A smart script delivers all a Marvel movie fan could ask for.

Rating: 8/10 (20 April 2016)

WAR! WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? TWO HOURS AND 27 MINUTES OF SUPERHERO FISTICUFFS THAT'S WHAT!
It is a certainty that most of the audience will know Captain America: Civil War's cast of characters from the movies which is a bit sad because, for me as a Marvel comic reader since my distant teens, one of the main pleasures of watching the movie is its loving evocation of the Sixties Marveluniverse in which characters gleefully crossed over onto each others'titles to trade insults and punches in equal measure.
However, The touchstone for this superhero slug fest is Mark Miller's 2006-7 Civil War storyline that formed the spine of a Summer comic book cross-over event brawling across multiple titles and winning new or winning back old readers for the Marvel line in the process. The cinematic version goes its own way and is mostly successful precisely because its execution is cinematic rather than comic bookish (Comics are often spoken of as if they were films but the differences between the media are important).
On-screen, Civil War is carried as much by its actors as its effects. Chris (Captain America) Evans, Robert (Iron Man) Downey Jr and Sebastian (Winter Soldier) Stan form the emotional triangle at the heart of the movie. When The Winter Soldier is implicated in acts of terrorism Cap wants to bring him in. But the move places him outside the law and Iron Man must bring the World War Two hero to book.
The film's complex but far from incomprehensible plot weaves together the collective fates of the rest of the Marvel cinema superheroes and introduces a few new characters for good measure. The tension between vigilantism and the Rule of Law is the same theme that should have provided the weight to Batman Vs Superman but didn't and, truth be told, is hardly better explored here as Civil War is carried by personal motives of vengeance and loss. The 'villain' Zemo is driven by the loss of his family in Sokovia and T'Challa becomes The Black Panther after the death of his father.
The script gives key secondary relationships between, for example, The Vision and The Scarlet Witch, and between The Black Widow and Hawkeye enough screen time to make you care about who ends up zapping, clobbering and generally battling whom. It's all a far cry from the DC movie which still felt the need to rework origin stories as if afraid the audience had forgotten what makes Batman Batman.
The direction draws on contemporary war/action movies to realize the fight scenes. This lends them a violent reality although I found the strobing bodies flinging themselves across the screen hard on the eyes. But, again, a confident script gives the audience a much needed break by inter-cutting the action with more intimate scenes. We see the Vision struggling to cook for mutant Wanda and tony Stark cajole a young Pete Parker (Tom Holland) into donning a smartened up Spider-Man costume and fight on the side of International Law. Civil War effortlessly handles shifts in tone and pace. The latter left me more than happy to see a new Spiderman movie, although I preferred James Acheson's costume design for the character – the new suit looks like foam rubber. Incidentally, Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) has undergone a radical reworking (is there such a category as an AILF?)
As the trailer suggests, a key fight occurs on an airfield as Captain America seeks to steel a Quinjet from under the nose of the government. It is Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Ant Man, Hawkeye, Winter Soldier and The Falcon vs Iron Man, War Machine, The Vision, Black Widow and Black Panther on the other. You'll not really know who to cheer but, while the introduction of The Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) is a crowd pleaser, Ant Man's (Paul Rudd) transformation into Giant Man steals the scene. But it would be a mistake to believe the film simply descends into violence. Its final act delivers plenty of plot twists and, if anything, the dialogue becomes sharper, funnier and more poignant. And yes, Stan Lee makes his customary appearance, albeit late in the day and with a weak joke that the audience greeted with rapturous laughter suggesting that this moment of light relief was also well timed.
The cleverness of Captain America : Civil War's script, performances and direction cruelly exposes the weaknesses of Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. In the battle of the Easter superhero blockbusters Civil War wins by a critical knockout.