MCU: 14 Things You Learn Rewatching Captain America: Civil War

7. Robert Downey Jr Is Brilliant

Ignoring Homecoming somewhat (because it doesn't entirely fit his mainline development arc), Robert Downey Jr has genuinely got better with every performance as Iron Man. He started out as a James Bond clone, !*$%-sure and swaggering and as he spent more time weighed down by morality and the impact of his heroism, he has become more nuanced, more complex and more emotionally volatile.

And he's absolutely at his best as the character in Civil War, where we see him wrestling with the same demons that threatened to break him in Iron Man 3 and Age Of Ultron and burdened even further with guilt. The pinnacle of that performance comes when Zemo's real plan is revealed and Tony learns that Bucky murdered his parents.

In that moment, we get to see Stark not as a confident, heroic leader but as a wounded child willing to put aside everything because Bucky killed his mom. Honestly, there have been few moments of pure performance in the MCU so far that come anywhere near this quality.