After months of high anticipation, “Captain America: Civil War” finally arrived to the silver screen on Friday, May 6th, 2016. The movie made a skyrocketing $181.8 million on opening weekend making it the fifth largest box office opening in history according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. It also got a fresh score of 90% from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes and an audience score of 92%. I think it’s safe to say that the film has a promising future at the box office for weeks to come.

“Civil War” was fast-paced, action-packed, and full of clever one-liners that amused audiences. Although there were some instances where the plot slowed down a bit, it was nonetheless expeditious.
One of the positive aspects of the film was the character development of both main and supporting characters. For example, T’Challa, otherwise known as the Black Panther and played by Chadwick Boseman (“42”, “Get on Up”), had an exemplary character arc. T’Challa was seeking revenge for an incident that occurred in the beginning of the film, which I won’t reveal for spoiler reasons, and that was the only thing on his agenda throughout the rest of the movie until its climax. He then realized that vengeance isn’t the answer to everything and that it makes things worse, not better. Another example of main character development was Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier, played by Sebastian Stan (“Once Upon a Time”, “Hot Tub Time Machine”). His agenda was very different than in the previous Captain America movie, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, during which he was deliberately trying to kill Steve Rogers as he was still under HYDRA control at the time. In this film, he just wants to avoid killing anybody, but that doesn’t really go well for him. He is still brought in to the drama that goes down between Steve and Tony for reasons that I will not reveal because of spoilers (there are too many to keep track of!). There were a couple of negative aspects of the film, but again, it’s better not to reveal anything.

The picture’s overall quality is beyond me! Brothers and directors of “Civil War”, Joe & Anthony Russo, did an amazing job directing it. The way they carried the plot forward and how smoothly it went through the entire film was groundbreaking. It’s something that Marvel Studios always tends to succeed in: bringing out a story that has already been written before but in a new and fresh way. The CGI and special effects crew really blew my mind. There is one scene that I will mention to explain how awesome the CGI is. In the beginning of “Civil War”, it’s 1991 and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr; “Sherlock Holmes”) is with his parents during Christmas. The first moment you see Tony, you would think that Robert Downey Jr. is a young actor, not knowing that CGI did its movie magic, literally taking years off his face. That’s how advanced the special effects are in this movie. Another thing to mention is the cinematography itself. There are certain scenes in which you almost feel like you’re there with the characters; it’s a great experience overall. And it’s something that both casual movie goers and Marvel fans are privileged to experience now and in future films.

A movie can have the best cinematography and special effects in the entire world, it won’t succeed without great characters and great actors who can bring those characters to life. Chris Evans, who plays Steve Rogers/Captain America, and Robert Downey Jr, who plays Tony Stark/Iron Man, have become iconic actors in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They have done so well in their work that it’s almost difficult to see anyone else playing these characters. And the rest of the supporting cast has done a marvelous job as well. Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Anthony Mackie (Falcon), Sebastian Stan (Winter Soldier), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Paul Bettany (Vision), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), Don Cheadle (War Machine), Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), and Tom Holland (Spider-Man) are all masters of their craft. They all brought these characters to life in unique ways and they delivered very well.

The music in this film was composed by Henry Jackman who has also done major films like, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, “X-Men: First Class”, and “Big hero 6”. His music score was the loose end that really brought the whole movie together into one story. It’s very enthralling and it brings out the emotion of every scene quite dramatically. The score is something worth paying attention to if you plan to watch this movie for the first or second or third time.

“Captain America: Civil War” is probably the best movie installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far. It’s everything what a superhero movie ought to be and much more. I can’t wait to see what other film surprises Marvel Studios has for us in the time to come.