CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER Trailer

MARVEL just keeps throwing out gold, especially with this particular AVENGERS feeder franchise. I still think that CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER was the best stand-alone film of the bunch (though IRON MAN THREE comes really close), and now the marketing for the sequel has kicked into gear, with trailers and everything.

Heck, even the somewhat formulaic teaser poster has some great design elements (all 'dem subliminal A's).

But the new trailer looks so. VERY. GOOD.

Oh yeah, that's the stuff. Looks like this "move the 'Summer Movie Season' up to April" thing is gonna stick.

So you'll notice that's a slightly different look for Cap, one comic fans will know from the Steve Rogers: Super Soldier/Secret Avengers comics during the events resulting from the CIVIL WAR arc (it's complicated).

However, odds are that this outfit, which seems to reflect a more morally-ambiguous (and with slightly less involvement from nolstalgia geeks like Phil Coulson) S.H.I.E.L.D., is only going to be temporary. Not only does that trailer show off Cap in some very familiar-looking star-spangled duds (a variant on the FIRST AVENGER uniform, my personal favorite), but a lot of the narrative of the trailer suggests a continuing of the ideological clash between the moral Steve Rogers and the win-at-all-costs Nick Fury that we saw beginning to develop in THE AVENGERS. See: crashing Helicarriers and Quinjets firing at our hero (huh, wonder how this is going to impact the on-going AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. series...).

Then into all this comes the titular Winter Soldier. Now, I'm not sure if MARVEL is wanting to play this as a reveal, so if you're not already in the know, look it up at your own risk. But suffice it to say that the Winter Soldier is a pretty big deal as far as the character of Cap goes. And that little touch at the end of the trailer (usually reserved in MARVEL trailers for a one-off joke) where he catches The Shield? Dynamite.

All in all, this is pretty much exactly the sort of territory that the franchise needs to cover. A mix of lots of stunt-heavy action with real dudes throwing punches, a good deal of practical effects work to compliment the CGI, and a very spy-craft James-Bond-by-way-of-Indiana-Jones tone was PERFECT for THE FIRST AVENGER, and updating that to deal with post-9/11 paranoia and militarism is a great next logical step. And, incidentally, also a brilliant way to play up the "Man Out of Time" aspects of Rogers as a character to their fullest dramatic potential.

Not to mention that bringing in Robert Redford - who carries a ton of weight as an actor AND a "persona" who subliminally hearkens back to a "different age" for so many - was freakin' genius. Especially for when he almost certainly turns out to be evil. Oh yeah, SPOILERS, he's almost definitely gonna be evil.

Also, that was the Falcon near the end. GLEE!