Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what movies I’ve seen over the past week. Below, you will find short reviews of those movies along with a star rating. Full length reviews may come at a later date.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Captain America: Civil War

What made the stand alone Marvel Cinematic Universe films great was that we got a chance to get away from the large group dynamics and focus in on the special merits of each hero. Captain America: The Winter Soldier was the best film in the franchise and I hoped this one would give it a run for its money.

Ultimately, this felt like an extension of the Avengers film, a group ensemble that spent too much time looking into how the members worked together and too little time examining Cap’s relationship with others. I’ll give the film credit for creating a fairly strong backstory to justify the film and the twist at the end of the movie was quite unexpected, enjoyably so. However, when bringing together as many characters as possible for one large airport showdown felt too forced. It was a moment that was entertaining as hell, but still felt totally out of place.

Whether we’ll ever find a unified Avengers again remains to be seen, the film leaves a lot of open-ended questions to be answered. Chadwick Boseman makes a nice addition to the universe as Black Panther, but Tom Holland tries far too hard to be funny and clever and not always successfully. The film does a lot of good work and, had the big blockbuster battle not been wedged in so forcefully, it might have been better. I don’t want to minimize the enjoyment that can be had watching the film, but it’s just not quite to the level of creative quality The Winter Soldier was, which may ultimately be a sign of where the franchise is headed and I’m not exactly excited by that prospect.