A truly Marvouls movie in which stakes between heroes have never been higher.

Rating: 10/10 (29 December 2017)

CIVIL WAR might be the third CA movie. But most people say its Avengers 2.5. And I can see why they say that. But in the core it is still a Captain America movie. It is essentially the aftermath of whole Washington DC mess.

It had character depth and a pretty solid reasonable plot. In Winter Soldier movie we saw what happened to Tony's parents and it was shown in Avengers 2 that Cap is secretly looking for his friend. It's a secret from Tony who has the tech to help find Bucky, because Cap knows what HYDRA made Bucky do to Tony's parents. Cap feels guilty about involving Tony in this. Even Natasha knew about it and she warned Cap repeatedly about "not pulling on that tread" , even though she provided info about Winter Soldier. It also hinted in the movie that Winter Soldier and Black Widow might have more history between them than what we've seen so far. Probably some common "red" in their ledger?!
Also in the beginning of the franchise we saw Tony playing ball with the government, making weapons for the military. But then he finds out where his weapons are going and that the government is more corrupt than he thought. From the second movie he's against government or any authority. Ten minutes in the SHIELD helicarrier he's hacking the computer systems to find out dirty government secrets. In his words, " an intelligence agency that fears intelligence is not historically cool" But his own fears of loosing this patched up family he has now makes him create Ultron. Which leads to all the death and destruction in Sokovia. So Tony who actively hated any authority at first realized that he should not be the boss of him. His whole character ark in the MCU movies is him learning to be responsible and accountable. But is it fair to think that other heroes should also be governed?!
Cap also was ready to play ball with the government at first. Well, back in the World War 2 period. But war in those days was more black and white than it is today. Allies were good guys , Nazis were bad guys. Cap was ready to fall back in to the system and get in with the program in the 21st century. But he realized up close and personal that rules are very different in the modern times. After the whole "CAWS: HYDRA existing as a parasite inside SHIELD" mess, it's only natural that Cap is stamping Illuminati and conspiracy theory over every questionable government Act he sees. Hell, i would do the same if it happen me.
And then you have Bucky who is the true victim of this whole mess. Bucky probably has the best character ark of all of MCU characters. In 3 CA movies he went from superhero sidekick to a super villain\ victim to a something in between in Civil War. There were hints all over the film that his story is not over. He'll get his redemption story in next Avengers movie. Did you see how hard he was trying to protect his backpack. He even has a belt that goes over his chest to protect it. It was mentioned somewhere that it only had those notebooks in it. Books where he's writing what he remembers from his previous life. His story is so tragic and we've seen its Greek tragedy unfold on camera through 3 movies. So it's personal to viewers as well. It's not a tragic character that we need to force ourselves to pity in the span of 2 hours movie. We already went to the film hall not wanting more pain for this character. So every jab, hit and misplaced hatred towards him are stabs to the viewers heart. Can we blame a soldier who sacrificed his life in the name of his country, who is probably the longest surviving prisoner of war, for the crimes he committed while being mercilessly tortured mind controlled? Can we blame the gun for the crimes of the person who was firing it?
That moral dilemma is what runs this movie as well as consequences collateral damage. Who is accountable for the damage caused by fights between enhanced beings? Does the cons of having superheros fighing to save people out weight their pros? But can we trust the control of Avengers with the world governments? What if the government wants to send them to a place they don't want to go? What if there is a crazy super-villain holding kids hostage in a school in some hostile country like North Korea or Iran and the accords forbid Avengers from interfering because of some inter government set of rules? This duality in every aspect of the movie is what makes it amazing. The viewers are truly torn between these concepts. I went to the film hall thinking I'm #TeamCap as any sane millennial but I was pushed in different directions throughout the movie. I found myself questioning my allegiance many times. There where places I was thinking Iron Man is right too. I never expected this kind of an effect from a Superhero movie.
Zemo knows what he is doing is wrong. He is not one dimensional cardboard enemy who's making trouble for the heroes with world domination in mind. He is blinded by his personal fury and need for vengeance. And he'd stop at nothing to get it.
Sorry for the long rant. But I had to point out how careful shared universe building of many years and great attention to detail has made this movie marvelous. It's a masterpiece that that we can one day say to our grand kids that we were lucky enough to watch on big screen while it was first airing.