Captain America: Civil War

RATING: B+

The Marvel Cinematic Universe film series has been running pretty strong for multiple movies now. Their newest objective? To take on the apparently hugely popular comic book storyline "Civil War." Which, of course, I know absolutely nothing about (since I don't read the comics). The idea still sounded pretty awesome to me. 

The Civil War is sparked due to two sides sparring over really two things: first, there's the Sokovia Accords--an attempt by the United Nations to control the Avengers after too much destruction and death during their heroics. "We need to be put in check," Tony Stark/Iron Man says, who feels guilt after the Ultron incident. Steve Rogers/Captain America on the other hand? "The safest hands are our own." 

Things get worse when Bucky Barnes (the "Winter Soldier") appears to be going rogue again, and of course Captain America wants to protect him... while Iron Man wants to bring him in. Obviously, things are only going to escalate from there. 

A couple of new heroes are introduced as well; one being Black Panther, whom I was somewhat skeptical about but who turned out to be quite awesome, actually. And I can safely say I'm ready for his movie in 2018. As for the much-anticipated Tom Holland's Spider-Man? Jury's still out. He's somewhat entertaining and is pretty good during a fight scene, but in all actuality, I've still seen too little of him to be able to make a clear decision on whether he's no joke or not. 

This movie is quite entertaining indeed, and the Russo Brothers once again establish their ability to create some brilliant fight scenes. The big fight sequence between *all* the Avengers is spectacular and is the highlight of the movie by far, but the opening fight with Crossbones and the climactic fight are pretty darn good as well. Dialogue is still quite good, giving a little bit of food for thought as well as wit. 

I think the biggest problem with this movie revolves around its choice of main antagonist. (Maybe a slight spoiler alert ahead?) We get this dude named Helmut Zemo, who is probably the weakest villain we've seen yet in the MCU. Even his motivations really aren't that interesting, as it's nothing we haven't seen before; I'd be able to look past that easily if he was at least a cool villain like Crossbones (who really should've been the main antagonist instead), or at least if he was truly despicable. But he isn't. He's just kinda... there. Without giving away much, the *true* reason the Civil War happens (Sokovia Accords aside) is a tad weak for a story that's this huge in the Marvel universe and makes me think, "Really? Couldn't we just have stuck with them fighting over being controlled by the government? That's good enough on its own!" 

That said, Civil War is still quite a fun movie to watch and it has a couple twists and turns you don't see coming. Even if I was perhaps expecting a bit more out of it (perhaps a darker turn, which I guess sort of happens but not really), it's still a good movie in its own right. Could it have been better? Yes. Is it still worth watching? Yes. It's probably not in the top half of the MCU, but considering the success of this series, that's still not saying a whole lot.