Great, but overburdened

Rating: 8/10 (9 May 2016)

I definitely liked Captain America: Civil War: the story touches on some important issues, the action is top-notch, and it has a couple of really great character moments. It still doesn't qualify as the best Captain America movie, let alone MCU movie (that's still Winter Soldier), simply because I think it really would have done better with a couple of trims.
One of its biggest problems was in my opinion the whole plot line regarding Zemo, which for the most part felt like an unnecessary red herring. I do concur that, in the end, it added a nice twist to the movie's main topic of the rift between the Avengers, and it did lead to the final (and worthy to be called "epic") showdown between the Cap and Iron Man, but for the most time, it simply distracted from the eponymous "Civil War". A stronger focus on the Avenger's internal conflict, its reasons, and its repercussions would have done the movie good.
The second biggest problem is the over-full cast of heroes. Even if we ignore that someone who hasn't seen every other MCU movie before Civil War (I luckily have) will have a difficult time to comprehend who all these people are and what the heck they are doing in a Captain America movie, a bunch of the characters simply don't add anything meaningful to the movie, except maybe filling up the roster of "Team Iron Man" and "Team Captain America". Especially Ant-Man (despite his huge role in the team brawl at the airport – pun intended) and Spider-Man seemed pretty much unnecessary. I do understand the importance of Spidey's cameo in this movie to bring the character "back home" into the MCU, but his drawn-out introduction felt completely out of place and made the story grind to a halt for almost ten minutes. That said, I was impressed that they managed to give almost every character well developed and insightful moments and their time to shine. Black Panther was an interesting addition, and I'm looking forward to see what they will be doing with this character in the future.
And maybe to point this out again: for the general audience, which didn't follow the MCU slavishly, large parts of this movie must be incomprehensible, due to the sheer number of different characters and allusions to events in the past MCU movies.
Anyway, for MCU fans, Civil War is definitely a treat, and - due to its importance for the future of the MCU - an unmissable addition to the series.