screen time and some good characterization. The villains were suitably subtle and evil, and the overall plot was well-executed, and worthy of the best of what makes comic books great.
And then there are the Easter Eggs. I know I probably missed a lot of them, but I also know I caught a lot of them; names mentioned, places mentioned, quotes strategically placed. I even liked that a lot of details were put out there for the fans of the comics, but they didn’t require any previous knowledge about them to make the movie work for casual fans of the films. The fact that I knew who certain characters are in the comics, just made it that much cooler for me.
In the end, it’s a great action movie, with a strong “political thriller” vibe. There’s some surprises, some gasp-worthy moments, and even some deep feels. Seeds were planted for Cap3, as well as other Marvel movies, and I am really looking forward to those.
So, yes. At this point, a “perfect” movie. 5 Stars. A 10/10. Four enthusiastic thumbs up. However you want to scale it, this movie is awesome. And well worth seeing on the big screen.
