Captain America: Civil War is very good --- But it's not perfect

Rating: 7/10 (9 May 2016)

Captain America: Civil War is undoubtedly one of the better superhero movies we've seen made, and is certainly one of Marvel's best movies they have made.
Disclaimer: I grade superhero movies very differently than I do normal movies. It's hard for a superhero to earn a super high grade because of the nature of the movie and the goal of what they set out for their audiences.
That being said, this is still a movies that has issues and still has its "Marvel stereotypes" that all of us can recognize.
Let's talk about the positives.
There are three major action scenes in this movie: the chase between Cap, Black Panther, and Bucky; The airport fight; and the final fight between Cap, Bucky, and Iron Man. These parts are, without question, some of the best action sequences I've EVER seen in a superhero movie. The finale fight between Captain America and Bucky vs. Iron Man is without a doubt my favorite part of this movie.
Black Panther absolutely STEALS the show in this movie. While Tom Holland was a very good and entertaining Spiderman, Chadwick Boseman fits the character of Black Panther PERFECTLY. I was very impressed by his performance. He was a character who had clear motivation for what he was trying to do.
I thought they did an excellent job of showing Tony Stark's emotional state while dealing with the issue at hand. Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man was excellent as always. I think for the most part the performances of the characters were consistently decent to good. Best performances to me were definitely Black Panther, Iron Man, and Spiderman.
Here are my issues with the movie.
I found the first act to be a little boring. I understand there must be set-up in a movie of this caliber, but at times I thought it was a little too slow.
I thought that as the movie went on, the issue at hand-- should The Avengers be controlled -- became almost non-existent. We have a lot of buildup to the airport scene battle regarding the issue, but as soon as the battle is over, it pretty much never comes up again. It is almost as if the entire reason they battle is just thrown in the trash. I became much more invested into the story line that Bucky killed Tony Stark's parents, and the fight that ensues.
One of my biggest issues with Marvel is that they refuse to let any superhero die. You would think that a movie with such high stakes, with such emotion, that someone would die. Marvel is catering too much to younger viewers, and to me, the fact that not one hero dies in this movie makes it feel as if the stakes aren't really that high, and that these heroes don't feel that strongly about their stances.
My problem with Zemo is that he was just inserted at awkward moments. It was weird to have him in, then have the monumental airport scene, and just throw him back in like nothing happened. It just made for a little bit of weird pacing.
One of the weirdest things to me that this movie didn't capitalize on was the whole "There are five other Winter Soldiers." Multiple times they were brought up, and then one Zemo gets to that underground laboratory nothing with them happens. I was just very confused as to why they were even brought up.
Final Thoughts: Overall, this is a good movie. I think the action is amazing and the introduction of Black Panther and Spiderman are both great. But, I found the story to be kind of inconsistent and swept under the rug. I never felt as if the story had pulled me all the way into the movie. I don't completely feel that it was an ALL out WAR. I think the story produced a very good battle, but it was never WAR status to me. But nonetheless, the fight scenes and performances by Black Panther, Iron Man, and Spiderman earn this movie a 7. I really grade this movie more as a 6.5, but I felt like being generous today. Grading this as purely a superhero movie, it's a 9. But as a movie itself, 6.5-7 is more apropos.