Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 10 Ways It Beats Thor 2

8. It's Edgier

Trying to explain why The Winter Soldier is "edgier" is no alternative to seeing the movie, which manages to break down a few of the boundaries that Marvel have seemed reluctant to mess with in the past, and although there's not a groundbreaking amount of narrative innovation here, you can certainly tell that the studio are trying to switch things up a little. The result of that, then, is that the film genuinely does feel "edgier" in the sense that it's willing to reveal slight backstories for characters like Black Widow and Nick Fury, which in turn has allowed them to be more "human." The problem with The Dark World was, fun as it was, it added barely anything to the MCU. You could completely remove The Dark World from the MCU line-up and there wouldn't be a huge sense of loss - it was ultimately a fairly inconsequential picture, with perhaps Loki's storyline acting as the only notable one in the bunch. Though The Winter Soldier is less heavy on MCU lore, if it were to be removed from the line-up, there would ultimately be a sense of loss on the character front. This is a fun movie, but the overtones are fairly dark and the consequences are major (given that the loss of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s integrity provides a major plot point). There's also matter of the "death" of Nick Fury, a red herring that almost seems to good to be true when it happens in the first forty minutes of the film, but ultimately reveals itself to be part of a complicated plan to help the S.H.I.E.L.D. boss go underground and evade his enemies. Sure, Marvel coped out a little in having us believe - even for a second - that they'd killed off one of their most popular characters (and it would've shown real guts if they'd gone and done it), but the fact that they're treading the line and creating moments of tension like this is a sign of progression.