Captain America: Civil War

It's good.

Really, really good.

...I guess I need more than that?  Okay, then...

Captain America: Civil War isn't just a sequel to Age of Ultron, although it is that as well; it's also a sequel to The Winter Soldier and The Avengers - even Ant-Man, to an extent. It's the first Marvel movie that seems to really reward - if not outright rely on - knowing who all these guys are, and if you've skipped any of the four movies mentioned above, you might find yourself a little confused.

Especially by Vision.

Having said that, it does a pretty good job of re-establishing who people are and how they relate, without getting bogged down in retreading stuff you already know if you rewatched the lead-up recently.

I'm going to try and avoid spoiling anything, but be warned - if you want to go in blind, all you need to know is this:

It's good.

Really, really good.

Civil War deals mainly with the aftermath of what the Avengers do - after the level of destruction seen in New York, Washington, and (most spectacularly) Sokovia, questions have started being raised about who the Avengers are responsible to.

This is a question that's been asked in the real world, too - a lot of movie-review ink has been spilled asking how heroic a team is that "saves the world", if they wreck major cities along the way. So it's interesting to see Marvel take it head-on, and actually have the characters dealing with the consequences of their heroics*.

But it wouldn't be a superhero movie if all anyone did was sit around discussing the minutae of the phonebook-sized Sokovia Accords - so there are explosions, too. The whole thing comes to a head in a by-now-infamous battle at an airport in Leipzig, where the two teams finally meet in full - and it is awesome.

Part of it, of course, is that the action is spectacular (ha), but the dialogue really elevates it. It feels like a proper comic book fight, with loads of back-and-forth banter, taunts, and one-liners. The screenwriters (Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely) just nail everyone, and keep them all different - even the two jokier, out-of-their-depth characters tell different kinds of out-of-their-depth jokes.

Speaking of...

Obviously, there are a lot of people interested in Tom Holland's Spider-Man, and he is probably the best on-screen Spider-Man we've had. I liked Sam Raimi's first two movies, but never really clicked with Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man; inversely, I liked Andrew Garfield in the suit, but his two movies were... not great.  If Marvel are indeed calling the shots on Spider-Man: Homecoming, then he's off to a great start.

But for me it's Black Panther who damn near steals the show. He's got a much bigger role in the story than Spider-Man (which I won't spoil) and Chadwick Boseman absolutely kills it. I have to admit that I don't really know much about the character, but I might have to change that.

I'm seriously looking forward to his solo movie.

Civil War is probably the best movie Marvel have done. For a movie with a cast this huge and varied to give everyone something to do, and give them all an arc, even the bit players... it's a hell of an achievement. And not only does it manage to handle the ensemble better than Age of Ultron did, the action is tighter, too - even though Civil War is six minutes longer, it never felt like it was outstaying its welcome.

The Russos have set themselves a hell of a bar to clear...

*I understand the "consequences of destructive heroism" is also a theme in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but I've not seen that.