Fun, thrilling, and filled with an emotional and moral depth, Captain America: Civil War is a superhero movie which much brains to go with the brawn.

You gotta hand it to Marvel Studios. 13 films in and (under the careful watch of producer Kevin Fiege) they have successfully adapted an infinite comic book universe into a multi-layered film franchise with impressive structure and precision. Not all have been homeruns (Iron Man 3 and Thor: Dark World anyone?) yet when done right, there is hard to find better genre entertainment today.

Captain America: Civil War is the latest example of this, a highly enjoyable and undeniably gripping action adventure that lives up the its promise of a superhero royal rumble and does so in the best possible way, while also delivering so much more.

Chris Evans returns as Steve Rogers aka Captain America, shield throwing leader of superhero team The Avengers. When a mission turns into disaster (resulting in the death of several civilians), The Avengers are placed under regulatory control by the U.N..  This leads to a split in philosophy between Rogers who does not trust any government body to call the shots, and a guilt laden Tony Stark aka Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) who believes a powerful contingent such as The Avengers should be kept in check. Further complicating things is the re-emergence of might-be-a-bad-guy Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier, vengeful African Prince T’Challa aka Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), and a mysterious terrorist named Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) who is manipulates our heroes into further conflict.

There is indeed a lot to chew in …Civil War, yet as directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and scripted by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (all of whom worked on Captain America: Winter Soldier), its many ideas, plot-points and characters are expertly conceived, written and portrayed to make for a roller coaster of a superhero movie, effectively switching from light too heavy, entertaining too introspective, and all done to a perfect pace courtesy of editors Jeffrey Ford and Matthew Schmidt.

Themes of loyalty, corruption and that ol’ chestnut of power and responsibility feature throughout and linger afterwards. Yet …Civil War is just as potent as popcorn munching blockbuster entertainment of the highest order, where old favourites (Scarlet Johansson’s Russian assassin Black Widow and Jeremy Renner’s ace archer Hawkeye), and new additions (Boseman’s poised by deadly Black Panther and the mother of all coups in a new Spider-Man portrayed by Tom Holland), crack wise and punch hard in expertly staged fight scenes that live up to expectations.

High stakes, high entertainment value, and depth in ideas. Captain America: Civil War is a thinking man’s superhero buffet worth feeding on.