I really, really loved this movie. It had a very good plot, awesome action scenes, a lot of humor. A good movie in every metric. Definitely one of the best Marvel movies to date, and in my personal opinion probably the best (or perhaps second best after Guardians of the Galaxy, but that's hard to compare because they are basically in a different genre).
The conflict between the two sides is done really, really well. You can really understand both sides, and even now I have no idea with which side I agree more. They managed to make it both political, and personal, upping the stakes and making the entire conflict much more dramatic. The villain is very low key in this movie. And that is a very good choice! The entire movie is about the conflict between team Captain America and team Iron Man. Spending a lot of runtime on the villain would just distract from that central conflict. What they did really, really well is that the villain is a catalyst for the conflict, but not the cause.
One thing I have to say is that I think this movie only works if you have seen the other related marvel movies. The movie doesn't bother introducing the characters, and frequently references to events from earlier movies. The entire central conflict of the movie won't be very engaging if you don't already love and care about the characters. At the very least you need to have seen Winter Soldier and Age of Ultron, and probably also The Avengers and the first Iron Man. Thor and Hulk aren't in the movie, so you don't need to have seen their movies.
Very minor spoiler (mostly already from the trailer) for a very minor complaint
OP Tipping wrote:My opinion of Civil War is not as high as that of most of the reviewers. Some of the reviewers are lauding this as the best Marvel movie ever, whereas I consider that overall it is a bit of a step down from The Winter Soldier.
The title of "the best Marvel movie ever" will always be a contentious one, since they made a number of very good films. But a step down from The Winter Soldier? Are you serious?
I guess you're not the only one who liked The Winter Soldier... But why? That movie was mediocre at best. Definitely in the bottom half of the MCU. The action scenes were great, but the plot was stale and boring, a stitched together list of cliches and contrivances. There are 7 billion people on this planet, but the mysterious assassin turns out to be Captain America's long lost childhood friend. Are you fucking kidding me? And oh yeah, another plot twist. This is going to blow your mind! Wait for it! ... Everyone in shield is evil now! Wow! Amazing. But wait, no movie is complete without a woman falling for the male lead. Do we have any women in this movie? Only one? Well, put in some cheap romance. What do you mean, that completely wouldn't fit her character? Who cares? She's a woman, he's the male lead. Put in cheap romance.
I enjoyed that movie. The acting was good and like I said, the action scenes were awesome. But the plot simply had too many defects to make it anything but mediocre.