Being a huge fan of this storyline I was super skeptical when this was announced to be the third installment in the Captain America films considering it was an event that completely changed the comics for several years and encompassed every character within Marvel from the biggest to smallest. Especially since while there are a ton of characters within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the final battle in the Civil War comic itself was a massive fight in New York with hundreds of characters fighting for Iron Man and Captain America. Granted there are characters in the books that the film could easily exist without like the X-Men, who play little to no part in the Civil War book, however Spider-Man and Fantastic Four both have huge roles within the comic. Thankfully Spider-Man was able to appear in the film, but Fox holding on to every property they can refused to let go of Fantastic Four. We are left with a film that while has very good transitions from the comics to screen has several big differences from its title book. This is after all a Captain America film and at the center of this huge crossover is the story of two best friends that would rather lose everything than lose each other. 
In Civil War we begin with a tactical strike headed by Cap with an Avengers team consisting of Scarlet Witch, Black Widow and Falcon against the terrorist known as Crossbones. Within this battle we see that Cap has trained his team very well with several maneuvers that combine their strengths together to work as a unit, however Scarlet Witch is still relatively new to the "hero" aspect and an accident that includes the deaths of several Wakandans is the last straw that triggers Thadeus Thunderbolt Rosd to bring forth a bill known as the Sokovia Accords, where the heroes must work under the command of the United Nations. As an understanding between all the parties concerned is being put forward, another attack occurs that implicates The Winter Soldier aka Bucky Barnes as the culprit of these atrocities. Government orders are to shoot on sight if the Winter Soldier is found and Cap along with Falcon set out to find Bucky and help him before the government does. On the trail of Bucky is also the Black Panther who seeks revenge for his people, believing Bucky to be nothing more than a murderer. These incidents splits our heroes on two sides as Tony Stark has taken a lot of flack for the incident in Sokovia where his creation of Ultron took many lives. Tony his hellbent on getting the trust of the people back and believes taking down the Winter Soldier to be a way of regaining their trust while Cap has put his complete faith in the innocence of Bucky due to Bucky's many years of brainwashing. The lines are drawn. New heroes are recruited. And the War begins.
This is the perfect three act structure for this type of movie. The worry is always with this much going on and this many characters there will be no time for any semblance of a story or character development. However the way it's done not only introduces two new characters very well, but even expands upon characters that previously were not given proper introductions. The beginning is a tense political thriller introducing the two sides and makes you wonder who will take who. This bleeds into the second act where the lines are drawn and the heroes rally to their leaders for the ultimate battle of heroes on a huge destructive scale. The third act throws a curve ball at you and becomes an intense emotional and personal fight that could result in the death of a beloved hero. The puppet master behind the whole film is revealed to the characters and as a deadly battle rages on a physical scale a simultaneous psychological struggle shows one character rising above the rest and seeing everything with perfect clarity. In essence it makes the main antagonist almost the perfect villain who does almost nothing sinister himself, but has set in motion a plan that pits the two sides together. It is also the perfect set up for said antagonist to become one of the ultimate villains in the future of the MCU paralleling his comic book counterpart. 
The two characters introduced in this film of course are Spider-Man and Black Panther. Black Panther we first meet as Prince T'Challa of Wakanda. Chadwick Boseman's performance comes off as very wise and polite, giving off his understanding of the world and willingness to accept new things, I believe these aspects to be subtext for his travels around the world learning abroad outside of Wakanda like in the comics. Once he dons the Black Panther suit, his movements are so slick and different from the other heroes. He is very agile and calculating with his movements even though at that point his motive is vengeance. You can tell his fights and movements had a lot of thought put into the choreography. For me though in the end he was the smartest character in the whole film. Although enraged by all things done to his people and the tragedies he endured he is the only character who takes in the entire story from every angle and brings understanding to the situation from all sides. While you could argue the immaturity of both sides of the heroes he is the only one that comes out of it having learned something and being a bigger man than the rest of the Avengers. Within a movie where he is not the central character he has a complete introductory story arc where he learns to be a wise King. It's an amazing thing to watch. 
I am the biggest Spider-Man fan around. I love Peter and the thing about him is he's the little guy we can all root for. He's nerdy, unsure, covering up mistakes with nervous banter and we love to watch life take big dumps on him because the old Parker luck always has him rising to the occasion. He gives us hope because he's the every day guy who makes it through the worst situations and comes out with a smile. He's the people's hero. The one you have to know when you're adapting Spider-Man is Peter Parker isn't Spider-Man. Spider-Man is Peter Parker. To me no one did that better than Sam Raimi. He gave us a Spidey that had all the quirks and while the zingy comebacks weren't machine gun rapid he had Peter down perfectly. From the moment Tom Holland hits the screen, he embodies the loser turned hero amazingly. He's awkward, doubts himself and even though we don't get his origin we know something heavy has hit this kid and made him want to do the right thing. He has a small little monologue with Tony Stark that dances around the great power speech but it doesn't feel awkward it just hits you in the heart and brings comfort to you. Now when he's suited up he is everything I have ever read in a Spider-Man comic. He is a smart ass kid from Queens with the perfect phonetics and grammar that you'd hear coming out of a smart New Yorker. Every line is gold and had me laughing throughout. I could not take the smile off my face every minute he was on screen. His movements were so perfect and Spider like whenever I saw him crawl it looked like pages of the comics I read as a kid. The thing that really had me though that I've never gotten to see was just like Spider-Man annoys the hell out of the other heroes with his banter in the comics they did the exact same thing in the movie. Plus you had the hero of Spidey the hero of Queens VS Cap the hero of Brooklyn. Priceless. No origin needed in this film, just right to the Spidey, I loved it. 
I love Joss Whedon as much as the next guy and think he is a master at character development, but I feel like he utterly failed with the introductions of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. He squeaked by with Vision but I applaud that success more to Paul Bettany's previous performances as Jarvis in the Iron Man films because I felt like that character had been developed for so long it was just transitioning him into a physical body. I hated how Quicksilver was "Whedoned" out of the Marvel Universe because Joss feels the need to kill someone in every film he does. Enter Russo Brothers who come in and save the Scarlet Witch as a character. We see her sorrow at the mere mention of the Sokovia incident from Age of Ultron and we feel the weight of her heart after the Crossbones incident. In the comics the New Warriors start the Civil War when a battle between them and some villains ends with the explosion of a school in Stamford. Here Scarlet Witch takes that place as her attempt at saving Cap results in many deaths. It's a heartbreaking moment as she struggles to deal with what she just did and Elizabeth Olsen gives an amazing performance. Throughout the film she tries to keep going, she tries so hard to be a hero where she was created by Hydra to be a killer. She feels the team labeling her a monster and the only comfort she has other than Cap is the Vision. In the comics they have a beautiful loving relationship that is touched on in the film. Something about her amazes Vision and he tries his best to protect her. While I feel the Russos did an amazing job in bringing more depth to Scarlet Witch, the relationship between her and Vision could have been done better, because there's not really much of a reason he would look past his programming and reason to begin to love her. It's a minor thing but it's not lived up to fully, hopefully it can be expanded upon better in future films. Same problem I had with Cap's love interest Sharon Carter in this film. It's briefly touched on in Winter Soldier and the buds out of nowhere here. I guess I'm both cases it can be a spur of the moment, someone could die at any time type of deal, but they both just fell flat to me. Although I love how they put Vision in human clothes as he tries his best to assimilate into a more human like nature, which were always fun aspects to play with his character in the comics. 
If you look at every Captain America film the constant is always the friendship between Bucky and Cap. The first film was a loving nod to the time period and harkened back to the adventure films of the eighties with many nods to the culture surrounding the time period Cap was created in. The Death of Bucky sets Cap off and turns the tone of the adventure film into a grittier war story and the war torn bar Cap drinks in reflects his mindset. In Winter Soldier Cap spends a majority of his time and efforts into trying to save Bucky from the Winter Soldier persona. The fight between the two is so harsh and moving as he begs Bucky to remember who he is. Cap acts differently when it comes to Bucky. It's the last link he has to his former life and he feels he owes everything to him. Every time the two banter at one another in Civil War you can't help but chuckle at how good of friends they are, recalling simpler times and wanting those times to return. As a viewer I wanted those times to return for them, they've earned it. They've earned to laugh and live as friends again after so many years of hell. For me I was always on the side of Captain America against registration in the comics. I read the books shortly before Iron Man's big screen debut and I couldn't help but still hate him for the terrible acts he committed in the books. Here though the Russos finally give Stark true purpose behind his motives. The man has as much if not more PTSD than Cap himself. He is paranoid and every time he gains something he ends up destroying it because he's afraid to lose it. The Russos give a great simple detail on the story of Tony and his parents which ties a lot of the films together for Tony narratively. Tony of course still does some very questionable things like recruiting a sixteen year old (Spider-Man) to fight Earth's mightiest heroes because he needs to even the odds but he becomes a bit desperate. By the end the paths of both sides cross. Cap vs Iron Man. At this juncture a big secret is revealed to Iron Man that sends him off the deep end. It is in this moment that even though I desperately want to root for Cap and Bucky, that I just want them to win so they can have that friendship that comes once in a lifetime back, that I feel the ultimate pain that Tony feels. For the first time in a long time I felt sorry for Tony. As big of a fan as I am of the original Civil War books the Russos did what Mark Millar the original writer could not. Tear me in two in the final fight. Each blow between each character hurting me emotionally in both sides. I still wanted Cap to win but I felt so sorry for Tony as we view the most compelling and action filled fight scene since Luke fought Vader in Jedi. 
After this film I am completely confident in the Russo's ability to balance the entire MCU character roster in the last Avengers film. We are treated to every single character getting some form of emotional depth and compelling dialogue as well as introductions that don't muck the story down but enhance it. They even managed to be the first film to acknowledge the existence of 2008's Incredible Hulk by bringing back William Hurt's Thunderbolt Ross! We have two of the greatest fight sequences ever. The first being where all the heroes go toe to toe using their abilities to their full potential and some even using new tricks that have not been utilized in their own films before that fills the most hardcore fan with joy. That fight sequence does not disappoint. It's long, it's funny, it's action packed and each moment of it had me jumping out of my seat and cheering awaiting the next epic moment. My two favorite characters in the fight being Tom Holland's Spider-Man and Paul Rudd's Ant-Man. Then of course the second fight being a one on one physical and emotional beat down. The films ends in a cliff hanger of sorts, somewhat resolved but also changes the MCU making way for many terrible things to come in the lives of our heroes. Where this film could easily have been one Hydra head, the Russo Brothers cut it off and Five more heads took its place! Hail Civil War!
