Captain America: Civil War is a movie that pits the Avengers against each other over the issue of registering with the UN. It combines some of the best aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to develop character arcs that have been going on for several movies now. At the same time, I think the movie is a bit bogged down and the main character, Captain America, tends to get a bit lost in the shuffle.

There's two major plotlines going on in the movie. First is the Civil War story line, which focuses on the Avengers fighting over registering with the UN. The second story line continues from the Winter Soldier, Bucky is on the run and has been framed for the death of the King of Wakanda by the villain Baron Zemo. Helping Bucky and not signing up with the UN has pitted Cap against Iron Man.

The movie definitely plays more like an Avengers movie rather than a Captain America movie (I've heard this movie called Avengers 2.5). Iron Man gets a lot of screen time here, and the movie introduces Black Panther and Spider-man. I'm not opposed to the movie going for a larger ensemble, since Cap himself gets developed over the Avengers movies as well, but it does feel like there's too much going on here. The two story lines have enough meat on their bones to be their own movies. They do interesting things with these story lines and arcs though, and the movie really wants you to see both sides of the argument. You can empathize with both major characters and that is great, it really sells the Civil War idea. On top of that what I really love about that idea is that it feels like a natural point in their character arcs, based on previous movies. Baron Zemo though doesn't get much screen time and he's largely forgettable outside of a couple scenes at the end.

I watched this movie right around the time Chadwick Boseman died (RIP) and so I want to take a minute to talk about him specifically. Black Panther has a great little arc here and probably stands out the most among all characters, save for Cap and Iron Man. He doesn't say a lot, but makes that silence part of his character and works great as a counterpoint to the Avengers, really a breath of fresh air for the team. I'm really sad that he passed and wish we could get more of him.

The visual effects are great here, no surprise. The Super heroes are colorful and the set pieces are big end explosive. There's a lot of big action here with lots of color powers and none of it clashes visually and its not hard to see whats going on. The Russo Brothers have an eye for cinematography and know how to fit big ensembles within a shot without audience getting lost. The musical score is your usual MCU flair, nothing really to note here.

Overall, this is one of my favorite MCU movies. There's a lot of talent in front of and behind the camera, so I think they largely smooth out a script that is a bit messy. It's a lot of fun at the movies and great pay off for being invested in the MCU for many years and many movies. Not as tightly written as the Winter Soldier, but the movie is so big and has so many great character moments I might like this movie better. I'd recommend it to all fans of Super hero movies, but it requires previous investment in both Captain America, Avengers and Iron Man movies.