I’ve decided to deem this year the Year of Midnight Premieres. I’ve only been to one midnight premiere before (The Dark Knight Rises), but there are some movies coming out this year that are so good, I can’t wait until Friday night to see them. I have to see them as soon as I possibly can. Captain America: The Winter Soldier was one of those movies.

Fortunately for me, midnight premieres may be going out of style and giving way to 8:00 pm premieres. Instead of showing the movie at midnight, several theaters showed the new Captain America movie at 8:00 pm on Thursday night. This probably broadened the appeal of seeing the movie early, and may have had something to do with The Winter Soldier becoming Fandango’s most pre-sold movie in history. But either way, I was sitting comfortably and wide-eyed at 8:00 Thursday night for the premiere of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and it was awesome.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the newest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it’s the movie that most directly ties The Avengers with its upcoming sequel The Avengers: Age of Ultron. If you saw The Avengers and plan to see Age of Ultron, you’ll probably want to watch The Winter Soldier, because it’s a pretty important link between the two. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Even as a film independent of the MCU, The Winter Soldier is great. It’s both a superhero film and a spy thriller, something you wouldn’t normally think would work well together. But it actually turns out to be intriguing and still true to the superhero genre. Marvel took a chance with The Winter Soldier, and it payed off.

The cast is just incredible. You’ve got Chris Evans as Captain America, Scarlett Johannson as Black Widow, and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. We’ve seen all of these characters before, but we see more of Black Widow and Nick Fury than in any other film, and I’m glad. I’ve always wanted to know more about these two, and The Winter Soldier gives them lots of screen time. Other major characters include Anthony Mackie as Falcon, Cobie Smulders as Agent Hill, and Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce, a member of the mysterious World Security Council. The characters and actors they chose for this movie were perfect.

This movie is also downright funny. It’s not meant to be a comedy, but the humor is perfectly timed and directed. You will laugh out loud when you watch The Winter Soldier. The comedy doesn’t take away from the action or the suspense, but it’s definitely there, and I love it.

Another great thing about The Winter Soldier is the relationship between Cap and the Soldier. In case you haven’t heard yet, I won’t give the Soldier’s identity away, but he has a history with the Captain, and that history affects some of the decisions that Captain America makes. It’s very cool to see Captain America’s internal struggle, as he’s been a fairly strait-forward character thus far.

And Marvel never lets you forget that no matter which movie you’re watching, you’re always a part of a bigger universe. There are several references to what the other Avengers are up to during the film, and even references to new characters that we’ll probably see in the near future. Keep an eye out for these references when you watch.

The stakes in The Winter Soldier are unbelievably high. It’s hard to imagine how the writers could top The Avengers, where the fate of the world is at stake, but they somehow managed to do it. You really care about what happens in The Winter Soldier, and the events of the movie will have ripple effects throughout the rest of the MCU. If you only see one Phase 2 movie before Age of Ultron, this one should be it. It ties directly into the Avengers sequel, which is shaping up to be pretty awesome. Check out Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and let me know what you thought of it!