(From IMDb.com)

Life’s tough when you’re an Avenger.

The latest in the line of blockbusters from the Marvel Universe starts with more terrible turmoil for the gang of heroes who collect to save the world from bad stuff concocted by badder people.

Then it gets worse.

Yes, Scarlet Witch’s last-second mind-wave saves Captain America’s bacon. But it also kills a bunch of innocent people, brings an angry Secretary of State and the United Nations into the picture and sets the stage for a massive ideological battle between superheroes.

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, Captain America: Civil War places Steve Rogers and Tony Stark on opposite sides of the Revenge vs. Justice slide rule of conscience. And then the costumes and shields come out to aid the egos, the rest of the characters pick sides, and a couple of new superheroes are added to the mix, too, to make sure Marvel has more movies to pull fannies into the seats years down the line.

Chris Evans as Captain America and Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man vibrate at the core of this one, stewing with passion in their own particular pallets as their characters hide, reveal and discover things about the past and each other as they fervently believe they are in the right.

The rest of the gang is as good as usual, too, with big and spectacular battles on the ground and in the air. It’s quite a jolt to see them going against each other, with a piece of their hearts on the other side.

Ready for battle. (From IMDb.com)

You can’t go wrong with Scarlet Johansson, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen and gang’s chops, right? And Paul Rudd and Tom Holland’s addition as Ant-Man and Spider-Man, respectively, was a winner, both characters injecting some needed humor into situation. Chadwick Boseman as the Black Panther is a budding Marvel star, for his intensity.

The 2 hours, 26 minutes flew by at a late Friday night showing at Regal Cinemas’ large Great Northern theater. I was surprised that just a dozen or so showed up to join me after my closing shifts at the store, keeping me from judging in person the blockbuster-worthiness of the film from applause.

(I was alarmed that two women brought a toddler, say, 3-years-old. My fears during the previews turned out to be correct. The kid acted his age throughout the movie, talking, crying, emoting non-stop. Two-thirds in, when the tired-sounds cranked up, I let loose myself with a “C’mon!” Yes, it was me. The child was finally led out of the theater. Relief washed over the rest of us. Or maybe it was my imagination. Not the child’s fault. Bad judgment by the adults.)

Who would bring a toddler to see this sort of action movie? Who would bring a toddler to a 10 p.m. showing of any movie? Would you side with Robert Downey Jr. or Chris Evans, and why?