Well, finally saw the film. Loved it. Absolutely loved it. 5/5
First, it offers brilliant social commentary the long ongoing freedom vs. safety debate and on how people in power use people's fears to take away their freedom while hiding behind the curtain of "safety". "The price of freedom is high" is the whole theme of the movie and when Cap delivers that line, it is
very satisfying. Second, it also offers great commentary on the anti-authority nature of superheroes, particularly through Cap's character arc and Black Widow's speech at the end.
The action scenes are fantastic. I see people in the Batman threads saying it's how Batman should fight, and I completely agree with that. Whedon has a lot to live up to in Avengers 2, at least in terms of Cap.
Falcon was great. Liked him a lot. Hope to see him in future films. I also thought SLJ was at his best. Nick Fury's never been more badass, funny, and likeable all at the same time. Not that he wasn't those things in the previous films, but this is the best Marvel has done with the character so far IMO.
I thought the tone was good and consistent. It had a good balance between fights and emotional impact, and had the best humor out of all the Phase 2 films. There still is humor during intense moments, but it feels more natural and subtle than in IM3 and T:TDW.
There are a few problems I have, though. For one, I thought the soundtrack was a bit bland and really lacking, even sucking the soul a bit out of some of tight scenes. The film itself is very big in scale, but the soundtrack itself doesn't seem to be as aware of that. That's not to say there aren't any good tracks, though. Second, I thought Peggy could have used more screen time. The scene with Peggy is great, but it's a bit too short. I also feel the Winter Soldier/Bucky should have had more of a presence. Going in, I got the impression that the Winter Soldier was this huge ghost story going around SHIELD but although Natasha does bring him up, that's the only time his ghost-like presence is brought up. You never see anyone else from SHIELD react to the stories going around the Winter Soldier or his revealed existence (not counting the HYDRA spies).
Overall, great flick. It's
probably the best Marvel Studios film, but I'll have to do more thinking on that and process the film a bit before I can concretely come to that conclusion. I'd rank it up there with Iron Man and The Avengers though, in the "great (5/5)" category. I'm not sure how it holds up compared to IM and TA but best case scenario, it's the best Marvel Studios film and worst case scenario, it's in third place. And I'm leaning a lot closer to the best case scenario for now

.