As much a Captain America as an Iron Man movie

Rating: 9/10 (13 May 2016)

It is amazing to me that a movie like this manages to be not just a great sequel to The Winter Soldier, but also to Iron Man 3, AND Age of Ultron, and still also be a good movie. A movie like this could easily crumble under the weight of so many characters, and yet it doesn't. Most of them get plenty of plot and an arc. Enough time is also dedicated to the new characters that this movie introduces.
This is not just a mindless action movie, like Age of Ultron. This is a pretty clever movie, with a solid plot, some red herrings, and twists. Of course not all characters get equal screen time. Thor and The Hulk aren't in the movie at all. And Hawk Eye is barely in it either. Other characters such as Vision, Scarlet Witch and Black Widow do get a decent plot. Vision struggles with human behavior, Wanda struggles with people being afraid of her, and Black Widow is caught in the middle, and struggling to pick a side. But in the end, I found myself strongly agreeing with Tony Stark. Even by the end of the movie, me and my friends had strong disagreements about which character was in the right. I find this a clear sign of a very strong plot.
Where the movie especially shines is it's first half. The movie spends a lot of time explaining the conflict at the heart of the story, and addresses the cost of all the absurd destruction from The Avengers, Iron Man, The Winter Soldier and Age of Ultron. There's really good dialogue in this film. I loved hearing every characters point of view, and it's hard to argue with any of them. They all have solid motives. The new character Black Panther isn't just thrown in at random. He is central to the plot. And the plot feels very serious, just like with The Winter Soldier. It isn't until the middle of the movie, that it embraces the over the top comic book action and the humor from The Avengers. So in a way, this movie is half Winter Soldier, and half The Avengers.
As far as comic book movies go, this is one of the best so far. It stands in stark contrast to the recent Batman V Superman. How can one movie be such a mess, and another do so much right? It honestly is some kind of miracle. Considering all the characters they need to juggle in this movie, and all the plot threads they need to tie together, this is one heck of a script.
The action is also top notch. There's a lot of really good car chases and free running action scenes in this. This makes some of the action feel very grounded in reality, just as in The Winter Soldier. I also got the feeling that they made plenty of use of practical effects. Of course there is also plenty of use of CGI and this. But at no point did anything really stand out to me. Again, this is quite a miracle, considering all the different effect studios involved with this.
Stay around till after the credits. Because the movie has both a mid-credits sequence, and an after-credits sequence.