Russo Brothers handle an ensemble excellently in another Marvel blockbuster but it wasn't without problems.

Rating: 8/10 (5 May 2016)

Captain America: Civil War has been called "Avengers 3" by some people because of the amount of Avengers that star in the film and it's a valid observation...until you see the movie. Somehow the Russo Brothers, with this huge ensemble cast, dealing with the Avengers themselves, adapting an infamous comic book actually make it still feel like a Captain America movie - which is great! I mean don't get me wrong, you see a lot of other characters and I loved seeing a lot of other characters but it really worked well continuing Cap's story that was left off in The Winter Soldier, which I really enjoyed because Bucky Barnes was one of the most interesting things about that movie and I enjoyed seeing him progress here.
And talking of characters, there were quite a few to juggle about but the Russo's once again did an excellent job of not making it confusing or crowded. I'll just go through a few of them real quick. Captain America and Iron Man were great as always, Iron Man was not always his one-liner quip guy in this, he has a lot of stuff to deal with so it was interesting to see him in that light; now I went into this movie on the side of a particular team but boy if you don't start questioning your loyalties during this movie then something's wrong; there were points being made that actually made me see the other guy's side so I was happy to see both sides presented equally, after all it is a Civil War. Black Panther gets his movie debut here and what an introduction it was, he is a fantastic character who I cannot wait to see again, his motives were solid and clear and his third-party angle to the war made it really intriguing to watch, definitely looking forward to seeing Chadwick Boseman in his own Black Panther film. The two sidekicks, as it were, Falcon and War Machine were great to see again and do a lot more plot-wise I think so it was nice to see everyone used really well. Vision and Wanda were fine in their roles again, I think I preferred them in Age of Ultron for some reason, they just seemed more interesting then whereas here, although they were great to see again, I didn't feel as invested in their characters as I was others. Ant-Man was fun to see too and boy do we see him, I'm obviously not going to spoil anything here but he was definitely one of my favorite parts of the movie.
Now during all this Civil Waring there is actually a villain in the movie and for me, he was one of the best villains Marvel have done in their Cinematic Universe; I felt his motives were valid, his intelligence was shown very well and his scenes were just really interesting to me.
Just before I get into what I wasn't such a fan of I'll mention Spider-Man. Tom Holland is a great actor and does a great job in this, it was really cool to see Spider-Man interact with the Avengers and see him do his stuff. That being said, this Spider-Man was not quite what I was expecting; I don't read the comics so from just a movie-going viewer with the past five Spidey movies to go on, this incarnation was quite different in the way of how they handled him. I've been told it was the most comic-accurate Spider-Man and the best version they've seen of him on screen so I have no place to complain but for me it was a little jarring to see such a change from what I was used too. But I did of course enjoy seeing him on screen and really look forward to seeing him again.
Now some things I wasn't so struck on. The first action piece; a battle near the very start of the movie just seemed off for some reason. I don't know what it was but it just didn't flow for me, I didn't enjoy who they were fighting and although it does set up something important a lot of it felt unnecessary. The first quarter of the film I'd say was very much a going from set-up to set-up sort of thing and was a little shaky script wise but the plot eventually straightened and it was great. Another negative I have was that once or twice the CGI was quite noticeable, in some of the action scenes and particularly Vision sometimes it wasn't great. And then something that wasn't necessarily wrong with the film but those darn trailers again. We'd go to one location and I'd instantly recognise it from the trailer so I knew what was going to happen, and that occurred nearly every time they went somewhere else; not all the time mind you, but quite a lot I was already knowing what scene this was leading up to.
In the end Marvel roll out another blockbuster with one of the best ensemble casts and an investing, emotional story. For me it wasn't the best film they've done but a real strong shot from the Russo Brothers and set's up a lot of cool characters for the future.