Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the first real sequel to The Avengers

For months, I have let myself get pulled more and more into the hype for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I liked what I was hearing about the flick’s genre, that where as The First Avenger was definitely a World War II flick born out of the 50s and 60s, the sequel would be a thriller that would find its closest genre siblings in the 70s. I was especially keen on the idea that Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff would play a significant role in the movie’s plot (mind out of the gutter, boys … not for the reasons you are thinking). There is a problem, though, with playing into the expectations game: it is a rare movie that can live up to those expectations when you allow yourself to get overly hyped.

The last one that did, at least for me, was The Avengers (Read my review, but spoiler alert: I called it the greatest superhero flick ever made, so yeah, I kinda liked it). But it was the hype that led me to be disappointed in Iron Man 3. Marvel continues down their path, oscillating genres as the narrative switches from Thor to Cap to Guardians and now to Ant-Man and whatever they have cooked up for us next (cough cough Doctor Strange cough cough). That is the brilliance in Marvel’s approach: each installment doesn’t have all things to all people. That being said, other than Joss Whedon’s Avengers flicks, The Winter Solider looked like it was going to be most things to me.

More so than Iron Man 3 which told Tony Stark’s post-New York story, Captain America 2 explores how the Chitauri invasion changed the world they live in. SHIELD has a blank check and a mandate to make the world safer, no matter the cost. Steve Rogers, raised in the apple pie days of the 30s and 40s, has trouble accepting the world for what it is instead, as Nick Fury says, for what he wants it to be. Cap’s Captain America-ness is what makes his dynamic with Natasha Romanoff so very interesting. Somewhere along the way, Johansson’s performance has become one of my very favorites in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the Widow one of the more interesting characters.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say I expected a little more out of Robert Redford’s Alexander Pierce. Don’t get me wrong, Redford was solid; I just hoped for more from the character (it left me half wishing the outlandish rumor about his background was true). I did, though, really like Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson. As an outsider, he was more grounded and provided a nice counterpoint to the Cap/Widow pairing. Some of the other newcomers … or re-introduced characters … provide some hints to where I think the Captain America series might be going. You don’t introduce Sharon Carter (an underused Emily VanCamp) or bring The Winter Soldier (the returning Sebastian Stan) into the story if you’re not planning on visiting the seminal moment from Marvel canon that included those two and Steve Rogers.

With both Thor and Iron Man working on the peripheries of the MCU, SHIELD has become the center point. This means that ABC’s freshman drama Agents of SHIELD, with its weekly entrée into our living rooms, should bear the brunt of telling that story (a role it still hasn’t firmly embraced, but that’s entirely too long of a tangent to go off on here). The bigger question, though will be how the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier change the course of the show. We’ve heard for some time now that one would have a significant impact on the other. At this point, I’m more than a little concerned that the impact won’t be felt enough.

Marvel is in an interesting place, with both its growth as a major movie studio, and in the continued development of the MCU. On one hand it is riding high with a serious of blockbusters, and confident enough to launch Guardians of the Galaxy knowing it will live in a genre without the “four quadrant” appeal that some of its other franchises enjoy. But it also has to look ahead, as each release knocks another film off of the contracts of its myriad stars. Chris Evans’ contract will expire much more quickly than the rest. At that point, what is next for the character? Comic book characters are killed all of the time; is that on the horizon for Cap? Or will Marvel run the risk of another recasting? Important concerns, but truly thoughts for another day. For now the studio — and audiences — are just kicking back and enjoying the kickass ride that is The Winter Soldier.