Okay, so within the MCU, there are like 4 main franchises right, we’ve got The Avengers, we’ve got Iron Man, we’ve got Thor and we’ve got Captain America. Each of these franchises are very different tonally. 

So, Iron Man and The Avengers are probably the closest in tone. Iron Man is big, it’s bold and it’s grandiose, because Tony is big and bold and grandiose. They use a lot of wide shots, they use brighter colours, they emphasise reds and golds, not just bc they are the colours of his suit but also because they are colours associated with wealth. The shots are incredibly crisp and clean and they scream “Hollywood Blockbuster”, and that’s intentional. That’s because everything about Tony, everything he knows, has been surrounded by wealth and putting on a show and the way the films are shot reflect that. 

The Avengers are shot in a similar way, wide shots, bright colours, everything is done on a larger scale because there are so many personalities to fit in. 

Thor uses a lot of sweeping shots, higher angle shots, there’s emphasis on blues and silvers when they’re in asgard, colours that are often associated with royalty as well as giving a feel of otherworldlyness. The colours and the shots become more grounded when he is literally grounded and sent to earth. It’s probably the most “sci-fi” of any of the franchises and you get that feel from the way it’s shot.

Captain America though, throughout both TFA and TWS, had always seemed like the most personal of the franchises. It’s the quietest of the franchises, the closest of the franchises. By this I mean, you get a lot more close up shots in the first two Cap movies, there’s a lot of focus on profile shots, bc they seemed to focus a lot more on the people in the Cap movies. The internal struggles of the people got a lot more attention. The colours, especially in the first movie, were a lot more muted than you would see in the other 3 franchises, but even in the second movie, the colours they emphasise were greens and whites and beiges and browns. These are earthly colours, they help to keep it grounded. Steve’s story is probably the most human of any of them, the easiest to relate to. He was the underdog, and he just wanted to do good, and he didn’t have much but he loved what he did have and he wanted to protect it. It’s the franchise that’s most grounded in reality I guess. Watching the Cap movies, you kinda feel more like you’re on the outside of a window looking in at something? They are big hollywood movies, but they don’t scream “Hollywood Blockbuster” in the way the Iron Man movies do, bc that’s not who Steve is or ever has been. And that really close, personal feeling and tone, is what, from what I see, so many people really love about Captain America. 

Civil War didn’t match that tone. Civil War was significantly closer to an Iron Man or an Avengers film in tone. It didn’t have that close, personal feeling. It felt a lot more like “Hollywood Blockbuster”, it felt too big, too large, too bold, to be a Cap movie. There was too much going on to focus on really developing the main 3-4 characters that you go to a Cap movie expecting to be developed (Steve, Bucky, Sam, Natasha). There were so many personalities, so many stories trying to be told, that it kinda lost that Cap feel. Yes, there were Cap moments, but they felt more in keeping with Cap moments you’d see in an Avengers film. But more than that, they were Cap moments. This was supposed to be a Captain America movie. He wasn’t supposed to have moments. The whole film should have been his, with supporting moments from other characters, but we didn’t really get that. 

It wasn’t a bad film, and if it had been marketed as Avengers: Civil War, it would easily have been the best of the Avengers movies, because as an Avengers movie it was excellent. But as a Cap movie, with the exception of the scene in the apartment in Bucharest, the scene with Sam and Bucky in the car, and the scene with Bucky and Steve on the helicarrier, it didn’t really retain anything that made Captain America what it was. It literally just didn’t feel like a Captain America film. But idk, that’s just my onion on it I guess.