A thoroughly entertaining movie from start to finish with exhilarating action sequences and intriguing personal motivations that gives gravitas to the comic book movie genre.

Rating: 9/10 (29 April 2016)

Digression : I saw this film at Trinoma in Cinema 5. I was excited to be going in early for the trailers but my excitement turned into disappointment when they dedicated the majority of the screen time for trailers to advertisements. Since this film is property of Walt Disney Studios, the trailers that show up are also upcoming projects of Disney. While this is a brilliant marketing strategy for Disney, it is also a cruel one for the other studios especially the indie ones. This will hurt the other studios' box office numbers and potentially ruin the success of indie films. I hope in the near future Disney Studios would give way to the other studios for the betterment of the film industry. But we all know that wont happen anytime soon. On with the review! When the world divides their opinions about the future operations of the world's greatest heroes, Steve Rogers and Tony Stark's political opinions clash causing the divide of the Avengers. Let me start by saying that the action, drama and comedy in this film are well balanced and well executed which crafts a smooth and seamless story line. This is the amazing work that the Russo Brothers are capable of. The implementation of comedy for a movie like this was needed to be executed carefully and they managed to pull it off. While the tension builds between Captain America and Iron Man, we get to deeply explore their character motivations and beliefs throughout the movie. With the previous heroic acts that Tony Stark had, we are now met with a guilty and troubled character. His matured character arc was interesting to dissect because we see him constantly trying to contain each member of the Avengers and take responsibility for their actions while handling the diplomatic relations and internal heartbreak that was caused by Pepper Potts. On the opposite corner, we have Steve Rogers who is fighting for his beliefs even if he has to go against the law just to protect his long time friend Bucky. These character depths add emotional weight to the story which leads us to have more difficulty on which team to root for as both sides have been well developed. The new heroes that are introduced to us in this movie are Black Panther and Spider-Man. They were given enough screen time and their performances were amazing. I'm surprised that Black Panther was given a lot of screen time considering that the audience isn't familiar with his background. Spider-Man was a strong element in this film. The scenes he's in provide comedic relief, but his CGI suit looked very unrealistic and half-baked. One nitpick I have for this movie is that when we are transported to a different place or another time line, there are these huge, white texts that pop out of the screen. It didn't ruin the whole movie for me but it was a bit distracting. The action scenes in here are amazing. The way team members capitalize on their abilities by working together and mixing up their offenses is a spectacle to behold. Each battle is intense and the final battle between Captain America and Iron Man will send shivers down your spine and that freeze frame during their final battle will make your jaw drop. Final thoughts : Comic book readers might not appreciate it that much because the film differs itself a little. What comic book readers should understand here is that the MCU(Marvel Cinematic Universe) is riding on the momentum and the world they created. Films are harder to produce and it takes a lot of time and patience to set up character backgrounds. In the end this is the closest adaptation we will get and it was a damn great effort. This was a very entertaining movie with interesting layers and deep character motivations. The audience that i saw it with even clapped because of sheer enjoyment and I left the cinema with a huge smile on my face I give Captain America : Civil War a 9/10