Civil War is upon us.

The event Marvel has been foreshadowing since the amalgamating of their franchises in 2012’s The Avengers has finally hit the silver screen.

Captain America: Civil War is based on a graphic novel simply called Civil War. This is one of the most well-known stories in all of comics. In it, a tragedy caused by a young team of powerful heroes sparks a national debate on whether superheroes should have to register with the government. The whole Marvel universe picks sides and fights a war.

The movie takes inspiration from the graphic novel but is by no means a carbon copy, especially in the end.

The main differences are an added villain and a severe lacking of Marvel characters.

The villain added was Zemo, who was presented with little regard for the source material. His costume and origin were completely ditched.

Marvel got lucky with the permission of Sony to use Spider-man in the movie. He was undoubtedly a pleasant surprise in how true he was to Peter Parker of the page.

Another addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe was T’challa, the Black Panther and king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. His appearance was something I had been waiting for for a long time. Chadwick Boseman did a phenomenal job tackling the unique hero.

Another new appearance is Giant-Man. Giant-Man is the name Ant-Man adopts in the comics after he gains the ability to grow.

The actors were great through and through. From Chris Evans’s Captain America to Stan Lee’s cameo.

The effects were great as always, especially in the airport scene’ which may be the greatest scene in the MCU to this point.

The cast was incredibly large, so large that many were calling this movie ‘Avengers 2.5.’ Yet the wizards behind the film somehow managed to further each and every one of their stories. Nothing short of a miracle.

Overall, I loved this movie. However I give it a 7/10 because of the lacking of major elements of the graphic novel (cough-cough X-Men). However, this may be the can’t-miss movie of the MCU just because of the advancements in the characters and the set-up it leaves for the next three Marvel films, Dr. Strange, Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther.