The Winter Soldier (I’m not going to use the unwieldy full title) marks the ninth instalment of the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s hard to believe that Marvel’s streak of hits has continued for so long but it has, and with this film, it continues to do so. I’m not a big fan of The First Avenger. I liked how it subverted the point of having a superhero but felt that its action scenes were underwhelming and its story too simplistic.

This sequel however is superior in just about every respect. Part of it is that it takes on the tone of political thrillers from the 1970s. Robert Redford must have been deliberately cast to evoke his role in films like All the President’s Men. At the same time, it’s eerily topical. You can’t watch Captain America lecture about going too far in the name of security without thinking about the Snowden revelations and how civil rights have been trampled in the United States since 9/11.

But it’s also because it’s unquestionably a better action movie. Cap’s infiltration of the ship at the beginning of the movie is a joy to watch, with plenty of wide shots for us to track his progress. This is Cap in full professional soldier mode: proficient and confident, fully skilled in using his shield both defensively and offensively. It’s like watching the superhero version of Jason Bourne fighting against a military-industrial complex hyped up with sci-fi vehicles and weapons.

It helps that he has better, more convincing enemies to fight. I was disappointed with the character development arc of the Winter Soldier but as a physical antagonist, he was just about perfect. The fights have real heft, with bone crunching impacts and plenty of grit. They even managed to make Batroc look and feel right, which is quite a feat if you’re familiar with the original comics version.

My main regret is that the story doesn’t go as dark as it could have. It would have been much more interesting if SHIELD were revealed as being truly evil in the name of protecting the public instead of being merely infiltrated and hijacked by an enemy organization. It would be even more intriguing if it turned out that the Winter Soldier was fighting against SHIELD because he realizes this and Cap is on the wrong side. But I guess that’s too subversive for Marvel for now.

I’m also not quite happy with apparent continuity issues and worry that things will get worse over time as the universe grows. It doesn’t make sense that Hawkeye doesn’t appear here given that he’s a SHIELD agent and how it’s been established in Avengers that he and the Black Widow share a close relationship. And how come the writers can throw out a line about inviting Iron Man to a birthday party but can’t explain why they can’t call on him to help out against helicarriers that were redesigned using his technology?

Still, overall, this film is a remarkable success. It’s purely commercial of course, the archetypal summer blockbuster, but time and time again Marvel has shown us that it is indeed possible to make movies that entertain the masses and still be reasonably decent films. The winning formula seems to involve unrelenting action interspersed with character building moments that respect the source material plus a dash of humour to remind everyone that this is all in good fun.

The introduction of the new character of the Falcon makes for an excellent case in point. Sony’s Spiderman movies always flubs this by making it feel like new characters were introduced by executive fiat. But here it’s handled with perfection. There’s pure magic in how they combine just the right situational context, the right lines and the right casting choices to let new characters blend in seamlessly.

What’s even more remarkable is that this holds across a number of different movies with different characters and different directors. Here, Marvel took a chance with the Russo brothers who have mainly worked in television and made it work. If you look at what’s been released so far, you’ll notice that the one person the films all have in common is producer Kevin Feige who must be a seriously rich man by now.

I don’t know how long this winning streak will last but it is inevitable that one of them will eventually jump the shark. I’m not encouraged by rumours that Feige apparently has a movie release schedule that stretches out to 2028 and cranks up to five movies a year. But as long as they stay at the level of quality shown in The Winter Soldier, I’m happy to be onboard.