During an Avengers mission headed by Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) in Lagos to stop theft of a biological agent by a team of mercenaries headed by former SHIELD agent Rumlow (Frank Grillo), the team manage to stop the theft of the biological agent but are unable to contain the collateral damage unleashed when Rumlow activates a suicide bomb which Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) tries in vain to contain. With public pressure mounting for some level of oversight over the Avengers, Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt) tells the team in response to events in New York, Washington D. C., Sokovia, and now Lagos the United Nations has drafted the Sokovia Accords which would make the Avengers accountable to a body within the United Nations who would authorize the Avengers to action when and if they are needed. This leaves the Avengers split on the issue with Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) on board with the Accords following the events of the Ultron incident in Sokovia while Steve Rogers says it is short sided to put control in the hands of politicians who have their own agendas and interest that could dictate who they're allowed to help. At the signing ceremony in Vienna, Austria a bomb is detonated killing King T'Chaka (John Kani) of the African nation of Wakanda. Footage of the incident seems to point to James "Bucky" Barnes/The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) as the bomber, and when Captain America investigates by getting to Bucky first who claims he didn't do it, Captain America finds himself a fugitive hunted by both the authorities and certain Avengers as Captain America and his allied Avengers try to keep Bucky alive to learn the truth.

Captain America: Civil War is the third entry in the Captain America series as well as the inaugural film of the third phase of the MCU. Prior to the release of Captain America: The Winder Soldier, Marvel had already signed directors Anthony and Joe Russo back as directors with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely returning as writers due to impressive test screenings for the film, and with the massive success of The Winter Soldier Marvel's faith in the team certainly paid off. While initially planned primarily to continue on with the story setup in The Winter Soldier, the focus of the film began to expand with Robert Downey Jr. Entering negotiations to reprise his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man in order to adapt the Marvel event series Civil War (albeit greatly changed and improved from the Mark Millar penned series). As with the previous Captain America film, Civil War opened to massive acclaim and continued to build off the box office success of its predecessor grossing $1.15 billion against a $250 million budget. Captain America: Civil War not only works as a climax to a Captain America trilogy, but it's also a much more satisfying Avengers movie than Age of Ultron.

The movie does a good job of setting up a wedge issue between Iron Man's side and Captain America's side with each character's stance on the issue of the Sokovia Accords feeling like a natural place for each character given the events of their respective film series and character arcs that have lead them to this point (with even Age of Ultron put to good use despite that movie being mediocre in my opinion). The movie keeps the best aspects of the Civil War storyline while also jettisoning the weaker elements of that comic (which are many but too numerous to go into) and this is probably one of the best examples of how sometimes not doing a 1:1 translation of a previously existing work can be beneficial to the end result.

The movie juggles many characters and subplots to the point that with the exception of Thor and Hulk, this is basically an Avengers movie in all but name. But despite having a large roster of characters and also introducing new ones such as Black Panther and Spider-Man the movie still feels like it's balancing all these aspects while still anchored to Captain America as the focal point of the movie especially since his best friend Bucky is at the center of the conflict. Robert Downey Jr.'s take on Iron Man this time around is considerably less glib and has a darker take on the character this time around stemming from all the events leading up to this point, and in terms of execution it feels like it takes lessons learned from Iron Man 3 and builds upon them to the point where Tony still feels like himself but with a considerably harder edge than how we knew him in the stand alone films. Tom Holland and the gone too soon Chadwick Boseman get solid introductions as Spider-Man and Black Panther respectively, although I will say that Spider-Man's inclusion in terms of story feel like maybe it's slightly forced in comparison to Black Panther who has a vested interest in the events due to avenging his father.

The movie delivers on all the scale and spectacle you'd expect out of a premise like Civil War and while Joss Whedon stated his intent with Age of Ultron was to deliver "The Empire Strikes Back of the MCU", Civil War actually feels like a case where the stakes have been raised as the threat doesn't come from interchangeable robot drones and the fact that these are characters we've come to know and love now at odds makes us more invested in the outcome. By the time the movie was over I felt exhilarated, but also as if there would be lasting repercussions that these characters wouldn't easily come back from.

I really enjoyed Civil War and in terms of introducing the third phase of the MCU you couldn't have asked for a better way to get your audience sucked in. The movie continues the strong writing and direction of The Winter Soldier, and with the expanded scope the Russo Brothers show why they deservedly helmed the next Avengers films.