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Captain America: Civil War (2016), PG-13, ★★★1/2

United We Stand. Divided We Fall.
You know what? I had a bit of superhero fatigue when we had Age of Ultron last summer and even though I saw it twice and there were some strong moments, I got a bit tired from from all the loud explosions and convoluted plot. But, then a few movies called Ant-Man and Deadpool saved me from that fatigue. Yeah, then, Batman v. Superman got me a bit depressed due to the lackluster energy, CGI fest and too much development in its story and characters. But, I had high expectations for this next MCU movie because of the way the story is structured and how it followed both Age of Ultron and Winter Soldier. This movie is in the top tier of the MCU universe delivering the thrills and exploring the emotional depths thoroughly intertwining with its political themes.

Avengers Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olson) fail an intel mission in the Lagos in which the government wants to hold the Avengers back. Wanda feels guilty about the whole mission which gets her to be guarded by Vision (Paul Bettany) who is stuck in Tony Stark's compound. The Secretary of State Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (William Hurt) calls the Avengers vigilantes whereas most people call them heroes because they ignore sovereign policies and they are unconcerned by damages caused. Via the Sokovian Accords, 117 countries want the Avengers government owned.

Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) wants to accept the Accords while Steve does not. In the Accords, Romanov is part of a bombing in which T'Chalia/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) has been involved in. Sharon Carter/Agent 13 (Emily VanCamp) and Cap talk about the attack and they think that Bucky (Sebastian Stan) allegedly was behind the attack. T'Chalia swears to get vengeance and there is a price on his head to be paid as Panther and Captain Rhodes (Don Cheadle) chase after him. Now, it's a feud between what's right for government control and personal matters between friends.

Iron Man vs. Captain America.
I will dare not spoil anything except to say this that the Russo brothers, the directors who last made The Winter Soldier, has juggled many characters and the primary fight much better than Zach Snyder did with his BvS movie. We get more involved with the political conflicts, the bitter personal rivalry and the emotional outcome that is revealed towards the ending that leads one of the two fights. The former I will get to in a little bit. But, the revelation packs an emotional punch as to why Captain America and Iron Man are fighting.

The performances are across-the-board just right. Chris Evans embodies Captain America well again, Robert Downey Jr. delivers more of the snarky, quirky and funny dialogue mixed with some tension between himself and Evans and the rest of the cast are fine including Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Olsen. The two standouts to me are Chadwick Boseman giving an electrifying performance as Black Panther and sells me on a stand-alone movie. Daniel Bruhl is fine but I found his plot to be unnecessary. And, it's already given away in the trailer, Tom Holland as Spider-Man is awesome.

The BIG FIGHT in the airport is well-constructed and exciting to have the audiences cheering regarding their abilities and the dialogue, which most of them sound humorous. You see, the difference between this movie and BvS is joy and I found myself enjoying why they are fighting in the first place even though there are dark elements into why. People's minds will spiral out of control once some abilities from some superheroes are revealed and it is awesome.

What prevents me from a giving perfect four-star review is a plot regarding Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) that seemed unnecessary and if they got rid of him and dealt with more of Tony's and Cap's rivalry and the discoveries about their characters, it would have been a tighter climax. Nevertheless, even though I like The Winter Soldier more, Civil War delivers big time and has potentially closed out a very good trilogy despite my problems and reservations with The First Avenger. But, this movie is a strong opening to the summer that hefts a complex plot intertwining with political themes, well-crafted action sequences and joyful banter that you'll say to yourself, "DC and Warner Bros. need to take notes."

***1/2


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