MCU: All 11 Marvel Phase 3 movies ranked from worst to best
4. Captain America: Civil War
Cap’s third stand-alone movie had to handle a lot of different things at the same time. Many established heroes made appearances in it, new key characters were introduced, and The Avengers were disbanded thanks to a lot of internal conflicts. And while stand-alone superhero movies that try to balance multiple characters and storylines often fail to do so in catastrophic ways, Captain America: Civil War is a big exception to this rule.
The movie is filled with non-stop action, heartbreaking drama, and many iconic moments. We all remember watching Spider-Man jump into the scene and interact with other Marvel superheroes for the very first time on the big screen. We all also remember how badass it was to see Black Panther chase Bucky Barnes through the streets of Bucharest in one of the MCU’s best persecutions. And that’s not even taking into account how amazing the airport fight scene was.
While many Marvel movies depict action sequences where heroes have to face supervillains, Captain America: Civil War marked the first time good guys really had to fight between themselves in a major way. The movie is nothing short of epic, and the best part is that it also found time to develop its characters in between all the action.
Steve Rogers started as someone extremely patriotic that did everything he could to support the U.S. military in its fight against Red Skull. However, as movies went by, we watched him question the decisions made by government agencies and powerful organizations such as S.H.I.E.L.D. But in Captain America: Civil War we finally saw him go against the whole world, even if it meant being prosecuted, in order to stand firm on his ideals.
Iron Man, however, had an opposite arc. He went from being irreverent and careless to being overprotective and wanting accountability for superheroes’ actions. While these stories took many movies to develop, it wasn’t until Captain America: Civil War that they really came to a conclusion, and it was well worth the wait.
While you could nitpick some minor details in the movie (like its CGI), and argue Zemo wasn’t that necessary at all, there are really no other negatives in Captain America: Civil War. The Russo brothers crafted a near-flawless film that proved why the duo of brothers were capable to direct movies like Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.