Every MCU Movie - Ranked From Worst To Best

2. Captain America: Civil War

For all the fears that the Russos couldn't adapt the source material in as faithful as way as it deserved, the Phase 3 curtain raiser is an absolutely stunning achievement that shouldn't have worked. On paper, it has too many working parts, too much to balance and the difficult task of turning well-loved heroes into villains.

All of those concerns evaporated as the epic ensemble opens with a bang, builds slowly but surely through a middle act that adds brains to the braun, and then ends with not only a burst of action, but also with an emotional explosion.

Strengths

The stakes are real (even if there should have been more casualties) and the script is excellent, with no real invitation to choose who is supposed to be the bad guy in Cap and Iron Man's personal conflict. And for all the complaints, the introduction of Zemo as a personally driven villain rather than a pantomime supervillain is a masterstroke.

All of the new characters are well cast and mostly well used (aside from Martin Freeman's superfluous Everett Ross), and rather than being an ending point for the Winter Soldier story, Civil War legitimately feels like the right launchpad for Phase 3's forthcoming movies.

The airport scene is also easily the greatest set-piece in any Marvel movie ever, and it's among the greatest action sequences of any genre.

Weaknesses

In terms of logic, having Ant-Man and Spider-Man don't really need to be involved, and it feels a little cynical to introduce them solely for the airport sequence (even if the reward glosses over the fact). And no matter how you dress it up, some of the supporting characters are left with worryingly little to do.