With two big sides taking place, Captain America: Civil War sets up for an awesome superhero movie and story about friendships.

Rating: 9/10 (10 May 2016)

Though we're still a few weeks into the release, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice seems to be setting itself into the position on "how to NOT make a superhero crossover film". While I didn't hate the movie as much as some are really making it out to be (some are even calling for director Zack Snyder to be booted from the upcoming Justice League movie that is still good to go), it was still overstuffed with a ton of stories that either needed to be their own movies or cut entirely. Warner Brothers will need to try and model Disney with what the latter has been doing with Marvel Comics and their heroes.
Not only does Marvel allow their stories to pace themselves over several movies and bring in a more playful tone, but they seem to try and actually bring in modern day issues that have been controversial. Captain America: The Winter Solider managed to mirror the real life events that have surrounded the NSA and their surveillance on the general public. The American people are split over the upcoming election with extreme rights and extreme lefts about to burst into an electoral civil war. The Avengers too burst into their own struggle in Captain America: Civil War.
It seems that the events of The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and The Avengers: Age of Utron have become a bit of a nuisance to the Untied Nations with the amount of damage caused by our heroes. While Captain America (played by Chris Evens) is leading some of the avengers on a mission in Lagos, an accidental explosion strikes a building, hurting many people. This seals the deal for U.S. secretary of state General Ross (played by William Hurts) to set up a UN panel that would oversee the Avengers and decide when to be called upon. This is called the Sokovia Accords.
This puts the entire team in a divide. Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.) feels that U.N. intervention is necessary as that they need boundaries and that this could prevent further villains from emerging. Steve Rogers sees the Accords as a bureaucratic headache that would keep them from helping everyone. When the Captain rescues Bucky Barnes (played by Sebastian Stan) from UN's arrest for a bombing in Vienna, this creates sides. The Captain gets the Falcon, the Winter Soldier, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, and Ant-Man to join his side while Iron Man gets War Machine, Black Widow, Black Panther, Vision, and Spider-Man to join his side. Both sets of heroes fight while a Sokovian terrorist Helut Zemo (played by Daniel BrÃ¼hl) plans for a bigger attack.
With all the heroes shown in Captain America: Civil War, there is a lot of hype to deliver. Amazingly, it manages to both satisfy those that wanted to see an all superhero melee and paints a great story about friendships. There was a huge risk trying to put in all of these heroes yet remain a story for Steve Rogers.
The focus is where it needs to be as it shows a guy who's got to figure which friendship is more important; Bucky or Stark. Both newcomers Black Panther and Spider-Man are welcomed warmly into the Marvel Cinematic universe as they get plenty of scenes. The actual battle in the civil war is twenty five minutes of pure joy that show why movies were made; to see moments like that come to life!
Now how is the rest of movie supposed to go on after that scene? It's difficult to say because the third act does falter towards the end. We get one more big fight between Captain America and Iron Man that's great, but does not top the civil war sequence. I'm not sure if the solution is to make the final fight bigger or tone down the middle fight. I think that after such a rush of amazing, it's difficult to even continue.
I'll give this nine battling heroes out of five. Captain America: Civil War makes for a great start to the next phase of Marvel movies. If not uneven, it's at least exciting. I'd hate to be the one that misses this hero epic in theaters, so don't miss out and pick a side.