This was the first film that made me realize that it was worth the time and investment to build the MCU. Yes, I like the MCU as a whole, but aside from Iron-Man 1 and The Avengers, I thought that most of the series was just good, but I appreciated the scale of the franchise building, because nothing else was doing it. I didn't think we'd get a film at this level. I mean, I liked Iron-Man as a character, but the last 2 movies of his were kinda flawed, but it was nice to see him in it. I was interested in the world of Thor, but 2 films in and they won't tell me enough about the world of Thor that I'd like to know or see be expressed, they keep cutting to Earth or letting bland characters get in the way of the better ones. So I thought we weren't ever gonna reach that level of like Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy in terms of the stakes and dialog. (really, only Iron Man 1 had flirted with that at all)

So when this came out, I was just expecting, at best, yet another good film...boy, I was wrong. It's not just good, this is an amazing film. THE STAKES in this film are truly high and it's felt every second. it makes you relate to everything around you changing because so much time is lost. Captain America's loved one, now old and gray. Adjusting to his new time period seems difficult. Also, they didn't just do it as the fish out of water style where he doesn't know how anything works (which was starting to wear thin in the Marvel universe), like, he did fine at work in his modern job, but it's the emotional psychology of it that he can't grasp. I'm also glad they don't just start shoehorning a new romance in for Captain America right away, that's something I could do a film without on. This also had AMAZING action scenes and we finally get a villain besides Loki in The Winter Soldier. Captain America and The Winter Soldier fighting had some severe weight to it and it was amazing stuff. This is the film that made me think, yeah this MCU thing can really work with the levels of continuity here.