Film Review: "Captain America: Civil War" (2016).

The tagline of this Marvel cinematic conflict reads "United we stand. Divided we fall", and that is what is going down in Captain America: Civil War. This superhero film directed by Anthony and Joe Russo; produced by Marvel Studios; adapted by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely; based on the comic book mini-series Civil War by Mark Millar. It is the sequel to 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the thirteenth film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). One year after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, many people are fearing the actions of super heroes, the government decides to push for the Anti-Hero Registration Act, a law that limits a heroes actions. This results in a division in The Avengers. Iron Man stands with this Act, claiming that their actions must be kept in check otherwise cities will continue to be destroyed, but Captain America feels that saving the world is daring enough and that they cannot rely on the government to protect the world. This escalates into an all-out war between Team Iron Man (Iron Man, Black Panther, Vision, Black Widow, War Machine, and Spiderman) and Team Captain America (Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Falcon, Sharon Carter, Scarlett Witch, Hawkeye, and Ant Man) while a new villain emerges.

Development for Civil War started in late 2013 when Markus and McFeely began writing the screenplay, which borrows concepts from the 2006 comic book storyline. The Russo brothers were brought back to direct in early 2014 after positive reactions to test screenings of The Winter Soldier. The film's title was revealed in October 2014. As well as Marvel veterans, including Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Frank Grillo and William Hurt, were added to the cast. In addition, new cast members, including Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther, Tom Holland as Spider-Man, Daniel Brühl as Baron Zemo and Martin Freeman as Everett Ross, joined the film in the following months. Principal photography began in April 2015, before concluding in August 2015. Locations included Atlanta, Georgia, Puerto Rico and Germany.

The movie features an ensemble cast that includes Evans, Downey Jr., Johansson, Stan, Mackie, Cheadle, Renner, Bettany, Olsen, Rudd, VanCamp, Grillo, Hurt, Boseman, Holland, Brühl and Freeman. The cast gave spectacular performances, with the veterans giving another awesome round, and the new additions shining brightly among the veterans. Boseman as Black Panther and Holland as Spider-Man stole the show whenever they leapt on the screen. Evans and Downey gave powerful performances when at conflict at one another, making Batman and Superman's conflict look like a school playground brawl.

With the help of its impressively huge ensemble, some amazing action sequences, and even a few surprises, Captain America: Civil War is an entertaining adventure and a strong addition to the Marvel canon. However, there's something about the film that is not on par with Winter Soldier. It smothers a potentially powerful story with an overstuffed cast list, and confusing and cliched subplots.

Simon says Captain America: Civil War receives:

Also, see my reviews for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Ant-Man.