The Captain kicks butt, but...

Does Civil War work for everyone, or is it a loss if you don't know the backstory?

From left: Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Bucky/The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) in a scene from Civil War. Picture: Contributed

MARVEL fans will be thrilled with the new offering of Civil War but I'm not so sure how anyone who isn't a fan will take it.

Sure, the movie is full of action. There's plenty of laughs. There's even plenty of super friends.

But, if you haven't seen The Avengers - Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3 or Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier, you may become a little confused about who some of the characters are.

Reprising the role of Steve Rogers (Captain America) was all round good guy Chris Evans. My friend Pam really enjoyed his scenes, in fact she almost required artificial resuscitation after the helicopter scene...

Robert Downey Jnr was a lot more serious, and a lot less wise-cracking in this offering, but that may have more to do with the script (which wasn't written by the renaissance master of wit himself, Joss Whedon).

Of course, Spider Man (or should I say boy?) had plenty to say, and at one point was told off for being "too chatty".

Even Ant Man made an impact (literally) in the showdown between the super friends.

It was entertaining, but I can't help feeling that I was missing out on a little because I haven't seen Ant Man (I'm definitely going to now, in the very near future) or Guardians of the Galaxy and couldn't quite recall all that happened in The Avengers 2.

I was also largely unsatisfied with the ending, much like I was with Batman Vs Superman, but perhaps that's because a consistent theme with superhero movies of late is to pit two good guys against one another while a third pulls the strings in the background.

That's a theme I personally find disturbing because I prefer to root for the good guy.

However, as always, it was entertaining, if only for the super action and seemless special effects.

I give it 4/5 (but mainly because of the kickass action)