Captain America Civil War - 4 1/2 Stars

BEWARE PLOT SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW!!! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE YOU ARE GOING TO BE SPOILED! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

WOW what an epic superhero movie. By far this is my favorite Marvel "team" superhero film. It just knocked Avengers down to number 2 for me. While this is ultimately a Captain America movie, this is Avengers 3 before the real Avengers 3 (Infinity War) happens. The fight scenes, the choreography, the acting, the character development, the set pieces. Wooooo!!!

Okay let's just get the plot of the film out of the way. Following the actions of what happens in Avengers Age of Ultron and previous films, the government wants to pass a bill (The Sakovia Accords known as the Registration Act) to make the Avengers and superheroes accountable for their actions when there is collateral damage or drastic casualties. The law divides the team of Avengers and causes conflict within the superheroes. Who is right? Who is wrong? Who's side are you on? The two who are mainly at strong disagreement are Captain America and Iron Man. Along with the splitting of the Avengers this brings in new characters Black Panther played by Chadwick Boseman, Spider-man played by Tom Holland and a returning Winter Solider played by Sebastian Stan.

For me I’ve always wanted to see what it would happen if a group of superheroes came to blows. In a film could the director showcase and manage each of the characters' strengths? Yes, yes they can. The power potential for each character in this film was demonstrated to the max. Scarlet Witch was so powerful and showcased some skills that I didn’t even know she had. Ant-Man finally grew into Giant Man and it fit in perfectly in that particular scene with the other Avengers. Ant-Man's excitement to join with Captain America was so funny that it reminded me why I loved his solo film last year. Falcon’s new wings and his remote controlled falcon were so cool!! The chase scene with The Winter Solider, Black Panther and Captain America was so fun. The audience and myself made a huge gasp when The Winter Solider pulled the motorcycle from the guy driving in order to continue the getaway from Black Panther and Captain America. The love relationship building with Scarlet Witch and Vision was humanly natural. Vision trying to fit into the human world by developing feelings for her and even dressing in human clothes was great and representative to the love story they have in the comics. Iron Man and Captain America fought each other basically almost to the death. The splash pages were ripped right from the comics!! The shot of Iron Man blasting his repulser ray into Captain America’s shield had me so giddy. To me that was better than the splash page of the two teams battling at the airport. At one point I thought for sure Cap or Iron Man was going to die at the hands of the other. And lastly but not least, Black Panther and Spider-man stole the show, especially Black Panther for me.

Look I have been a longtime Spider-man fan and I was hoping that they would finally get him right in a film and thankfully now that they loaned him to Marvel, they have done him justice. His age is appropriate. He has a reason to team up with Avengers. His spunk is on point even within battle. His skills are unmatched. And he’s just down right a fun kid who is trying to make something out of the new powers he has discovered. During the airport battle scene when he starts to fight the Winter Solider and catches his metal arm,  looks and says “Hey you have a metal arm, how cool.” I was like done!! They nailed him!! It was so much fun to watch him in action. The costume was great and they even gave him the Ditko eyes. The squints and sounds that it makes are giving you emotion through his eyes just like in the comics!!! Perfect! Oh and no origin story. Not needed!! A little scene with Tony Stark to introduce him to the audience and then we have Spider-man. Not Spider-boy. So excited to see his standalone film next year.

Now back to Black Panther. KING OF WAKANDA!!! Man when he walked onto the scene and spoke for the first time, I got chills. From the comics that I’ve read of Black Panther in my mind that is what he sounds like. His voice just commands the role of Prince and now King of Wakanda. Not like Eddie Murphy in Coming to America. His stature just is so strong and bold. His movements are so quick and silent like a cat. I’m a dog lover but now I might have to change my ideals of felines. There were moments when he would jump off of a building and land and you heard nothing from his feet. I’m like damn!! Is he walking on air? His costume was so cool as well. I have the same comment with Black Panther as Spider-man. Not really needing an origin story but boom here he is fighting with and against the Avengers. It’s funny because himself and Spider-man were only in the film probably for about 15 minutes each but it felt like so much more because they were so memorable.

During the film I was always on Captain America’s side. I couldn’t imagine a world where the superheroes we need to protect us from the bigger threat had to be policed by the government. The government telling the superheroes when and where they could fight crime. Do they know the right time for them to be fighting crime? Captain America is always going to take the noble and citizen like approach to every person. Iron Man is just shooting first and asking questions later to me. The struggle Captain America has with protecting his friend Bucky who is being controlled by Hydra is real. He will always and forever be his friend and he will do anything to make sure people see the good in him.

The villain (Baron Zemo) wasn’t really pronounced enough in this film for me. But it was okay because the real struggle was supposed to between the Avengers. I believe if Marvel would have made the villain a more prominent focus then would have lost sight of the real Civil War. Plus what we know about previous Marvel films is that the villains are usually lackluster in their character development anyways. Red Skull and Loki have been the only exceptions. The other issue that I had with the film was a non-conclusive ending about the Sokovia Accords. Was the act officially instituted into the government? Is Captain America now AWOL? Is the government now searching for Captain America because he is a fugitive? Is Iron Man still on the government’s side? Which I guess that answer is there but you don't know for sure because he does put General Ross on hold when he answers the phone in the end scene.

I guess with those questions unanswered it’s a good way to bring the team back together to fight Thanos in Infinity War. It is a two-part film so maybe the first part is to decide if the team is going to join back together and also get the backstory/introduction to Thanos and the second part bringing the team back together and the final battle.

The film was fun, emotional (I gasped when Bucky’s arm was ripped off and when Cap was at the final battle with Iron Man), exciting, thought provoking and just everything I wanted in a superhero movie. Marvel is still on the right track providing us with these awesome superhero films. Some may think they are getting superhero fatigue but I'm not.

4 1/2 Stars only because the villain part bothered me.