Captain America: Civil War Review - 10 Reasons It’s A Near-Perfect Comic Book Movie

7. Every Action Beat Has Purpose

The Civil War's not just theological conflict, obviously. This is still a major summer tentpole release from the biggest studio around, so of course there's copious, intense action sequences pretty much from the off.

There's five major action sequences throughout the film (depending on how you count), but there's many, many more smaller beats the punctuate the plot, keeping the adrenaline flowing.

As in The Winter Soldier, there's a strong focus on practical, hand-to-hand combat, lending an involving viscerality that no amount of tech whizz-bang could. Although, that being said, when we do get to the film's more CGI-inflected fights it's still incredibly involving because of how well-established the character's motivations are. This goes back to that allegiance-flipping conflict and is really testament to how every action element in the film has a key part to play in the plot (while not skimping on fan-pleasing elements).