Ranking Every MCU Film From Worst To Best
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Like Ant-Man's generic flirtation, The Winter Soldier's homage to 1970s political intrigue movies like All The President's Men was an impressive transgression, and an extremely brave one. Considering the principles that had built the MCU to a crescendo at the end of Phase One, breaking to build slowly after Iron Man 3's high octane starter was risky.
The fact that it came after Thor: The Dark World made that doubly true.
But thanks to the brilliant direction of the Russos and an incredibly compelling script escalating HYDRA's threat and re-introducing Avenger-in-waiting Bucky Barnes, the gamble paid off.
The Winter Soldier is arguably the most stylised of all of the MCU movies, and it's definitely one of the most intriguing. And anything that introduces Robert Redford to younger audiences and sells toxic politics so well (take note, George Lucas) deserves all the praise it gets.