Her birthday was today, so last night, we saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

I am going to try to avoid spoilers, so the cast list is after the break, but I will be putting my guesses as to future movies (when not spoiling this one) above the break. 

First, this is a good movie.  In some ways, the best of the Marvel movies, though as I have said before, I would pay money to listen to Robert Downey Jr. read the phone book.

Captain America is simply more compelling than Iron Man, more relevant than Thor, and less contrived than the Hulk.

This movie deals with a lot of things, but at its core, it is the story of an alien, by which I mean Steve Rogers/Captain America.

He is very from another world, one which has ceased to exist, which from that perspective, is rather a lot like Superman, only Cap is far more aware of this than the guy in the red and blue PJs.

Chris Evans is good as Captain America, and Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson reprise their roles as Nick Fury and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow.

It introduces some new characters, most notably Anthony Mackie who plays Sam Wilson/Falcon, a kickass vet with a flying suit who I think that we will be seeing more, and Emily VanCamp as Kate/Agent 13, in what seems like a future role (if the movie follows the arc of the comic books) as Captain America’s off and on love interest. (Though there is also an indication of some future fireworks between Cap and Black Widow)

Interestingly enough, the movie is rather topical, and fairly explicitly offers a critique of our wonderful world of pervasive digital surveillance that Edward Snowden confirmed to the world.

It does all this while it dealing with the issues of loss and friendship that are inherent in Captain America’s back story.

I would give the movie an 8 out of 10.

^*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.

Cast:
Chris Evans     …     Steve Rogers / Captain America
Samuel L. Jackson     …     Nick Fury
Scarlett Johansson     …     Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
Robert Redford     …     Alexander Pierce
Sebastian Stan     …     Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier
Anthony Mackie     …     Sam Wilson / Falcon
Cobie Smulders     …     Maria Hill
Frank Grillo     …     Brock Rumlow
Maximiliano Hernández     …     Jasper Sitwell
Emily VanCamp     …     Kate / Agent 13
Hayley Atwell     …     Peggy Carter
Toby Jones     …     Dr. Arnim Zola
Stan Lee     …     Smithsonian Guard
Callan Mulvey     …     Jack Rollins
Jenny Agutter     …     Councilwoman Hawley