<Review by: Daylynn DeSouza>

Directed by Anthony Russo & Joe Russo. Starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olson, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Tom Holland, Marisa Tomei, Frank Grillo, Martin Freeman, William Hurt, Daniel Brühl

Running Time: 2 hours 26 minutes

This movie has a lot of characters in it, introduces two new characters to the MCU, sets up future story lines, manages to let each character have their time to shine and does so seamlessly.

Simply put the movie is a loose adaptation of the comic book Civil War arc; it revolves around collateral damage and accountability to the government. While Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) is all for being reigned in and kept in check, Captain America (Chris Evans) is against it, because where there’s politics involved there will be agendas. This is a movie where even though there is a villain (Zemo played by Daniel Brühl), we don’t get to see our heroes actually fight him as he manages to manipulate them from the shadows and cause a rift between them.

There is no ‘final boss fight’ as there has been in previous movies. As they mostly battle each other and a minor villain at the beginning of the movie. I will admit that I had some difficulty keeping up with the action sequences at the beginning, which could have been due to the IMAX 3D (which neither adds nor detracts from the movie) or just the camerawork, framing and frame rate of those scenes. Other than that the camerawork and framing of the rest of the movie is spectacular.

There are scenes that look as amazing as concept art and it is complemented by the fight choreography (Black Widow’s signature spinning take down now takes down two people simultaneously) and stunning special effects, some of which we’ve seen but plenty of new things as well (namely related to the Vision and Scarlet Witch). There are scenes in the movie that recreate the joy and excitement we derived from seeing our favourite superheroes team up on screen in the very first Avengers while being completely different; something I thought we’d never experience again. And, a lot of this also happens in a 6 on 6 battle royale between the heroes (including a King Kong-ish sequence) with two amazing new heroes added to the roster.

While the initial build up might seem a little slow, things do pick up and I found the buildup helped keep me at the edge of my seat. The Russo brothers have outdone themselves with their directing in this movie and I would say that they along with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are the real stars of this movie; they’ve really managed to bring  Joe Simon, Jack Kirby and Mark Millar’s characters to life on the screen.

The actors portraying these characters naturally had a hand in that as well and they all did a great job. Notably, the two newcomers to the MCU Chadwick Boseman who play’s T’Challa and Tom Holland who I think is the best version of a certain well-known superhero that we’ve seen so far. There’s also undeniable chemistry between Paul Bettany (Vision) and Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), who if the comics are anything to go by, are at the very beginning of developing feelings for each other, which could be a huge potential future plot line. There’s also origin stories for two new additions to the MCU and plenty of Easter Eggs, including one for Falcon’s pet Falcon in the comics who’s named ‘Red Wing’.

This is definitely a must-see movie that is the beginning of a huge shift in the Marvel Universe and the end of the traditional superhero movie we’ve seen so far. The only thing that isn’t exceptional it is the soundtrack that’s just mediocre most of the time. Everybody should watch it and take their friends along. It’ll wash the bad feeling of Batman v Superman from your mind for sure.