Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 10 MCU Mistakes It Repeats

5. Too Much To Do In One Movie

There's no denying that - with every movie that Marvel pile onto their MCU - there's an increasing sense of self-implosion. That's not to say that the MCU should cease to exist, or that there's no hope for future installments - simply that, the more films that get made, the more there is to do in each and every one. And although Captain America: The Winter Soldier does an admirable job on "stand-alone" movie terms, it also suffers because it's forced by association to do so many things that a regular movie - or a regular sequel - simply isn't. So whereas The Winter Soldier does work as a solo adventure, it's also super apparent that this movie has a crippling weight on its shoulders from start to finish. Because it doesn't just have to advance Steve Rogers as a character and protagonist, The Winter Soldier also has to introduce new characters, give screen time to the reoccurring ones (without skimming over them but also without lingering on them too much), make reference to the first Captain America movie, make reference to The Avengers, set-up plot points for The Avengers 2... are you exhausted yet? Fact is, there's so much ground to cover, that it's actually rather impressive that Captain America: The Winter Soldier genuinely has space for a plot of its own. It's a tribute to the associated filmmakers (and the writers) that they managed to pull off a movie that it so inherently reliant on so many others movies, but where does it all end?