MCU: 10 Things You Learn Rewatching Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Yes, it's still the best Marvel movie.

by Ewan Paterson
Marvel Studios

When Joe and Anthony Russo became attached to the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger, fans didn't really know what to expect. They were of course known to fans of Dan Harmon's Community, but apart from that, the pair were yet to really carve a reputation as one of the great collaborators of the cinematic medium.

Today, the Russo Brothers have been charged with leading the Marvel Cinematic Universe into unchartered territory. And as all eyes are focused on Infinity War, a film far grander in scale than their earlier works, it makes sense to revisit the film that first endeared the pair to the Marvel faithful - Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Back then and even today, the Russo Brothers' first Marvel movie was heralded as the best the MCU had seen - and it's easy to see why. Rooting itself in seventies-era conspiracy fiction and adapting Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's seminal Winter Soldier arc from the comics, the film immediately stood out as a smart, character-driven and riveting ensemble, one driven not only by the performances of Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson, but also by discussions surrounding surveillance, individual liberty, and interventionism too.

It really is an excellent film, and while there are several MCU features that could lay claim to being the franchise's best, this 2014 film still has the strongest case to make.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.