I’ve now seen nine of the first ten movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (I’ll have to go back to “The Incredible Hulk.”) I’ve been pretty favorably impressed with most of them. Sure, they’re comic-book based, but hey, a whole lot of movies are based on preposterous material. Who read “The Bridges of Madison County” or “Ivanhoe” or “Robin Hood” or “The Scarlet Pimpernel” and didn’t say to him or her self “Oh come on. Really?”

The material in these films is mostly new to me, too. I read some “Hulk” comics, but the last ones I remember reading were the early “Fantastic Four” books. I was a Baseball Digest fan, not really a comics guy. It helps to be unfamiliar with the characters and the content, I think, because there’s little chance I’ll be disappointed in them. I remember the howling about Peter Jackson’s decisions to leave Tom Bombadil and “The Scouring of the Shire” out of LOTR!

I watched “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” last night. My goodness. There were certainly a lot of double-crosses in this movie!

I had to pause the movie and look hard at the case credits to confirm that, yes indeed, that WAS Robert Redford up there on the screen with a large role (a VERY large role). He surely did a good job playing strongly against type as a villain.

It was pretty darned exciting, although I wonder how it is that one blow from Captain Rogers leaves his opponents lying on the ground behind him over and over again (see “preposterous,” above).

On to the two Guardians of the Galaxy films. I’ve been told that I’ll like them if only because of their soundtracks. I surely hope those aren’t their only good qualities!