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

2. The Action Feels Genuine

The Winter Soldier's finale does devolve somewhat into a typical CGI spectacle, but for the vast majority of the film the opposite is true. Fight scenes are well choreographed, there's a genuine threat to the violence and, between Bucky and Cap, a clear and compelling emotional current.

One only need mention the film's stunning elevator sequence to illustrate its quality when it comes to action, which makes for one of the tensest encounters the MCU has ever seen. The unease increases as more and more bodies pile into the elevator, with the viewer alerting to the intentions of Cap's coworkers only as he does, making what seemed at first to be a fairly innocuous scene of transition a pivotal and devastating moment, with Pierce's role now fully disclosed.

There are plenty of other sequences of note, including the pivotal highway scene involving Sam Wilson, Steve and Nat against The Winter Soldier and his mercenaries, but perhaps the film's best comes in its final sequence. This is the moment the franchise had been building towards since Bucky fell off of Zola's train in The First Avenger, and Steve's attempts to rekindle his memory are heartbreaking, with the Captain delivering those famous, devastating words to his former comrade: "Then finish it. Because I'm with you to the end of the line."

When it comes to the MCU, there isn't a friendship stronger than theirs, and it shines through Winter Soldier's action as much as it does its dialogue.