Long story short - this film was A-MA-ZING! (Like Spidey's titular comic and cameo here!) Easily among my favorite MCU films so far!
First of all, big shoutout to the Russo brothers!
They do phenomenal work with ensemble cast and action scenes. It's hard to believe those two were the dudes that used to direct episodes of Community!
As for the titular Civil War, while the movie takes some cues and the major beats from the comics by the same name, it's more of a Captain America story than the original Civil War Marvel event.
Although I enjoyed seeing the film make some nods to it. The original incident that cause the whole government take over of the superheroes, as well as the war between the heroes, wasn't the same, but it actually had the same role in the plot.
This movie completed the journey of Captain America carrying over from his past films. So it is basically "Captain America 3".
But it also felt like Avengers 3 (or Avengers 2.5?), following the "Assembly" of the Avengers and the Age of Ultron storyline. In fact a lot of elements from the film seemed to follow the aforementioned "Sokovia incident".
I really thought the plot worked nicely the whole MCU cast into the picture. Drawing newcomer Black Panther into the frontline before getting his own film and all.
The airport scene which we only got a mere glimpse in the trailer was B-EAU-TI-FUL!
Speaking of, I'm just glad the trailers didn't really spoil much of this film.
I promised myself I wouldn't let myself make any comparisons between this film and Batman V Superman in this review, but without talking about quality issues I like how Marvel barely showed much of the film in their various TV spots and all compared to Warner Bros. job on Batman V Superman trailers. This is how you keep surprises and much of the plot in check for your audience.
From this point onwards, BEWARE SPOILERS!
The two major breakout characters in the film really were Spidey and Black Panther for me. BP was such a badass, I loved his whole fight and chase scene near the middle of the film. Clawing his path on the way and jumping around.
And Spidey, I can only say in his very short screentime this was easily both my favorite take on Spider-Man AND Peter Parker! It feels great to finally have him join the rest of the MCU!
And how awesome was his Steve Ditko-esque costume? This is probably the brightest and most colorful superhero costume we have ever got on screen to this day! (Looking at all past Marvel films, MCU, DC Cinematic Universe and heck even DC CW universe.)
There were a lot of great banther between characters. Some great chemistry between various pairs. Like Falcon and Ant-Man. Or Falcon and Winter Soldier. Did Falcon become comedic relief in this film?
I loved it!
Lot of continuity nods and overarching storylines. I'm kinda sad to see Peggy Carter die, but with Marvel Phase 2 over (which was really Peggy Carter's phase in my eyes, compared to Phase 1's being Phil Coulson's time), Phase 3 seems to move things between huge superhero crossovers and brawls. (Looking at Hulk in the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok, Punisher Vs. Daredevil in DD Season 2 on Netflix, etc.)
Ant-Man even got to surf along arrows and turn into Giant-Man! That Giant-Man scene was pretty funny and awesome! Scott Lang's such a fun hero!
The film was quite dramatic and I really loved the ending.
Zemo was quite humanized as a villain. He retained his fixation on Cap and the Avengers in his movie adaptation, but he reminded me a lot more of Sam Raimi's Spider-man villains here.
The recurring theme was easily "vengeance". Black Panther finally decided to move past that in the end while Tony and Steve were still ducking it out.
This film will have a lot of repercussions to future films. Is a "Secret Avengers" film secretly coming soon before Infinity Wars??
Be sure to stay after the credits! Everyone here left after the first Winter Soldier-post credit scene, but there's a secret Spider-Man teaser in the end alluding to his return on screen!
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