Captain America: The Winter Soldier IMAX 3D (9/10)

Summer is officially here with The Winter Soldier! And what a way to kick off the summer of 2014!

Where do I begin? 

Opening sequence, a great re-introduction to Chris Evans' Captain America. The first fight scene, like what we saw a little bit in the trailers, set up the level of standards in the choreography of what was to come. 

Watching this action sequence on IMAX 3D, however, not the best. The 3D effects made the action blurry when they moved too fast. This should really be addressed when the filmmakers are converting the movie to 3D. But this was probably the only issue I had with the movie.

The Winter Soldier was so well written, so grounded and so much depth to the story. Great writing credits to Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely in capturing what a great comic book movie should be. And even more so when this was a superhero, The Winter Soldier boasts as the most human story created for a superhero movie. 

But a story on paper needed to be brought alive on the silver screen, and Anthony and Joe Russo did an amazing job directing the movie. The pacing in two places could have been just a little bit faster, but that's a very minor issue. I was very tired when I watched this movie and not once did I felt sleepy in there.

The intricate choreography for the fight scenes were some of the best I've seen in a Marvel movie, if not the best. The hand-to-hand combats this time showed so much more as to how Captain America fights with and without his shield. And as an audience, every time his shield didn't come back to his hand, I was worried because: Cap isn't Cap without it, and I wanted more shield throwing.

Shield throwing, I feel like I need to spend a paragraph on it. There were a couple of times when I teared up. And it's because of how beautiful the Russos have used the shield and bring the comic book pages to life. From the cinematography to the choreography to Evans throwing the shield as Cap, it was like there's a perfect marriage here. Perfection and poetry in motion. I'll never forget that scene when Cap threw his shield on top of the fighter jet. But what I didn't get was the directors' decision to have Cap change into his uniform right here because he was supposed to be running away while enemies were hot in pursuit.

Speaking of which, I think the producers heard the fans saying the best Cap costume was the one from WWII from the first movie. And guess what, they gave the fans what they wanted.

And this was the most we've seen Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow develop in character. We got to know more of her and putting her side by side with Cap brought out the best in both of the characters. Again, great job to the writing team. Anthony Mackie's Falcon also another great addition to the fold. Will he be in Age Of Ultron?

On top of the action, there was drama and there was humour. There was everything you need in a huge blockbuster and a Marvel comic movie. And more. I can't wait to see where Captain America 3 will take us. But on the close horizon, bring on the rest of the summer Marvel movies!