If you’re looking for a great superhero movie with action, suspense, and a bit of comedy on the side, look no further. Captain America: The Winter Soldier provides all of this and then some. The movie is full of action-packed sequences and has plenty of surprises. Compared to other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s one of the best, right up there with Iron Man and The Avengers.

Chris Evans returns as Steve Rogers, the World War II veteran who becomes Captain America after being injected with an experimental serum. After the events of The Avengers, Rogers attempts to adjust to the modern age. Scarlett Johansson plays Natasha Romanoff, the skilled spy who is also known as Black Widow. Romanoff and Rogers work together throughout the movie as the two go on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D., which has been infiltrated by members of HYDRA. This serves as one of the few plot twists of the movie, as Rogers believed that the criminal organization was destroyed in Captain America: The First Avenger. Because Rogers and Romanoff are on the run for a good part of the movie, the genre of the film could even be considered a thriller, as it keeps viewers on the edge of their seats.

Luckily, Captain America and Black Widow have some help along the way. Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) returns as Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. who has appeared in every Marvel movie since 2008’s Iron Man. Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker), a newcomer to the series, plays Sam Wilson, a pararescueman who takes flight as the Falcon using a pair of mechanical wings. Together, they attempt to take down the mysterious Winter Soldier, a deadly assassin working with HYDRA, who is played by Sebastian Stan. Stan also appeared in the first Captain America film as someone who was very close to Rogers. Robert Redford (All the President’s Men), Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother), and Emily VanCamp (Revenge) also star in the film as some of the more important agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Throughout the film, Captain America and the Winter Soldier clash, and the Winter Soldier proves to be more than a match for Captain America, who needs all the help he can get from Black Widow and Falcon. The lead actors do a terrific job at delivering the story, and the supporting cast is great as well. There are some minor problems with the film, but they are pretty much insignificant towards the quality of the movie.

As far as superhero movies go, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of the best, and is definitely up there with films like The Dark Knight and the first Iron Man. Also, it is surprisingly relevant to events currently going on in the world. The film does a great job of setting the second Avengers movie, which is releasing in May of 2015, and a third Captain America film, which is scheduled to release in 2016. Captain America: The Winter Soldier gets four and a half shields out of five.