The Falcon And The Winter Solder first reactions are here: What critics are saying

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
(Image credit: Disney Plus/Marvel Studios)

Disney Plus is starting to show The Falcon And The Winter Solder to critics, and the early word is good. How good? So good that we're wishing we could fast-forward to March 19, the show's release date.

From what it sounds like, The Falcon And The Winter Solder will be very much like a Marvel movie broken into 6 TV-show size chunks. And going by the Disney Plus schedule news we've just discovered, we're hoping it will keep folks satisfied for the month-plus between this show and Loki.

Annoyingly, though, critics only saw a couple of scenes. Maybe this will help prevent spoilers — we're still hoping this show will have some big MCU surprises like WandaVision.

One note up front: critics apparently only saw two scenes. Each focuses on one of the titular heroes, with Sam Wilson running a rescue mission in one and Bucky's scene mixing a therapy session and some action (likely interspliced).

Let's start with Joel Meares, the editor-in-chief at Rotten Tomatoes. He offered the most surprising tidbit of the bunch, that there's more blood than he was expecting. We're also happy to hear that the clips reminded him of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as it's one of the best Marvel movies overall.

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Meghan O'Keefe of Decider elaborates on that note about the blood, saying these clips included the "getting the most brutal (and bloody!?) action scenes we’ve seen in the MCU to date." The fact that she's even referring to a Hard R rating is surprising on its own. 

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Steven Weintraub of Collider notes that the clips are likely from episode 1, and that Marvel and Disney don't appear to be skimping on the budget:

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Sean O'Connell from our sister site Cinema Blend hypes up the stunts in both clips. More importantly, he notes that we're going to get some in-depth exploration of Bucky's emotions.

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Henry T. Casey
Managing Editor (Entertainment, Streaming)

Henry is a managing editor at Tom’s Guide covering streaming media, laptops and all things Apple, reviewing devices and services for the past seven years. Prior to joining Tom's Guide, he reviewed software and hardware for TechRadar Pro, and interviewed artists for Patek Philippe International Magazine. He's also covered the wild world of professional wrestling for Cageside Seats, interviewing athletes and other industry veterans.