Winter Soldier
I'll want to see that one more time, so I can solidify my opinions free of the part of my brain that was putting together the pieces of what I already knew and thinking things like "oh, that's how they decided to do that!"
But I don't post enough, so:
1) The number one thing I feel like I need another viewing to figure out is how I feel about how late they left Steve's Winter Soldier reveal. My gut response is that I wish they'd done it earlier - it feels like they had this big climax that was, emotionally, mostly about Steve-and-Bucky, but most of the movie was about Steve-and-SHIELD. I mean, obviously there's a connection there, but still. That said, I suspect it's not a question I'm particularly objective on, since the Steve-and-Bucky was what I wanted most out of the movie, so.
2) In our theater, the biggest cheer came for Sam when he first flew. Aw, Sam. Clearly he will need a new set of wings, which Tony will make for him, and they will be red because Tony, and Anthony Mackie will get his spandex after all. (Well, maybe not the spandex. But some red wings!)
3) Natasha. I really liked that she got her own journey here, that we got to see more of her personality and emotions and sense of self. I like that it puts her on a road, because that opens up the possibility that we'll get to see her go down it.
The hair was fine in action but I really want to know why Sam Wilson either a) had a hair straightener or b) agreed to go out and buy one for her. Ex-girlfriend? I don't know.
4) I'm sorry about losing the "Steve and Bucky were in the orphanage together" fanon, and the way that the Winter Soldier's characterization makes more of my favorite rare genre of WS fic, which is black comedy, more difficult. From what we see, it doesn't look like he really had a... personality, or identity, as such, though we didn't see all 70 years of his service so of course you can still go there if you want.
I'm also sad that we didn't get a shared background for Bucky and Natasha. I don't care one way or another about the romance angle - I don't object to it but I see the point of people who fear that introducing it would end up in Black Widow being shunted aside into his story rather than having her own - but I liked that connection, the additional emotional kick it gave Natasha and her relationship with Steve. That said, just like above, that's certainly changeable. Natasha could have been lying, or, I think, more plausibly, she could just not remember. That would also solve the "okay, but, Bucky Barnes is famous enough to get his own piece of an exhibit in the Smithsonian, Natasha is the kind of woman who does All The Research and she undoubtedly did All The Research on Steve, why did this never come up before?" problem.
(I also miss her Cold War background a little, but that's because I'm a child of the Cold War myself and so that has a visceral power for me. On top of the fact that if they kept that they'd have to introduce her slow aging, I'm pretty sure their core demographic doesn't remember the Cold War, so I can see why they decided not to go there at this time.)
5) I think that's almost as far down the "uh, y'all know this is terrible, right?" road that you can go without breaking the genre. They could have been more explicit about the fact that even the non-HYDRA folks were supporting terrible plans, but they had Captain America, who is as I understand it traditionally Mr. Moral Arbiter of the Marvel universe, say more than once that the whole setup was unacceptable and had to go. None of the "but if the good people are doing it, it's okay!" stuff you get in the Iron Man movies. (Which I don't complain about because see above RE: breaking the genre.)
They did of course have the usual surprisingly high percentage of people willing to enable mass murder for political goals, and not just faceless people Over There, but the endless minion supply is another of those things I just have to roll with in this kind of movie.
Be interesting to see what comes out of the ashes of SHIELD in Avengers 2. ("Ex-Agents of SHIELD?" "Freelance Agents?" "Look They Never Repossessed the Plane So We Just Kept Pretending We Were Agents, Except Now We Have to Hold Bake Sales to Buy Bombs?")
6) As I am not the first person to say, that little repeated "but I knew him" from Bucky/WS in that scene with Pierce was heartbreaking. You can see that he knows something's off, and here are the people who tell him what to do and what to think and he wants them to help him figure it out.
7) I did complain afterwards that given that Pierce and presumably many other people involved with the Winter Soldier program knew perfectly well who Bucky Barnes was, it was a terrible plan to send him after literally the one person left on the entire planet his past self had a strong connection with. (And it didn't read like they were trying to screw with Steve, as in the comics; the WS was just their best weapon for this kind of thing and so they deployed him. If they'd wanted to screw with him from the start, they'd have sent him out unmasked once they sent him after Steve specifically.) I didn't remember until later that it looks like he'd been involved in Howard's assassination, though, so they did at least have history showing that he could be exposed to someone Bucky knew without, presumably, having a problematic reaction. So, fair enough. Still not incredibly wise, but I suppose they'd already tried "lock him in an elevator with fifteen bruisers" and it didn't work, so.
8) Peggy and Steve. Oh, Peggy. Oh, Steve. I'm really glad that she's still herself enough that Steve got to see her again, the her who lived her life, and that we got to see them together. Not that they couldn't completely legitimately had her be dead already, but I'm pleased that instead they tied off that thread in a slightly more satisfying manner.
9) Jesus H. Christ, tumblr, why must you do all your text posts in, like, seven-point font? I get that my eyes are getting old, but they aren't that old.
10) Seriously though, what is (was) SHIELD? It's positioned here as a nominally American organization (except for being run by EVIL, please don't start with me about what's the difference. But it has an international oversight committee. This does not seem plausible to me.
11) In conclusion... Steve is actually feeling better at the end of the movie than the beginning, I think, which says some fairly terrible things about his state of mind at the start but there you go. Still: Oh, Steve. Why is the world not nicer to you?
ETA: Brock. Brock. Ol' buddy, ol' pal. First of all, do not put all of the highly trained agents - fine, you have no idea who the hell Sam is, but you know Steve and Natasha - in the same van when you have multiple vans. Second, if you don't want to execute them in front of a news helicopter - which, to be fair, is wise - you do it as soon as you get the ban doors closed. No, do not give Captain America and the Black Widow a car ride to think about their options! Granted this time it turned out they didn't get themselves out of the situation, but really, Brock? Corpses travel well too! That will give you extra time for some relaxed gravedigging!
Scott Evil would be ashamed of you.