Winter Soldier/Avengers 1 > Civil War > Age of Ultron

Rating: 8/10 (6 May 2016)

"Civil War" is Marvel's second attempt to bring the ever expanding roster of the Avengers lineup to the big screen--and by second attempt I mean this film in addition to "Age of Ultron". Sure, most Marvel Cinematic Universe films are featuring an Avenger or two in some capacity these days, and yes, "The Avengers" obviously started the whole affair in earnest. But Avengers 1 was a more limited roster consisting of just the few heroes who had already had their own stand alone movies (plus Hawkeye and Black Widow). "Age of Ultron" and "Civil War", on the other hand, have featured heroes galore, and so I see this movie as the second installment of this new phase of the MCU.
That said, the good news is that "Civil War" pulls off its task of including just about every Marvel property introduced so far in a much better way than last year's "Age of Ultron". Whereas with "Ultron", the film's pacing and lack of setup made for bad storytelling, "Civil War" avoids these problems by offering more in the way of plot development and better introductions of new characters (Black Panther and Spider-Man, the latter of which obviously needed no introduction but got one anyway).
As far as the movie's other task--the task at hand of simply being a good movie with a compelling story to tell in addition to juggling so many characters on screen at once--"Civil War" does well in that department. At no time did I feel like I was watching a bad movie, even if there are a couple of scenes that feel a bit forced (Vision & Scarlet Witch, for example; Spider-Man's introduction being another).
All in all I'm going to give this movie 8/10 stars. It's definitely a step up from "Age of Ultron", but doesn't quite hit the standard set by "Winter Soldier" or "The Avengers".
Two quick afterthoughts:
1) Marvel misstepped by branding this a Captain America movie instead of an Avengers movie. The source material may revolve mostly around Cap, but it's really an Avengers movie, and certainly felt like a sequel to "Age of Ultron".
2) This is geeky of me, but with everyone happy to see Marvel's "Civil War" comic hitting the big screen, I'd just encourage the comic fans out there to check out the late 80's Captain America collected volume, "The Captain". That story is a proto-Civil War story, written twenty years before the more prominent "Civil War" comics event. "The Captain" was my favorite Captain America story arc when I was a kid, and I'm glad to see it having the influence it's had in the Civil War comics and now in the movie.