This article is spoiler-free!

Marvel’s newest film hit the screens on May 6^th and you can bet that I was there on opening night. The film was everything that I thought that it’d be and more. However, this isn’t a critic’s review. I want to talk about the bigger issues in the film and how it was marketed.

One of the main issues for the plot of "Captain America: Civil War" is the fact that the Avengers are divided over whether or not they should sign a contract that would put them under the government's control.

The “Sokovia Accords,” as they’re called, would leave the Avengers at the total mercy of the United Nations when it came down to whether or not a situation required their attention. Chaos ensues because half of them want to sign and half of them don’t. It was a good plot device to stir up conflict and make a great movie. However, in this day and age, it is so much more than just a plot device.

Government control and involvement in private matters is a serious issue right now all across the world and there isn’t a single correct way to go about it. "Civil War" does a great job at highlighting that particular complexity in particular, which is why I think that the marketing of this film as being on either “Team Cap” or “Team Iron Man” did a disservice to the intricacy of the film and the issues that it discusses.

Obviously, most people are going to have one side that they agree with more than the other. However, there wasn’t one team that was wrong and one team that was right, even though the media tried to paint it to be that way. That itself speaks volumes about how the media addresses any issue of conflict. They will always try to make it seem like there is one particular side that is right and one that isn’t, when in reality many issues, especially ones of international importance, have a million different elements to them and can’t be simplified without losing some of what the issue is.

The issues that are being addressed in the film aren’t simple. There isn’t a clear-cut right and wrong dynamic. The media caters to “Team Cap” more because he’s Captain America, but his mentality and the mentality of his team isn’t without its faults. The advertising industry can downplay “Team Stark” all they want, but that doesn’t change the fact that Iron Man has sound logic as to why he wants to sign the “Sokovia Accords.” "Civil War" is about the fact that people who all have the same goal in mind can be ripped apart solely because of a morally grey area. Chris Evans, the actor who plays Captain America, was quoted in an interview as saying, “It’s not villain versus hero. It’s friends. It’s family.” If Captain America talking about the fact that this movie isn’t about one side being wrong and one side being right doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what would (you can find the interview here).

"Captain America: Civil War" wasn’t about whether or not you were on “Team Cap” or “Team Stark.” The movie was about the fact that there’s a group of good people who all want to do good things for the world, but they can’t agree on how to do them. There’s a huge grey area because both sides have valid strengths and valid faults.

Government control of any agency, in this film it just so happens to be an international security agency (as that’s essentially what the Avengers are), is dangerous because politicians always have an agenda and that agenda isn’t always beneficial for the greater good. This point isn’t something that can be argued. Think about how right now, during election season, everyone is wondering where they’re going to end up throwing their vote because they’re afraid of the politicians, their selfish agendas, and their lies. Also, keep in mind what happened the last time when Captain America put blind faith in the government. Can you really blame him for not wanting to sign over control of the Avengers? The last government-run agency that he was a part of became a terrorist organization. He doesn’t want that to happen again, especially with the world’s elite all on the same team. He wants control because he knows that the government typically doesn’t have the best moral compass. He can’t be faulted for that.

However, agencies operating without any kind of “checks and balances” system are dangerous because they can gain unlimited power and have absolutely no one there to make sure that they are doing what they should be to protect the country or, in this case, the world. America, as a country, has opinions on everything and we’re allowed not only to have those opinions, but to voice them as well. However, this isn’t the case in many countries because of an unchecked possession of power by one individual or a small group of individuals. Countries that are under a tyrannical reign have citizens who live in constant danger and fear.

On a smaller scale, “Team Iron Man” believes that if the Avengers sign the accords, it will prevent them from becoming tyrants in a world that already believes them to be vigilantes because they have no supervision or anyone around to effectively tell them “no.” People have already begun to fear the Avengers and turn against them, so Iron Man believes that if signing the accords will allow them to keep their support and their jobs, why not sign it? That's not to mention when we were first introduced to Tony Stark as a character, way back in the first Iron Man film, he was held hostage under a tyrant and had to watch his one friend/comrade at the time be murdered by someone who was power-mad. Tony Stark has seen some things and has been through more than enough to justify why he thinks that there should always be an element of control and that no one’s power should be absolute, not even his power or the power of his team.

So, yes, Marvel’s "Captain America: Civil War" was a spectacular superhero film. I recommend it to anyone and everyone who is interested in the Marvel Universe or superheroes in general. However, it was much more than that as well. It was a statement. It was a discussion of serious issues through a lens that the general public not only would be able to understand, but that they would also be interested in. There isn’t a right or wrong answer, especially not at this point. If you watch the film, that will be made quite clear. However, it’s a conversation that needs to be had. The grey morality of large international issues is hardly ever black and white, right or wrong, or villain versus hero.

You could shrug all of this off and say that I’m reading too much into a film that was meant to be a piece of entertainment, but even entertainment has an agenda and I think that this film, in particular, had a great one. No single issue is as simple as it seems and, since the USA is a country that tends to voice a lot of opinions on international policies, I think that it’s more than worth it to be reminded that every side of an argument has validity and that it’s not always easy to “choose a side” like the media tried to force us to do for this film. By the time that the film ended, I’d like to think that most of the audience had sympathy for both “Team Cap” and “Team Iron Man” and that no one was able to walk out of the theater saying that one side was completely right and one side was completely wrong. Being able to sympathize with and see both sides of an incredibly dense issue is important. I think that this movie was a good way to start a much larger social discussion.