Civil War splits The Avengers team in a movie that is fantastic from start to finish.

Civil War follows Captain America and Iron Man as they take either side of a fight for their liberties as super heroes. One side wants to limit The Avengers in the name of collateral damage, and the other wants to protect the avengers from being abused by political agendas, whilst an underlying antagonist seeks to destabilise the avengers from the inside. It’s a deep plot that’s complex, smart and interesting. It asks questions about these characters and the superhero genre as a whole. It’s a consistently sharp and emotionally deep plot that engages throughout the entire movie.

One of the things that makes Civil War unique is it’s ensemble cast of characters who are absolutely stellar from beginning to end. The new additions, Spider-man and Black Panther are introduced in a natural and fun way, and by the end of the movie they are just as memorable as some of the big players. But it’s those big players who really shine here, specifically Tony Stark and Captain America who play off each other perfectly. Their stories are well balanced and their motivations are made clear and important. This balance allows the characters to feel well rounded and deep, it dispels the traditional good guy/bad guy balance and allows the film’s emotional punches to be deep and affecting the whole way through.

Visually the film is very impressive. Traditionally Marvel films always have a sense of scale but Civil War has both scale and beauty. The larger, set piece fight scenes are well choreographed and, mostly, well shot. the fighting is inventive, clever and fun to watch. But the smaller moments of the film are full to the brim with colour and visual flair. All of this is combined with a great sense of scale and variety to make Civil War the most striking Marvel movie in terms of its visuals

The thing that puts Civil War so far ahead of its MCU peers is that rather than focusing on a shallow, ominous story MacGuffin, the main plat thread of Civil War is a well developed human conflict. As the conflict advances and develops it feels natural and logical and the motivations of the characters become deeper and more important. It’s brilliantly framed and makes Civil War the most engaging and interesting Marvel movie that has taken place in the MCU.

The film is not perfect, there are a few little niggles such as a few moments of janky editing and a couple of lines that flop in their delivery. The biggest flaw in the movie is a few moments of sound mixing problems. Some punches and hits sound fine, others land too soft, others land far too hard and loud. It’s a very very small niggle but it’s an inconsistency that might draw an audience member or two out of the experience for a few seconds here and there. It won’t take them long to be drawn back in, however.

Captain America Civil War is easily the best of the MCU, it’s a clever, well written, emotional thriller with a fantastic grasp of character development and a strong, engaging conflict as its main driving force. It’s chock full of fantastic performance’s, beautiful visual flair, excellent pacing, vibrant fight scenes and an all round fantastic ensemble cast. It embraces logic and tells a story that manages to be exciting, impressive and shocking where necessary. Civil War is a true Marvel of a film.

Captain America: Civil War Scored 9.6/10