Grand adventure slash battle royale

Rating: Null/10 (25 September 2016)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues strong with this one. The events of the second Avengers movie, combined with the events of the second Captain America movie, continue to take their toll. The Avengers have become the supreme force on Earth through the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. and their victory over Ultron. But supreme force demands supreme resistance and thus the Avengers have to ask themselves: is their very existence begetting more problems than they can solve and if so, should they be held responsible for it.
Captain America has become the central icon of Marvel movies, perhaps even more so than Iron Man and this is shown in his movies. This could easily be called Avengers 2.5: Civil War. It has almost all of the characters, it moves the universe forwards and its themes will echo throughout all the movies that come after it. Things change with this film, nothing will be the same.
And it's simply a good action movie on its own. The cast is still absolutely fantastic, especially Chris Evans as Steve Rogers and Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. Every scene the two of them are in is some of the finest character acting I've seen in a while. Especially because they have such heave themes to discuss. And while the movie itself leans slightly towards Cap's position, it makes Tony's point of view painfully clear and relatable. People should be held accountable, power requires oversight and the strongest should lead the way for everyone. It's just a matter of how they go about realizing these ideals that set these two apart.
Furthermore, the new and returning lesser characters are both very good, especially Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther. I can't wait for his stand-alone film, having seen this! And, as always, the action scenes are phenomenal, the production values are as perfect as they can get, the humour works and it's just an all-around good movie.
If I had to nitpick, I'd say that it perhaps a bit grim for my tastes. It has humour, certainly, but the storyline itself is pretty bleak and the ending especially will divide opinions. Personally I can say that I respect its ambition and scope more than I actually like it. Let's just say that we're pretty far from the days of The Avengers and it's light-heartedness, and leave it at that.
Still, definitely a film worth seeing for all fans of Marvel. They haven't dropped the ball yet.