Captain America: The Winter Soldier 3D

It’s worth wondering if Captain America: The Winter Soldier needed to be as durable as it is. After all, it made $92 million in three days—an April box office record—and the Avengers feeder movies have one of the largest built-in audiences in movie history. But it’s surprisingly strong, less a comic book superhero movie than an old-school action flick that trims a lot of the fat generally associated with the genre and focuses on a stronger-than-normal story. Captain America (Chris Evans) doesn’t like the direction S.H.I.E.L.D. is headed; intending to save the world from danger, the group led by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) may have impinged on too many freedoms. That it happens while S.H.I.E.L.D. is under attack from within put both sides of the argument under the microscope. It needs a better supervillain, but otherwise, this sequel is pretty damn good.