‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ is one of the best action movies around

Take away the marvelously staged action scenes, and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” would work just fine as a political thriller.

Its twisty, trust-nobody storyline shares as much in common with 1970s paranoia classics “Three Days of the Condor” and “The Parallax View” as it does “Iron Man 3.”

It proves a welcome counterpoint for Captain America himself (Chris Evans, in his third and most confident go-round as the star-spangled superhero). The film concocts a chilling variant on a Patriot Act takeover that ranks with the best of the lunatic James Bond villain schemes.

The squarest Avenger must turn rogue against his own government in the pursuit of a higher truth. Good thing, too. Sometimes the world could use a Boy Scout more than a brooding antihero. An old-fashioned veteran to the rescue.

As Cap quips, “I’m 95. I’m not dead.”

The novelty of 2011’s solid “Captain America: The First Avenger” was its World War II setting — before Capt. Steve Rogers crash-landed in the Arctic and woke up decades later. “Winter Soldier” is rendered in modern-day Washington, D.C. We’re introduced to Cap as he’s lapping a fellow retired soldier named Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) during a morning jog. They meet and swap a few tales.

It’s the first of many scenes that alternate breezy camaraderie and humor with rip-roaring action. Those latter sequences really start to pile up as Cap is drawn into a conspiracy that involves S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and World Security Council head Alexander Pierce (a welcome Robert Redford).

“S.H.I.E.L.D. takes the world as it is, not like we’d like it to be,” Fury says in explaining a new program that might either end the War on Terror or all civil liberties.

Cap turns to his only remaining allies: sexy/deadly agent Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Wilson, whose experience with experimental assault gear in the Iraq War earns him the nickname Falcon. These heroes also become the target of the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), a bionic-armed uber warrior with a connection to the Captain’s past.

On paper, directors Anthony and Joe Russo — best known for the sitcom “Community” — seem an odd match for a blockbuster franchise of this size. Yet handle it they do, unleashing a production that’s better than the last two Bond pictures and rivals “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” as the best pure action movie of the decade.

Whether orchestrating a covert assault on a pirate-held ship, a brawl against multiple opponents in a cramped elevator or a truly epic carjacking, “Winter Soldier” takes a noticeably different tack from other Marvel efforts. The Russo brothers intentionally avoid CGI whenever possible, relying on a mix of stunts, fight choreography, vehicles, locations and actual sets to sell the drama.

The lack of green-screen laziness makes the red, white and blue workmanship pop out that much more.

The 32-year-old Evans doesn’t possess the snarky charisma of his “Avengers” castmate Robert Downey Jr., aka Iron Man, or the sheer gusto of Chris Hemsworth, aka Thor, but he’s got

that really shines through in this flick. Call it a cozy mix of humility, integrity and likability. Evans takes the iconic role of Captain America seriously but not too seriously.

As is often the case with comic book movies, “Winter Soldier” nearly wears out its welcome during the frantic finale. It’s certainly well-crafted, but just like “The Avengers,” the fight scenes become repetitious enough to make you speculate whether 10 minutes should be cropped off the back end. A lone pacing misstep in an otherwise stellar adventure.

At least the combat involves actual people duking it out instead of another horde of digital monsters getting pummeled. And at least what these heroes are fighting

has value.

Roll call!

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The high-flying Iraq War vet fights alongside Captain America with a pair of stealthy armored wings.

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The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and fellow Avenger is willing to bend the rules where Cap isn’t.

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The World Security Council chief doesn’t see the world in the same way S.H.I.E.L.D. does.

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This story was originally published April 3, 2014 at 1:00 PM with the headline "‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ is one of the best action movies around."