Spider-Man review (PS4 game)

Spider-Man is one of the few Superheroes I’ve ever had much interest in, there’s something about the struggles of Peter Parker that relate to me more than a vigilante billionaire or a super powered king, or alien. He has a certain humility that we can all relate to, so I ought to have been really excited for this game, but I was kind of ambivalent to the whole thing.

It was only closer to the release that I decided that I wanted to buy it, and I’m glad I did. After a brief introduction at the start, you are immediately thrust onto the streets of New York, swinging seamlessly from one building to another. This brief moment captures so much of the fun of the game, not only is the open world of New York city brilliantly realised, it’s fun to effortlessly traverse through.

For me an open world game lives and dies on how engaging it is through the agency it gives its players. And while Spider- Man does in many ways steal all of the typical tropes from the genre, it actually makes the setting immersive and the overall package utterly fantastic.

Set years after the death of Uncle Ben, we are thrown into a world where Spider Man is an already established hero, this is no origin story. Much like the comics, Peter is a good natured person who is just trying to get through life, in this interpretation he is working for Otto Octavius as a lab assistant.

The plot twists and turns along the way, but without going into spoilers, the driving thrust of the story is set around a group called ‘Inner Demons’, they are led by a villain called Mister Negative, and it’s basically up to Spider-Man to stop them from terrorising the streets of New York. Throughout the story you will encounter many familiar faces within the Spider-Man lore, from Jonah Jameson, Aunt May, the Osborns, Mary Jane, amongst others.

All of the characters live up to their namesake, fulfilling new and surprising roles within this alternate Spiderverse. Jonah Jameson as an Alex Jones type pundit for a news network is a particular highlight. The characters are generally outstanding and lift up what is an otherwise decent if unremarkable story. The relationship between Mary Jane and Peter is a real highlight.

The open world is dotted with activities alongside the mainline campaign, with newer challenges and side missions unlocked the further you progress in the story. It will feel immediately familiar to anyone who has played any open world game in the last decade. Completing side activities exist to gain XP and tokens that you use to upgrade your skill tree, your gadgets, as well as all new suits. The amount of extra suits really took me by surprise, my personal favourite was the Homecoming suit from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  

The collectables are not a chore to get through and add depth to the experience. They come in two forms, the first are backpacks which give you items from a time in Peter’s past. Aside from giving you upgrade tokens, they have no effect on the gameplay, and work the same way the artefacts work in the new Tomb Raider games. A voiceover from Peter will come on when you pick them up, to give them some expository context. The other collectable activity is taking photos of landmarks that are placed around the city. These are a mix up of real life locations such as the Empire State building and others that are set within the Marvel lore, like The Daily Bugle for example.

A lot of the story missions try and tempt you to use stealth to get through areas littered with enemies, you can do this by using your webs to get from one place to the next in the same way Batman used his grappling hook in the Arkham games. But it’s nowhere near as good because the environments were far more contained in those games, and Batman had a lot more environmental gadgets at his disposal. I rarely went down this route too often, and that’s because I enjoyed the combat quite a lot.

The combat leans heavily towards counter attacking, with combinations playing a pivotal role when you’ve made a dodge. Even with the upgrades and skills you gain, it can get slightly repetitive, but it’s always intuitive and fun because of the abundance of moves and gadgets you have to experiment with.

While the game is never too challenging, the enemies gradually get trickier the further into the game you get. They tend to attack in numbers and generally do a decent amount of damage if you’re not careful, so there’s no spamming one button to victory in this game. The only real gripe I had with the combat was the camera, Spider-Man moves so fast there’ll be times when the camera can’t keep pace, so you’ll end up with an enemy getting a cheap hit on you.

The story campaign has the best content, like so many open world games it’s the meat of the experience while the side missions are filler to supplement your progression. But it’s not all good in regards to the campaign, there are small segments of forced stealth missions where you’ll be controlling another character such as Mary Jane or Miles Morales. There isn’t too many of them, and they do allow you to see a different perspective within the plot. But they're generally bland and severely grind down the pace of the game, leaving them feeling a tad out of place.

There are puzzle segments within Otto Octavius's lab, some of these are optional but they are compulsory at certain points in the campaign. I really enjoyed them in small doses, some were real brain scratchers, but the game hits you over the head with far too many of them all at once. Another slight nag are the boss battles, while cinematic, none are particularly memorable and a lot of them rely too heavily on quick time events and waiting for the villain to telegraph their attacks.

Outside of the story and side activity, there is also a photo mode that will keep you busy. New York is visually stunning and realistic, while retaining its own Marvel identity that we’re so familiar with from the comics as well as the movies. As someone who has been to the city several times, the level of detail and lighting took my breath away, the beautiful vistas above the cityscapes is truly inspired. So there is plenty of opportunities to take selfies and share them online.

In a year full of exemplary games, Spider-Man has been the most fun and entertaining one out of the lot. It’s an open world game that not only rewards exploration but it allows the gameplay mechanics to interact and flourish along with it. It’s not flawless, and I think it’s just shy of being truly great, but the ending left me wanting more, and really looking forward to the direction the inevitable sequel takes. This is an absolute must buy for any PlayStation 4 owner, if you miss out you’ll have passed up on something truly special.

Verdict

4.5/5

Avengers: Infinity War review

Director: Anthony and Joe Russo
Running time: 149 minutes


(minor spoilers in the review!!)

Ten years after Iron Man was released to begin the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and having been teased since the first Avengers movie six years ago, Thanos, the ultimate Marvel villain is finally coming for the rest of the Infinity stones.

And this was to my surprise, a Thanos movie, despite The Avengers having their names in the title, and being the main draw for the audience. Thanos is the star of the show. Although he is full on computer animated, his presence is menacing and he is the most foreboding of the MCU villains that we've seen up to this point.

The movie begins where Thor Ragnarok ended, with Thor and the Asgardians having escaped the destruction of Asgard, are now seeking refuge in space. It is here that Thanos and his henchman 'The Black Order' begin their pursuit of each of the infinity stones, with the aim of wiping out half of the population of the universe.

Everything strings together with one set-piece after another, with so many characters no one really gets much of any development. With the story more or less a culmination of other stories winding together, anyone not familiar with the previous movies in the MCU will probably be a little lost.

But it's still a joy to see the characters interact with one another, whether it's Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr), or Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Rocket Raccoon. For me, Thor was the best of the superheroes, which surprised me considering that he was in my opinion one of the weakest characters before the events of Ragnarok.

With such a high budget, the visuals are stunning but much like the movie itself, it feels like it has taken all of the best elements of the previous movies and cobbled them together. So the production design doesn't really standout. But it's all pretty looking nevertheless.

If there are any other minor negatives with the movie, it's that the action scenes vary in quality. It works best when it's minimal and contained, but towards the end we are treated to a superfluous battle scene that takes place on Wakanda, it involves the usual cannon fodder for the heroes to kill. As entertaining as it is, it just feels weightless and tension free. The comedy is a mixed bag, none of it is particularly funny or even particularly offensive, it just feels shoehorned in on a number of occasions.

With a satisfying cliffhanger of an ending, and the next Avengers movie coming next year, Infinity War is very much a first part to this phase of this cinematic universe. Anyone who has watched these movies from the beginning should certainly buy a ticket, anyone else might not entirely go along with the flow of events happening onscreen, so it would be best to catch up if you haven't already. Overall I had a good time, despite being a bit long I never once looked at my watch, and it was entertaining for the majority of its run time. But on the whole it's slightly above the middle pack in the MCU movie list.

Verdict: 3.75/5 

Thor Ragnarok review

Director: Taika Waititi
Running time: 130 minutes



Of all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, the Thor series has been the weakest in my opinion, despite its fantasy setting that differentiates it from the others. Much of this might have been due to the relatively lacklustre action set-pieces and a love interest that fell flat. But with the love interest gone and superior action scenes, the new Thor movie is a great addition, that works just as well as a standalone.

On this occasion, Hela (Cate Blanchett), the powerful, one time leader of the Armies of Asgard is released from a prison she has been sealed inside. After losing in battle with her and getting his Hammer smashed to pieces, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is sent to the outer reaches of Space, where he lands on a planet called Sakaar, and taken prisoner by the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum). Leaving Hela to cruelly overthrow Asgard.

While the story is pretty much by the numbers, the villain is an improvement for a Marvel movie, Hela has a clear motivation and a menacing onscreen presence. The performance by Blanchett is subtle but deadly, it isn't the most complex of villains, but it gives the movie an urgency that the others in the series desperately lacked.

As you'd expect, it's visually stunning, the fantastical locations are well realised, the production in general is top class. The costume designs are a real delight, from memory, the last time a movie showed such a great level of detail and imagination was the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

**

The action scenes are decent without ever being exceptional, I often felt like I was watching an elaborate video game being played out, but they do their job well enough. The background soundtrack carries a lot of the heavy lifting as the special effects extravaganza explodes onscreen, sometimes it works and gives the action an extra layer of momentum, other times it's intrusive. It seems to be a new trend in modern blockbusters that I hope is the exception rather than the rule.

**

The movie is also full of laughs, far more than I expected, it works best when the comedy bounces between character interactions. This is particularly the case when Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) makes his appearance, the chemistry between him and Hemsworth gels together really well.

However, the comedy can be a bit too forced sometimes, and the overall tone is a bit jarring because of the sinister violence that hangs over everything. None of it is particularly explicit, but it was far more forceful than any other MCU movie I have seen to date.

**

Thor Ragnarok was an absolute delight that took me a little bit by surprise, it's a long way from being perfect but it's certainly one of the stronger entries in the MCU series. I'd recommend this for just about anyone, even those few people who are not fond of comic book movies. But for those taking your kids, be a little mindful of the violence that surprised even me.

Verdict 4/5

  

Marvel VS Capcom infinite: Short form review (PS4 version)

After a six year absence, and with the Marvel movies ever more popular, there really is no better time for the return of the Marvel versus Capcom series. And despite its fun and frantic gameplay mechanics, I can’t help but feel that Infinite left me a little shortchanged.

Each of the characters in the thirty fighter roster feel different to one another, they each have their own unique range of combos and special abilities to diversify the way you play. Despite its casual, arcade elements, combos are easy to learn but much harder to master.

A new inclusion to the series are the infinity stones, you get to choose from six different types before each fight. Power, mind, soul, time, space and reality. They help balance the game when you’re struggling in a fight, but they’re not too powerful to feel cheap.

Although the game plays smoothly, the combo visuals can clog up the screen, but the biggest gripe is the unfortunate absence of some of the staple fighters of the series. The most notable are the X-Men, not being able to play as Wolverine just doesn’t feel right.

The backgrounds on each of the arenas are impressive, but the presentation is lacking a bit of finesse. The character models look dull and the game lacks a distinctive art style of its predecessors.

On the whole, Infinite has the bare minimum in terms of content, with a basic Arcade mode and a rather lackluster story mode. But I think it’s testing yourself against other players online where you’ll get the most fun.

If you are a fan of fighting games, and more specifically of the other games in the series, you’ll feel right at home here.

Rating 7/10

   

Spider-Man Homecoming review

Director: Jon Watts
Running time: 133 minutes

The third best Spider-Man film


Spider-Man has finally joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Homecoming is of course not the first time that we have seen the web swinger in the MCU, as he made his first (and arguably scene stealing) appearance in Captain America: Civil War.

He is without doubt one of the stellar Marvel characters in their vast ensemble, so his lack of presence was always a missing cog in the successful money machine that is the MCU. So has it been worth the wait? yes and no. Homecoming is without question an entertaining action movie and worthy on its own merits, but it ends up lacking an identity, and to some extent I came away thinking it was a little forgettable.

The central cast is near perfect and full of charm, Tom Holland's interpretation as a young, high school attending Peter Parker is both sympathetic and endearing. Although time will tell, he doesn't have the sappy demeanour of Tobey Maguire's interpretation, or the aloof and unsympathetic Andrew Garfield take on the character. The same can also be said of Michael Keaton, who plays the central villain, Vulture. A blue collar contractor who wants to get his revenge on the Avengers. His motivation might be weak and underwritten, but they are at-least understandable, Spider-Man villains tend to pose threats that are smaller in scale compared to other comic book villains, so it follows that tradition.

Robert Downey Jr makes a cameo as Tony Stark, and it is just a cameo. It is nothing like the screen time that the trailer's might've suggested.

While the supporting characters feel like a big part of the story, none are that interesting, Peter's main love interest is just that, his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) is a little annoying. And I was surprised by the minimal screen time of Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), who as impressive as she was, couldn't have shared more than two or three scenes with Peter.

**

Another surprise was how passable the action scenes are, none were spectacular and all were a relative decline compared with any of the previous Spider-Man movies. Which links in with my next point, the movie feels peculiarly TV-esque. This might be because there is more of a focus on Peter Parker as a high schooler, it's a central part of the movie, whereas in the past movies it was kind of there in the background with little effect on the main plot outside of the characters interacting with each another.

**

While there's nothing extraordinary or even bad about the direction, or the way that the movie's shot. I was also surprised that the cityscapes of Manhattan were not used, there's boundless ways to be creative with Spidey swinging through the skies, especially in action set-pieces. I'd imagine that this will change in future sequels.

The small scope of the movie isn't entirely bad, the diversity of Queens shines through, and it feels like a character within the story, a place where people actually live rather than just a setting.  

**

The movie fails to be bigger than the sum of its parts, the understandable absence of an origin story and uncle Ben do make the plot feel a little weightless. Which means that the only motivation Peter Parker has is by trying to impress Tony Stark so he can join the Avengers.

However, the movie is well worth your time and money for the entertainment factor alone, it's the funniest of all the Spider-Man movies so far. And none of the humour feels forced, and none of it outstays its welcome. But, above all, it successfully lays the seeds for what should be a promising line of sequels and a deeper take on the mythos of the character.

Verdict: 7/10

Doctor Strange review

Director: Scott Derrickson
Running time: 115 minutes

Ambitious, stunning, magical, but lacking depth

Doctor Strange is the fourteenth entry in the Marvel cinematic universe, and it's the first one in awhile that feels particularly separate from the others. Not just visually, but because it's also the onscreen introduction to a new superhero within the Marvel pantheon. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a brilliant if arrogant neurosurgeon who can't control the nerves in his hands after a car crash.

Unable to do the thing he loves, he struggles to find meaning to his life, so he heads to Kamar-Taj, on the advice of a man who recovered from a major life threatening spinal injury. On arrival he meets a sorcerer called 'The Ancient one' (Tilda Swinton), who teaches him the ways of the mystic arts. Where he will eventually have to stop Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelson), a student who betrayed her and stole the pages of a ritual from a forbidden book, that can open the Dark Dimension where time stands still.

Doctor Strange is visually stunning and colourful, the use of magic while limited in scope is wonderful to look at. Magic is often used as nothing more than a plot device in most fantasy films, but in Doctor Strange it has a purpose that is central to the plot and the character, which I really liked.

Much of the action scenes take place in the cityscapes of New York (and to a lesser extent London and Hong Kong) in an alternate dimension. Through the manipulation of magic, these cities bend and twist together creating jaw dropping visual effects. These action scenes are great to look at, but sometimes feel a little weightless because Strange seems to overcome his enemies relatively easily, there's also little tension because the villain, Kaecilius, isn't particularly interesting and has no real foreboding presence. And like other MCU villains, he isn't developed very much to really care about.

Benedict Cumberatch is perfectly cast as the lead, but the character's progression, much like the story, is rushed and contrived. He learns his powers far too quickly, taking away any potential character development that is sorely missing. Rachel McAdams is underused as the love interest, seeming to appear every time the plot requires her to show up. However, the chemistry between her and Cumberbatch works very well, their characters do come across as a believable couple.

Aside from the finale, the overall structure is typical of any superhero origin film, and doesn't deviate from anything that has already been done before. There are touching scenes between Strange and the 'The Ancient One' that bring a certain levity and philosophical identity that is absent from most of the other MCU films. There is also a thoughtful message about the need to look beyond our own materialistic needs and self greed, which was surprising for this kind of film.

Doctor Strange is an above average MCU film, with plenty of fun and entertainment. The ideas, ambition and the visuals are worth the ticket price alone. But I'm not sure if it's something that will be particularly well remembered in another five years or so.

Verdict: 7/10, B-
Recommended

  

Guardians of the Galaxy: Review

Director: James Gunn
Running time: 2 hours and 2 minutes
Certificate: 12A


Guardians of the Galaxy was supposed to have been a big risk for Marvel, outside of the hardcore comic book circles, it was largely unknown, not even me a casual Marvel fan had ever heard of it. But with an opening North America box office of $94 million, it looks like the risk has paid off big time.

There is a lot to admire in the film, and although there is obvious tonal similarities in its final act, it is certainly different to any other film adapted from the Marvel catalogue.

After visiting his dying mother, a young Peter Quill is abducted by Space Pirates called the 'Ravagers', led by Yondu. Twenty six years later, Quill (Chris Patt) gets his hands on a powerful and mysterious orb, because of this he is now the target of the main Villain Ronan the Accuser, who sends assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to retrieve it. And with a bounty on his head, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) and Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) see it as too high a price to turn down. Through various scenarios in the story, they meet up with Drax (Dave Bautista) in a prison, and from there they team up to stop Ronan from destroying the world.

From the moment you see Chris Pratt dancing to Redbone's 'come and get your love' on the planet Morag, you know this film is going to be fun, and to its credit, it does try its very best to be fun and colourful. In a very retro way, it's a reminder that Science Fiction films can be fun, when so few modern ones are.

Let's begin with the good stuff. The visuals in the film are beautiful, the galaxy in which the film takes place is certainly breathtaking, and every inch of it oozes off of the screen.

The characters are unique and work well, because of their own personal flaws they all begin as anti-heroes, so they are a little bit more relatable compared with your typical superheroes.. Chris Pratt plays the everyday out of luck, charming rogue, satisfyingly. Bautista is surprisingly okay as Drax when you consider that he has very little on-screen acting experience. But the star of the show is Rocket, the sharp tongued little raccoon has been superbly animated, and brought to life by Bradley Cooper. Without his electric presence the film wouldn't be anywhere near as good.
The chemistry between the four of them is sublime, in both the moments of comedy and the more dramatic/serious scenes.

The action scenes are entertaining, at least the shooting and hand to hand combat scenes are. The best example of this is a prison escape plot point. Not only is it exciting but we get to see all of the individual qualities that each character brings to the team.

I love the mix of 70s and 80s soundtrack, certainly my kind of music. Gives the film a nostalgic but fun feel to it.

But the film does have problems, which I think have been kind of brushed over by the mainstream critics.

The film is very contrived, and yes I know this is based on a comic book. But the story progresses by stuff just happening, action scenes prodded in from nowhere, and locations are visited and left far too quickly. There really isn't much of a narrative structure at all.

Some of the action scenes are too busy and tipping on the edge of boringness. This isn't helped when the editing can be very choppy, too often the camera would too hastily change from one character's scene to another, this is only ever noticeable in the last act of the film.

From his introduction you would have been fooled to think that Ronan was going to be a powerful and intimidating villain, but he quickly becomes cliched and forgettable. While his motivations are explained, they're never really explored. And because Thanos (one of the most bad arse villains in the Marvel universe, for those who didn't know), is lurking in the background, his stature is further diminished because it becomes obvious that he is just a piece of meat waiting to be slaughtered.

Verdict

Guardians of the Galaxy is not only a fun blockbuster, but on the whole, a technically well made film. It continues Marvel's consistently good library of films that its made over the last six years or so. The positives far outweigh the negatives, which aren't themselves too drastic. I would put this in the top five of my Marvel studios films.

3.5/5

  

Are there too many comic book movies?

As a casual comic book fan and as someone who enjoys going to the cinema as one of my favourite past times, the yearly binge of comic book adaptations of the last six years or so has for the most part been worth it. But with the announcement of a Justice League movie in the works, I'm beginning to have very slight niggling doubts at the back of my head.

A comic book movie has a lot of advantages over other big budget film productions, before the movie is even released you already have an established fan base as well an established mythology to play around with, they also have the privilege of appealing to any audience of any age and gender. Along with bigger budgets, the more advanced technology at hand, and the box office returns, it's understandable why film studios are so eager to make as many of them as possible.

It also helps that most comic book movies of the last decade or so have been generally consistently good or at least worth the ticket price, my own personal favourites are 'Spider-man 2; and 'The Avengers Assemble', and before those there was the first and utterly superb albeit more bloodthirsty and mature 'Blade' film. And going back before that we had the old Batman films with Michael Keaton, although they've dated quite badly they are still entertaining and full of charm. But with the ever expanding Marvel universe (which is apparently going to run until 2028) and now the Justice League film on the way, they're now just becoming cash cow franchises.

A cynical example of this is with the recently released 'The Amazing Spider-man 2', although a flawed movie it was still good. But its whole existence seemed to be just a hoodwink into a sinister six film (a group of villains who come together to stop Spider-man for those who didn't know). It has already been confirmed that there will be another two in the main series as well as two spin offs (Sinister Six and a Venom movie).

It's no doubt that all of these films are capable of being great, the Justice League film as well as the Superman versus Batman film are both intriguing, and even if they get bad reviews I will most likely go see them, as will most other people. But I was actually looking forward to a standalone sequel to 'Man of Steel', after dealing with the Superman origin story I thought the sequel would lay the ground works for a real Superman film, we would finally get to know more about who Clark Kent was, but we're not really getting that now. From what the people behind the scenes have said It's now obvious that Batman appearing in a Superman movie was never planned from the start, it just kind of came about at some point in a board meeting.

Another problem, and this one is more to do with the Marvel Universe, is that with all of the films connected to one another they all have to consider what's going on elsewhere (which in this case leads to another Avengers film). There's a number of problems with this, all of the characters have to follow the same story arc, and it could just lead into repetition...running, jumping, shooting. Over and over.

Comic book movies are not the only ones saturating the market, the upcoming remakes and reboots is listless. Terminator (yawn, talk about flogging a dead horse), Beverly Hills Cop (same as Terminator), The Mummy (has potential), An American werewolf in London (don't bother), Godzilla (this actually looks amazing). These films are being made for the same reason comic book movies are being made, established audience and the technology to make them. There's nothing really wrong with any of this, I will no doubt watch many of these movies and probably enjoy the vast majority of them.

But of the top twenty grossing films of all time (adjusted to inflation) only four are from original source material (I'll give Titanic a free pass), and more than half of them are sequels, and most have come in and around the last decade or so.
The point I'm trying to make is that I would like to see more creativity in modern day blockbusters, new characters, new stories and more risks.

Because let's be honest, in another thirty or so years, when Iron Man 10 comes out, we could be in danger of seeing the continuous and unnecessary remakes of the remakes.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

An action packed comic book film adaptation, only bettered in the last five years by' The Avengers: Assemble'.

Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Certificate: 12A

Running time: Two hours and sixteen minutes

While their content can be quite limited, I generally love comic book films and 'The Avengers' was the best one I have seen since Spider Man 2, it stood for everything that going to the cinema should be. But I honestly found the first Captain America to be rather boring and timid, so I'm glad to write that the sequel is better and far more interesting.

Set two years after the events of the battle of New York in 'The Avengers', Steve Rodgers/Captain America (Chris Evans) is still working for intelligence agency S.H.I.EL.D, while at the same time he is struggling to adapt to contemporary life in Washington DC. S.H.I.E.L.D director Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson) returns along with Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow.

The premise of the film is centred around 'Project Insight', a fleet of air carriers which use satellites and spy technology created by S.H.I.E.L.D to eliminate potential threats and targets. The situation is made worse when the agency is compromised, which means it's up to Captain America to stop its launch and those who are perpetrating it.

Even with the film's attempts at building a story about the shadowy power of intelligence agencies and the importance of civil liberties. The action scenes are what make it so good, which let's be honest, is primarily what comic books are about. Fun and enjoyable action set pieces.
And there are plenty of them in this film, and the action is far more physical which fits well with Captain America's superpowers (which is basically his super strength and the iconic shield). They are also choreographed perfectly, there are no flashy quick camera edits here which plague so many modern action films, everything you see hits home with the right impact and appears believable.

The special effects are as good as anything I have seen before, while not mind blowing, they serve their purpose perfectly when needed. Another positive is that the central villain was more than a match for the hero, the battles between Captain America and The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) are impressive and once again choreographed well without being overblown. Although he doesn't have an abundance of screen time Robert Redford is effective as the snarly S.H.I.E.L.D director Alexander Pierce. 

In a post Assange/Snowden world it's good that a comic book film is trying something more than just another good guy versus bad guy, the film (vaguely) eludes to the idea of power being given to people with the wrong intentions, and the growing fear about the uncertain world we seem to be living in, and what role the government plays in this. So credit where credit is due.

But the film does have a few weaknesses, the narrative is very contrived, certain plot devices are unimaginative and seem to be just leading the audience on with very little surprise, one particular supporting character suddenly plays a prominent role within the last third of the film without too much character development. And the film could have perhaps had fifteen or twenty minutes shaved off of its running time.      

   

But the positives far outweigh the few minor negatives, 'The Winter Soldier' is a perfect way to lead into the next Avengers film and the second phase of the Marvel Universe.

And stay around for two post credit scenes, one halfway through the credits, and the other when they are finished.

Verdict- 4/5