Marvel Studios

I really liked this movie, but I feel like it had the opportunity to rise closer to the quality of Captain America: Winter Soldier that it missed.

To get this out of the way, it was very good. It did a lot of things well.

That said, I feel that it embraced certain widespread bad habits in superhero movies that it could've overcome, and which would've made this one of the great Marvel movies.

Principally, characters just show up in costumes sometimes for fights that don't make great sense, talk, and then reappear long distances away after an unspecified-but-short amount of time at the next key location.

Sometimes, a bit of effort is made to provide a bit of explanation, as is the case when Alexi overhears Val in his limo. But let's be honest: the director of the CIA riding around in an unfamiliar limo (driven by a former Soviet spy!) having sensitive conversations with one clearly conflicted lackey is more Venture Bros. than All the King's Men.

Does it ruin the movie? Of course not. But it's representative of the tropes. Where did Bucky get those anti-humvee grenades?? And why the hell did he use one on an unarmed civilian vehicle in the middle of the United States?!? How did he even get them to the gas station? Did they walk because he blew up their car against all reason!?!

Bucky just shows up to superhero. He enters the nightmare dimension that brutalizes you with your worst crimes and flippantly jokes that it's unpleasant. It tries to sidestep context that would actually make it richer!

For instance: what if after Bucky blew out the tires on those trucks and flipped one the way he did he was followed up soon after by a convoy of state highway patrolmen to take those soldiers into custody? That would've ruled. It makes the story bigger! What the fuck did Val tell those guys to get them to carry out orders that fucked?? The tension goes up! This isn't happening totally out of sight! People are going to hear about Bucky getting tangled up in this, and hear stories about black ops vans live-firing on domestic soil with unclear authority! What??

And would it have killed the writers to have Bucky enter Bob's attic screaming violent threats in Russian before collapsing to the floor gasping though sobs? To have him just utterly break down and remind us that he was forced to commit atrocities and kill Innocents and people he loved? And then try to compose himself and focus on his mission in the midst of what is clearly a barely managed panic attack?

And then have Yelina point out that it can get better for Bob, because Bucky -- and all of them! -- are proof that Bob IS NOT ALONE IN HIS PAIN???

Aggh! That would've been AMAZING! They could've done more with this if they didn't do the comic-book corner cutting. The corners are where the true greatness often comes!!