Without getting bogged down with the movie vs comic aspect of Civil War & trying to avoid any early reviews or spoilers I decided to visit my local IMAX and see if the Russo Brothers have delivered another entertaining slice of cinema – It took less than 10 minutes before I had my answer, finding myself totally immersed in this world of villains, superhero’s & the carnage that goes with it, I was like a kid in a candy store, the 2hr 30mins runtime flew by and I enjoyed every fun minute of it – there are many reasons why I really enjoyed Captain America: Civil War for a start it’s easily Robert Downey Jr’s best outing as Tony Stark aka: Iron Man, there’s much less comedy from his character and a lot more emotion, he’s hurting and Downey Jr does hurting well, even the die hard fans who dislike Stark will feel for him towards the movie’s finale – Don’t get me started on the movies fight & chase scenes or I could be here drooling all night, let’s just say they’re relentless in pace, high on scale & brimming with destruction simply put the effects are bloody incredible, the battle with Crossbones played by Frank Grillo at the start of the movie whet’s the appetite for what’s to come and boy you won’t be disappointed – The Russo Brothers continuing on from Winter Soldier do such a great job in sucking you in to the personal battles of many of the characters in the movie, you feel invested whilst also feeling slightly intrigued & somewhat excited by the eventual outcome.

Essentially this is like an Avengers movie, so many characters are along for the ride, watching Paul Rudd’s scene stealing Ant-Man and the introduction of a few new characters to the franchise such as Spidey, Black Panther and the villainous Baron Zemo is like movie heaven for us superhero fans, all are perfectly cast & their involvement in the movie’s big action set pieces are considerable and in the case of Spidey adds plenty of humor to proceedings – also wasn’t it great seeing Paul Bettany’s Vision getting more screen time? he’s a fabulous character and in my opinion has been underused in previous outings – But for me the main reason why Captain America: Civil War works so well is the exciting and at times explosive dynamic between Iron Man and Captain America these two guys respect the hell out of each other but both have different views, neither will back down, leading to a nail biting finale pitting two of the great comicbook superhero’s against each other – Overall: not often do I come away from the cinema having watched a movie that has lived up to it’s hype but Captain America: Civil War does just that – it’s well written, well executed and movie escapism at it’s finest – roll on Infinity War Part 1 can’t wait !! ★★★★½