So I’m going to be a total fanboy here and admit that I’ve been looking forward to this one. I wasn’t much of a fan of the storyline in the comics but the idea of hero vs hero battles in cinematic form really appealed and Marvel’s marketing push for Civil War has been superb. It helped that this was directed by the Russo brothers again as I consider Winter Soldier to be one of the best of the MCU films made so far.

Civil War, rather interestingly, establishes that the MCU proceeds in real time so the first Iron Man film was eight years ago and Winter Soldier was two years ago. Since then the number of individuals with superhuman abilities has exploded as have the human cost of the Avengers intervening in all manner of crises. Governments all around the world decide that they can no longer condone the existence of a group of superpowered people who act globally with no legal backing and propose that the Avengers be placed under the supervision of the United Nations. Iron Man, feeling guilt over what happened in Sokovia and that he was the one who created Ultron, backs this resolution. Captain America, after being burned by how thoroughly SHIELD was infiltrated by HYDRA believes in individuals and not institutions. Bucky Barnes becomes the linchpin for this conflict as Captain America believes that he can be redeemed while Iron Man insists that he be brought in to face the law. As the conflict widens, new characters are introduced into the mix, setting the stage for a fantastic battle royale.

I think it’s no exaggeration to say that Civil War delivers the best superhero action of any film ever and considering how saturated the genre has become, that’s saying quite a lot. The fanservice sometimes gets a bit too much and damn if there isn’t a Kamen Rider cheesiness to the two teams charging at each other but it doesn’t prevent the action from being immensely satisfying. The directors allow each of the characters to make use of their unique feats in the fights so you have Ant-Man yanking wires inside Iron Man’s suit, Vision phasing through attacks, Spider-Man webbing up everyone and so forth. Perhaps best of all is that since these are all heroes some of whose characters have been developed over several films now, we have much more emotional investment in them and therefore the fights carry more weight. The Russos are well aware of this as the fake out ending here shows. Would you rather see another battle between the characters you already know or a bunch of new throwaway villains you nothing about?

At the same time, the film does an equally commendable job with the quiet moments between the lengthy battles. There are some awkward timing issues involved. I thought it was a bit odd that after asking for 36 hours to bring in the rogue Avengers himself, Tony Stark immediately went off to New York to meet Peter Parker and flirt with his aunt but the scene itself is pure gold. I wouldn’t have believed it was possible to fit the introduction of a new Spider-Man while telling the origin story of a brand new character, Black Panther, all in the same film but this film somehow manages to juggle all of the very many pieces in play without making any mistakes. For example, I was leery of the weak motivation that Hawkeye had for coming out of retirement and on to Captain America’s side but then someone pointed out to me that he probably thought that Wanda was being held prisoner on Iron Man’s orders and he owed her a debt after her brother had sacrificed his life to save his in Sokovia. This is more intelligent writing that I expected!

I’m also pleased that both sides of the conflict have reasonable grounds for their beliefs. The original event in the comics was always a bit silly in that Captain America is portrayed as obviously in the right. Here, even though Iron Man is in the wrong as to Bucky’s involvement in the bombing, his reasoning that the Avengers should acquiesce to government supervision seems more morally sound to me. As an extra bit of subtlety, I appreciated how Iron Man sees the Avengers as his surrogate family and perceives that Bucky is the one who constantly threatens to break it up. As for Captain America, the death of Peggy Carter rams home the fact that Bucky is his last link to his original era. Zemo, though he doesn’t bear much of a resemblance to his comics counterpart, is arguably the most effective MCU villain seen so far despite his utter lack of any superhuman abilities and I love that he is arguably the victor at the end of the film.  All these are just more examples of good writing. Unfortunately Bucky and Cap don’t actually have much chemistry together and I suspect that Sebastian Stan while looks impressive in action scenes, he isn’t a good enough dramatic actor to pull of good scenes with Cap.

There are all kinds of quibbles I could talk about but really none of them matter all that much. Civil War is a fantastically good superhero film in all respects, manages to introduce two new characters to the MCU and ends in a satisfying manner that is very much not the status quo. That makes it a winner on all counts.