Captain America: Civil War

12¦ Blu-ray, 3D, DVD

And so it goes on. Not just Cap’n America’s battle against evil, but the relentless comic book sequels that are smashing their way constantly onto our screens. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just the one strand, but with the multiple spin-offs that come with them, surely even the most devoted superhero fan must have reached fangasm some time ago.

That said, this latest adventure is pretty darn super.

The world is a safer place with the Avengers in it. Or is it? When a dodgy biological weapon is detected in Lagos, the team zoom in to save the day. However when Captain America (Chris Evans) gets himself into a bit of a jam, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) steps in to protect him with her fancy telekinesis powers. Although she saves the Captain, her blast destroys a nearby building with a number of innocent civilians in it. Oops.

This doesn’t go unnoticed, and the United Nations decide that the world would be a safer place if the Avengers answered to the UN. This mandate doesn’t go down well with all the team however, pretty much splitting them down the middle; Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) – AKA Iron Man – believes it to be the best solution, but Steve ‘Captain America’ Rogers disagrees.

boom reviews Captain America Civil War
These superfans really are going above and beyond at these conventions.

This rift between these two superhero legends grows further when footage is released of a bombing of a conference in Vienna where King T’Chaka of Wakanda (John Kani) is killed, at the hands of Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), long time friend of the Captain’s. Steve decides to track down and help his old friend before the US government send out a kill team for him.

Steve does manage to get to him first, and Bucky tells him that it wasn’t him after all, it was some crazy guy Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl) who disguised himself to look like Bucky. Bucky then informs Steve that Zemo wanted the location of a further group of Winter Soldiers who were currently in a cryogenic state in a secret location. Steve knows that no good will come of this, and decides that he must stop him, and do it without the help of Stark and a number of other Avengers.

Stark however disapproves of Steve and super chums going rogue, and decides that he and the remaining members of the team must do all they can to stop him. This leads to an almost unbelievable scenario that sees fellow Avengers battling amongst themselves, with Iron Man and Captain America going head to super-head.

Captain America: Civil War may well be the thirteenth feature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be released, but audiences don’t appear to be suffering any superhero fatigue, surprisingly, especially when you consider this title has made currently over a billion dollars.

boom reviews Captain America Civil War
Last one there is a smelly fart.

The reason is simple, Civil War is probably the most perfect superhero film to date. The franchise could easily have taken a nose dive when Joss Whedon left the Marvel building, but the Russo brothers (Anthony and Joe), who now appear to be helming all things Avengers, clearly know their stuff when it comes to directing big budget ‘super’ films like this.

Obviously the premise of Avenger-on-Avenger action is appealing to any comic fan; after all, who doesn’t want to see Captain America knock some of that smarminess out of that flying man of iron? And although Daniel Brühl is a villainous character – that could be seen as the perfect audition for a terrific Bond villain – his part is only a tiny catalyst for the friction with the Avengers that takes up a considerable amount screen time.

There may be a few omissions from this super party, namely Thor and the Hulk, but the new faces who are invited won't fail to put a grin on the most ardent comic fan's face.

But it's not all down to the premise, although not having a key villain featured is refreshing. The script is both lively and entertaining, and is told at a cracking pace. The Russo bros have a clear handle on their source material, as well as an impressive visual style that suits heroic shenanigans on this super scale. You can tell that they are fans, and they've made this with the kind of love that other fans can appreciate, and that's just Marvel-lous.

There may be no end in sight for this dominating genre, but if they could all be to this incredibly high standard, there would be no problem; after all a well told story is always worth telling, whether huge amounts of Lycra are involved or not.

we give this four out of five