The directing brothers Joe and Anthony Russo, with sitcom experience ranging from Arrested Development to Community, know how to pace a film. A former KGB agent known as the Black Widow for her fighting skills, Natasha lays a smooch on Steve and asks, “Is that your first kiss since 1945?” Steve thinks he did pretty well for a guy who’s 99 years old. Steve gets another kind of lesson from Natasha Romanoff, played by Scarlett Johansson with irresistible sass and sparkle. the Falcon, says all Steve needs is the Marvin Gaye soundtrack from Trouble Man. His new buddy, Army paratrooper Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), a.k.a. Steve keeps a pop-culture to-do list, including disco, Thai food and Star Wars/Trek. It’s Steve’s disorientation after 70 years on ice that gets Captain America: The Winter Soldier off to such an exhilarating comic start. Steve ended the war cryogenically frozen, waking up in the present for 2012’s The Avengers, a Joss Whedon blockbuster so loaded with antics from the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and the like that we never learned how Steve felt after being defrosted. In 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, a more-than-decent period piece directed by Joe Johnston, Chris Evans brought the character created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby to vivid, surprisingly dimensional life. To play catch-up in the Marvel Comics universe: Captain America is really Steve Rogers, a scrawny Brooklyn kid transformed into a supersoldier to fight the Nazis. And did I detect a hint of depth under the dazzle? A little bit. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is every rousing, whup-ass thing you want in an escapist adventure. Summer popcorn movies are hereby put on notice to get cracking.