Let’s get one thing of the way: the Marvel Cinematic Universe, overall, is amazing. There have been some missteps, but no truly bad movies. Some critics argue that the movies are starting to get worse. Well, as a counter argument, I present to them Captain America: Civil War. Is it perfect? Not really. But is it exactly what a superhero film should be? I’d say yes.

Civil War continues from where 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron left off. The new Avengers, led by Captain America (Chris Evans, cause an accident which encourages US Secretary of State Ross (William Hurt) to push a treaty which will allow the United Nations to control the superheroes. Captain America opposes the treaty, while Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr) supports it. Now the two opposing sides must fight, all while Cap tries to find his old friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), who is dealing with demons of his own.

Let’s get right into my critique. First, the acting is great. These actors have had numerous films to build their characters before this one, so they really nail their performances. Evans as Steve Rogers and Downey, Jr as Tony Stark are two stand-out performances, with their conflict and former friendship playing into the conflict well. Even the new characters are pretty excellent — Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther and Tom Holland as Spider-Man are both fantastic, but I’ll speak more on them later. I would argue that everyone in this film gives a top-notch performance.

I’ve never seen such an emotional, tension and drama-filled superhero film in my life. A few people (both on the web and here at FCHS) have argued to me that Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice was incredibly deep and asked many questions that no other superhero film before has asked. Well, I now point to Captain America: Civil War, which not only asks some of the same questions, but asks more. And believe me, Civil War is much deeper. Be warned, Civil War is a dark and emotional film, but don’t fret – it also might be the lightest and funniest of all the Marvel movies.

It was inevitable that this film would be compared to Batman vs Superman, and this is even more apparent when it comes down to the action. I recently saw Batman vs Superman for the second time, and although I didn’t like it much more than the first time, I did really enjoy the action. For a little bit, I even said that the warehouse scene in that film was the best action sequence put to cinema in years. Well, all of a sudden, Civil War has come and taken away the trophy. The airport fight in Civil War is, by far, one of the best action scenes I’ve seen in a decade. It’s up there with the hallway fight in Daredevil, the church fight in Kingsman: The Secret Service, and the subway fight in The Matrix. I encourage any film goer who enjoys action to go see Civil War just to witness that one scene (this isn’t even mentioning some of the other excellent fights in the film).

Sorry, I got a bit off track there. Let’s go back to the characters. While basically every Marvel hero you can imagine makes an appearance in this movie, two stand-outs nearly made the movie just by themselves. First off is Chadwick Boseman’s turn as Black Panther, a warrior who also is the king of his own country. Non-comic fans may not be familiar with this character (heck, I didn’t even know who he was), but he is really great in this film, and is the lead in some of the most exciting action scenes in the film. Look forward to his own standalone film coming in November 2017.

But even better is Tom Holland’s turn as the legendary Spider-Man who, after a lengthy deal between Sony Pictures and Disney (Sony has owned the film rights to the character for several years), makes his first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (effectively rendering Andrew Garfield’s Amazing Spider-Man films completely moot). How is he? Well, for one, he’s the best on-screen portrayal of Spider-Man to date. His addition to the film doesn’t at all feel forced– he has a good amount of screen-time, and every time he appears on-screen there’s a sense of energy that contrasts with the dark tone of much of the film. He’s funny, exciting, and pretty awesome, the perfect mix of humor and greatness..

Were there any negatives? Well… yes, but not any huge ones. The first is the villain. I don’t want to drop any names, but I can say that the villain just doesn’t work all that well. He does play into the plot rather nicely in some areas, but as a whole, he feels rather shoehorned in, as if the studio asked the director to add in a real villain mid-way through production. The way I see it, the focus should have been on the arc with Bucky, and they should have found another way to incite the conflict between characters. The second negative is how crammed it all feels. It’s not as bad as some films, but there’s simply too much going on. It may have helped to cut a few scenes, but even crammed, this movie is still excellent.

Overall, this movie proves that Marvel is not slowing down. If they keep churning out films this good, I don’t care if the series goes on for 10 or 20 more years. Captain America: Civil War is my favorite superhero film of the last few years. It may not be the best Marvel movie, and certainly not the best superhero movie ever, but it does perfectly encapsulate everything that a great superhero movie should be. I’ll give it 10 out of 10 shields, and a very heavy recommendation to anyone still bitter about Batman vs Superman. This one is far better.