Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

(PG-13)

***

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For a superhero created in the 1940s, Captain America sure has his finger on the pulse, said Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News. In this “rousing, terrific” new addition to the popular Avengers series, the World War II soldier who was transformed into a Nazi-fighting superhero has woken up in a Washington, D.C., where his new commanders use drones and digital surveillance to wipe out evildoers before they even commit any evil. Star Chris Evans still “lacks the innate charisma” to carry a movie, but his doubts make him far more interesting, said Richard Lawson in VanityFair.com. Scarlett Johansson, meanwhile, proves “endlessly appealing” as his ally Black Widow, while Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Redford convincingly convey that the top brass might be up to something nefarious. “Zingy stuff, you think,” until the subversive potential of the story quickly evaporates, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). Though The Winter Soldier winds up delivering various light pleasures, “you can’t help but feel disappointment that a film with a relatively spicy premise becomes, in the end, so risk-averse.”