Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Amid the glut of cinematic superhero sequels, remakes, spinoffs, collaborations, and sequels and remakes based on those spinoffs and collaborations, the hope is that eventually the market reaches a saturation point.

For now, however, it doesn’t look like that moment is near, which is why big-budget, effects-driven sagas like Captain America: The Winter Soldier will continue to dominate the mainstream landscape.

It’s a sequel, of course, in the obligatory IMAX 3D format, to the 2011 film based on the venerable comic-book series. While this installment is an overall improvement on its predecessor, the film still feels more familiar than fresh.

Chris Evans returns as the first of the two title characters and his alter-ego, Steve Rogers, keeping a low profile while living in Washington, D.C. The story picks up sometime after The Avengers, with Captain America accepting a new top-secret assignment from his boss, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).

However, it isn’t long before corruption is revealed within the ranks at S.H.I.E.L.D. as its chairman (Robert Redford) comes under fire. An incident causes Captain America to go rogue with two colleagues, the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie), leading to a showdown with the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), whose identity holds the key to the plot for world domination.

As you might expect, there’s plenty of spectacle in a film peppered with slick and stylish action set pieces, but it’s not always a special-effects bonanza. There’s an effort to give the story a contemporary real-world grounding with by hinting at social issues it should have explored with more depth.

Also to its credit, the film isn’t so much of an insider experience that it requires familiarity with the comic book or the other film appearances by the same character. Part of that is the appeal of Evans and of Captain America, a James Bond-style hero who is not loaded with superpowers or weapons outside of his trademark shield.

Sibling directors Anthony and Joe Russo (You, Me and Dupree) keep the pace lively, even if the whole enterprise feels hollow and calculated after a while. There are plentiful shootouts, chases and explosions as the stakes escalate, leading to a predictable finale filled with urban destruction.

If only the film’s level of visual creativity could have been applied to the story, it might feel like a standalone success instead of merely another link in the chain.

Rated PG-13, 136 minutes.