My background is in comic books, so naturally, I have been loving this golden age of 'comic book movies'. The latest comic book movie is Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which I saw an advance screening at the ICON theater in St Louis Park on April 1st. We also got a costume contest before the screen... which seemed rigged with the cute little 5 year old Captain America winning the grand prize.

While I did not love the first movie, I found that Captain America: The Winter Soldier was one hundred times better. It is because the main plot is in the modern age (but yes, we do get flashback from the 40s and that time period) and that the new movie is more like a spy thriller. The other thing I liked was that Captain America has a great nemesis of equal powers and abilities in the guise of the Winter Soldier. In fact, the way the movie portrayed it, that the Winter Soldier could easily defeat the Cap.

The story progressed, Captain America reluctantly accepted the Black Widow's help to find out the conspiracy of S.H.I.E.L.D. Along the way, they recruited the Falcon. I'm not that crazy about this character in the story. I felt like maybe they could have written him out and the story would've proceeded to its logical conclusion, with or without the Falcon's help. He really didn't add much to the plot, but felt like maybe it's an extra character for the toyline, at least in my opinion.

If you're not familiar with the source material, you'll probably enjoy the movie a lot more, because you'll be surprised when the identity of the Winter Soldier and the Falcon is revealed. Unfortunately, I knew too much about this film, but it was still enjoyable.

With all the great action and thrilling story, Captain America: The Winter Soldier will appeal to a wide range of fans. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is rated PG-13 and opens in theaters across America this Friday, April 4th.