Captain America Civil War Cast Review

When a devastating incident leads to the government demanding oversight of the Avengers, former teammates Iron Man and Captain America are pitted against each other in this exciting and surprisingly thoughtful Marvel Studios film. Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, who turned the previous Captain America installment, Winter Soldier, into a heady meditation on Citizenfour-style government surveillance, this is a movie that matches blockbuster scale with the smarts of a great thriller.

Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans return as their characters, with the latter still carrying a slight lack of charisma but demonstrating his acting maturity, while the former shows an emotional vulnerability he rarely displays in these movies. The rift between them grows into full-on schism as their differences are further aggravated by the resurfacing of Bucky, the former assassin, played by Sebastian Stan.

The rest of the cast includes a first big-screen incarnation of T’Challa/Black Panther (an excellent Chadwick Boseman), a snarky Agent Carter (Emily VanCamp) and the high-flying Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie). Newcomers to the MCU include the telekinetic Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and the kinetically gifted Vision (Paul Bettany), while Jeremy Renner returns as Hawkeye, and Samuel L. Jackson plays his enigmatic Nick Fury.

What really elevates this movie is the political undertones that work amazingly well. In every other MCU movie you clap when the heroes save the day, but in this one you realize just how much collateral damage they cause along the way. And while the villain’s plans are set up too perfectly, he is a compelling character with his own layered backstory and motivation.