Name : Calvin Wilson / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
To the short list of superhero flicks that exceed expectations, add "Captain America: Civil War."

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" takes a flying leap off the basic premise of superhero movies and sails away in unexpected, crowd-pleasing directions.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : ChristyLemire.com
The fact that a Marvel movie dares to question the big, shiny spectacle that is its bread and butter - and acknowledge that untold thousands die in the name of entertainment - seems rather novel.

Name : Tony Hicks / Alias : San Jose Mercury News
In the race with DC Comics, Marvel still comes out on top when it comes to fun.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
There's darkness and confusion just under its comic-book surface.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
Downey Jr. persists in trying to give a real performance in these Marvel movies, and, against all odds, succeeds.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
The best kind of blockbuster comic-book movie, tweaking the brain while dazzling the eye.

Name : Michael Sragow / Alias : Orange County Register
Captain America: The Winter Soldier injects new life into the Marvel movie universe and the superhero genre.

Name : Richard Corliss / Alias : TIME Magazine
The Winter Soldier is no labored treatise on political science; it fulfills all the expectations of a Marvel movie. But this time the danger doesn't emanate from a fantasy villain like Neutron or an imaginary realm like Asgard.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
"Captain America: Civil War" does not in any way transcend the conventions of the genre. On the contrary: It succeeds because it doesn't really try.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
A great international thriller, it engages the world at large yet stays focused as a sharp cast led by Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie and Robert Redford support the star-spangled main man.

Name : A.A. Dowd / Alias : AV Club
It does prove, if Marvel hasn't already, that something can be both a load-bearing act of brand extension and a nimble, colorful blast of entertainment.

Name : Andrew O'Hehir / Alias : Salon.com
Much of "Captain America: Civil War" is just the laborious working-out of leftover dangling plot elements from "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" two summers ago.

Name : Andrea Gronvall / Alias : Chicago Reader
The players salvage this thing with their acting and awesome thighs, and the fun really kicks in when Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) join the squabble in an exhilarating airport sequence.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
A comic book extravaganza that's enhanced by wit and audacity, not to mention the sort of action that only mountains of money can buy.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
There's too much going on: the Marvel Universe stuff, the WikiLeaks-ish paranoia stuff, the video game-ish CG visual effects stuff, the epic John Woo-ish everybody-pointing-a-weapon-at-everybody-else face-off stuff.

Name : Stephanie Zacharek / Alias : TIME Magazine
Civil War, at its best, is blessedly light on its superhero-booted feet.

Name : Cary Darling / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
If Captain America: The Winter Soldier is indeed an augur of things to come during this special-effects-laden summer, maybe it won't be such a painful season after all.

Name : Tom Huddleston / Alias : Time Out
Packed to bursting with the one ingredient 'Batman v Superman' lacked: joy.

Name : Manohla Dargis / Alias : New York Times
Like many others of its type, [it] gets off to a kinetic start only to lose steam before blowing everything up.

Name : Cary Darling / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
While it lacks the sense of surprise of [the last film], its mix of action, humor, effects, the introduction of a new character and the reintroduction of an old one strikes just the right tone for a film that is as much about marketing as moviemaking.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Richard Roeper.com
We not only get an edgier, more complex, more compelling storyline, we get the most badass 95-year-old the world has ever known.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
Nothing in Civil War takes your breath away. Little in story terms is what you'd call daisy fresh. But almost everything in it works on its own prescribed terms, and the quiet moments register.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
The movie does its duty. It's a reliable commodity, delivered efficiently and well, like pizza.

Name : Matthew Lickona / Alias : San Diego Reader
Mostly, this one registers as sound and fury, signifying sequels.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
Suffice it to say that, rather than psychic powers or super-strength, casting has always been the Marvel movies' secret weapon. That holds true here, up to and including charismatic newcomers Chadwick Boseman [and] Tom Holland.

Name : Christopher Orr / Alias : The Atlantic
A movie that is, in the best sense of the word, a Marvel.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : MTV
Captain America: Civil War is a comic book pulped into today's newspaper.

Name : Brian Lowry / Alias : CNN.com
Simply put, when it comes to juggling multiple superheroes in a single movie, Marvel's latest comes close to setting the standard. And the studio, as well as the villagers, should have cause to rejoice.

Name : Robert Wilonsky / Alias : Dallas Morning News
A little too rambling at two and a half hours, but otherwise just the right shade of light and bright for a movie about superheroes fighting superheroes.

Name : Jamelle Bouie / Alias : Slate
In the end this is a movie about friendships and conflict, and what can happen when the latter overwhelms the former. It's about two genuine heroes who can't reconcile their obligations and duties with the friendship they both cherish.

Name : Kenneth Turan / Alias : Los Angeles Times
If you live and breathe Marvel, this is one of the MCU's stronger offerings. If you are a spy coming in from the cold, the answer is not so clear.

Name : Frank Lovece / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
The movie isn't merely wrong for kids - it's just all wrong.

Name : Christopher Orr / Alias : The Atlantic
As they did in Winter Soldier, the Russos have achieved an uncommon balance of plot and action, humor and drama, all of it once again deeply grounded in character.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
Fun, happily, is one of the many ingredients in copious supply here. When you include Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, how could it not be? Then again, there isn't a lot of room for him, so he's kind of wedged in there, but it's pretty swell when he's around.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" has the usual overlong running time, the half-hearted feints in the direction of human feeling and the obligatory action sequences that are big without being either exciting or particularly legible.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
The filmmakers . understand that they've built up a vast ensemble of character types, all of them played by better-than-average actors, and that they can mix and match the drama, comedy, or action as they see fit.

Name : Andrew O'Hehir / Alias : Salon.com
The signal-to-noise ratio on "The Winter Soldier" is all messed up, and the net effect is self-canceling. I enjoyed the movie while I was watching it, or I thought I did, but all that's left is an irritating buzz.

Name : A.A. Dowd / Alias : AV Club
In this spectacularly entertaining sequel, Rogers is still running, jumping, and chucking his mighty shield like it's 1945. But now he's doing so with the weariness and distrust of historical hindsight.

Name : Randy Myers / Alias : San Jose Mercury News
It advances the story and respects mythos of its comic book creations, yet isn't averse to taking risks and moving it into bolder directions.

Name : Dave White / Alias : TheWrap
Directors Anthony and Joe Russo continue to mine their experience with TV comedies, juggling all the members of their superhero family with a playful touch that both informs character interaction and delivers vital breathing room in between battles.

Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Beneath the expensive, computer-generated busyness of this second Captain America installment is a bracing, old-style conspiracy thriller made extra-scary by new technology and the increasingly ugly trade-offs of a post-9/11 world.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
Unless you're intimately familiar with the so-called Marvel universe (or you really love CG explosions), little of this will resonate.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
Fight scenes are tense, though occasionally it's hard to tell who's doing what to whom. But they have the bone-crunching crack of realism sometimes lacking in comic book movies.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
As far as big superhero mash-ups are concerned, this one whets the appetite without providing a satisfying main course.

Name : Soren Anderson / Alias : Seattle Times
Who emerges as the winner of this "Civil War"? The audience. The picture delivers in a big, big way.

Name : Rene Rodriguez / Alias : Miami Herald
The summer movie season has barely begun, and already the remedy for superhero film fatigue has arrived.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
On paper this sequel has some promising elements, but on screen it retreats from the very issues that it raises, and on a shelf next to "Captain America: The First Avenger," "The Winter Soldier" is pale.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
"The First Avenger" was a work of art, while "The Winter Soldier" is serviceable entertainment.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
Bounds along excitingly, keeping viewers guessing, launching some successful switcheroos and bringing real stakes to the game. The end results should reverberate throughout the big- and small-screen Avengers universe.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
After the first two "Captain America" entries, the finest comic-book movies of the last five years, this one is disappointing.

Name : Dana Stevens / Alias : Slate
The Winter Soldier cheerfully and efficiently does its job doing whatever Marvel movies are meant to do - make you look forward to the next one, I guess.

Name : Owen Gleiberman / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the first superhero film since the terrorist-inflected The Dark Knight that plugs you right into what's happening now.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : L.A. Weekly
The first Marvel film in forever that doesn't climax with our heroes mowing down a generic horde of non-human nobodies.

Name : Soren Anderson / Alias : Seattle Times
In his third outing as the Captain, Evans seems totally comfortable in the role. He manages to convey his character's goodness without making him seem like a self-righteous stiff.

Name : Sheri Linden / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Call it "civil war" or call it brand extension; call it a "cinematic universe" or a corporate behemoth - the latest Marvel extravaganza furthers the studio's cross-pollination of action franchises in a way that's sure to satisfy devotees.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Sure, it's too much and way too familiar. But Captain America: Civil War brings the fun, the fierce and the fireworks. Summer, we have liftoff.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
The third "Captain America" film entertains relentlessly, which is to say loudly and busily, but with enough humor and intelligence to make it seem less pandering than it actually is.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Plotwise, there's a lot of ground to cover in Civil War (even at two-and-a-half hours). But the Russos juggle all of the murky motivations and shifting alliances with impressive deftness.

Name : David Denby / Alias : New Yorker
The new franchise effort from Marvel charges through hyperkinetic chases and combat, though with slightly less finesse than its predecessor, "Captain America: The First Avenger."

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Powered by a dynamite Evans and a first-rate cast, this movie overcomes its plot holes and 3D too-muchness by making human frailty its primary focus.

Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
A house divided against itself cannot stand. But in the case of Captain America: Civil War, a divided house brings out the best in this supersized superhero franchise.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
I had fun. But I could have had more.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
This film is unlikely to convert a non-Captain America lover into a fanatic but it's assembled with sufficient skill that those who enjoy this sort of motion picture will have a good time.

Name : Lawrence Cohn / Alias : Variety
Salinger has some good moments dealing with the cultural shock of his Rip Van Winkle reawakening, but film never takes flight under Albert Pyun's leaden direction.

Name : Lindsey Bahr / Alias : Associated Press
Marvel makes it funny, and that charm and care is what has and will keep audiences coming back over and over again.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
If we must endure yet another spring-summer cycle of comic book superheroes, this movie at least delivers the wham-bang goods (recycled though they may be).

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Kudos to co-directors Anthony and Joe Russo and the team of writers for juggling more than a dozen comic-book characters and nearly that many plot lines, and only occasionally getting us (and by us I mean ME) lost in the Geek Weeds.

Name : Adam Nayman / Alias : Globe and Mail
This is the first Marvel Studios movie since the original Iron Man that really stands on its own.

Name : Bruce Kirkland / Alias : Toronto Sun
If you do not count Guardians of the Galaxy - because it remains an eccentric outlier - Civil War now easily ranks as the best movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Name : Scott Foundas / Alias : Variety
Chockfull of the breathless cliffhangers dictated by the genre, but equally rich in the quiet, tender character moments that made the first film unique among recent Marvel fare .

Name : Will Leitch / Alias : The New Republic
Civil War is both a Captain America sequel and a third Avengers movie, and that's more than any movie could possibly pull off. It does the best it can, though.

Name : Barry Hertz / Alias : Globe and Mail
With Civil War, Marvel Studios has proven, once again, that the world's heroes remain in good hands.

Name : Kenneth Turan / Alias : Los Angeles Times
"Captain America" is everything a big budget superhero film should be - except inspired.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
Kudos to the Russos and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely for stepping outside the constraints of both the genre and the shared history.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
"The Winter Soldier" is superbly made and well-acted, neatly setting up the next few installments with just the right enticing sense of ongoing mystery.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
The most mature and substantive picture to have yet emerged from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
The most impressive superpower on display in Captain America: Civil War. is the whole team's ability to give an escapist comic book movie an intelligent sense of connection to life in the modern world.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : New York Daily News
Bragging just a bit - see how many franchise characters we've got, DC? - Marvel practically doubles the number of superheroes for this movie. And it's too much.

Name : Jake Coyle / Alias : Associated Press
While ''The Winter Soldier'' succeeds as finely engineered merchandise built to be crowd-pleasing entertainment, for moviegoers and shareholder alike, it has a shelf life that won't last much past its running time.

Name : Brian Truitt / Alias : USA Today
Tear away the powers, abilities and egos, though, and the third Captain America movie is at its core a deep exploration of friendship and family and what sacrifices should be made to hold onto both.

Name : Lou Lumenick / Alias : New York Post
Deeply mediocre and ultra-predictable .

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
In "Winter Soldier," amidst the chaos, our hero learns to be wary of the modern world. Welcome to the 21st century, Cap.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
Civil War reminds us it's OK to enjoy a few laughs, even while diabolical villains plot doom, outraged citizens demand accountability and your best pal mistrusts you.

Name : Mara Reinstein / Alias : Us Weekly
It's a rollicking and action-packed extravaganza in which every superhero has a moment to shine.

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Takes the bold (for Marvel) step of reducing CGI spectacle to a relative minimum in favor of reviving the pleasures of hard-driving old-school action, surprising character development and intriguing suspense.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Downey is enough to make you think that an Avengers movie with no action at all might still be good. It might even be an improvement.

Name : Anthony Lane / Alias : New Yorker
The motto of the directors, Anthony and Joe Russo, appears to be: If you can make it happen, do it. Don't hold back.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : Village Voice
These films no longer have to delight and surprise us; no, their job now is to manage the brand, not screw anything up too royally, and keep us hooked for the next installment. Civil War pulls all that off mostly well.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
What makes "The Winter Soldier" so enjoyable . and what will make it so profitable, is its emotional bandwidth-all the vivid, nuanced life lived by its characters in between their frenzied escapades.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
It chooses to avoid the easy gags and go for stronger drama by having Cap confront something he really wasn't prepared for: A S.H.I.E.L.D. that seems to have lost its way, and may even have a few traitors buried deep inside it.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
With every new installment of the comic book franchise, the scale gets bigger, relationships get trickier, new forces enter the fray.

Name : Chris Klimek / Alias : NPR
It's the Vibranium standard for super-team flicks.

Name : Joshua Rothkopf / Alias : Time Out
The Marvel faithful will turn up for the action scenes, and the directors, brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, add an uncommon sharpness to sequences of urban warfare - these Heat-grade bullet volleys have a real ping to them.

Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
The best way to think of Captain America: Civil War is as a toy box in which the sheer quantity of toys partly makes up for the lack of anything new.

Name : Bill Zwecker / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
This may be one of the least artful holiday films ever made. Even devout born-again Christians will find this hard to stomach.

Name : Michael Rechtshaffen / Alias : Los Angeles Times
Virtually everything about this production feels thrown together.

Name : Penny Walker / Alias : Arizona Republic
How do you prove a horse is an animal? Because I like Sweden. That's the style of absurd logic that happens in "Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas" .

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : ChristyLemire.com
It is The Room of Christmas movies. Actually, The Room is more enjoyable. But you get the idea.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
Had "Saving Christmas" run any longer, Cameron would no doubt have found a way to find the divinity in Frosty, Rudolph, the Grinch, peppermint bark, the Elf on the Shelf, frosted cranberry hand soap and Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo.

Name : Ben Kenigsberg / Alias : New York Times
With a smile so wide and laughter that sounds so forced you half-expect the camera to pull back to reveal hostage takers, Mr. Cameron explains how several facets of the holiday - the tree, Santa Claus, gifts - have roots in religious tradition.