Captain America: Civil War directors say it's a psychological thriller

Most of the Marvel movies are ‘superheroes punch bad guys and sometimes each other’ films, yes, but they also have something extra. Joe and Anthony Russo, the directors of the upcoming Captain America: Civil War, told Den of Geek that the rift in the Avengers team - which began in The Avengers: Age of Ultron and finally tears open in Civil War - lends some more subtlety to their latest film.

“We think of Civil War as a psychological thriller”, the Russos said. “It’s a complicated movie. And yes, it divides these people that you’ve known to not only be a team, but Cap and Natasha [Romanova, the Black Widow], in this movie, they’re evolving into a surrogate family for each other. So, it’s a closer group of people that’s being divided. That’s a difficult thing to do”.

There's still plenty of superpowered punching according to the trailers, but fair enough - last summer's Ant-Man was definitely a heist movie on top of the usual superheroics. Speaking of Ant-Man, he and the other relative newcomers will add some moments of levity to Civil War's dark, friends-against-friends narrative. At times it will be "funnier than [Captain America: The Winter Soldier]," which the pair also directed.

"They’re coming at the problem of the film, not embedded with that baggage," the Russos said. “They’re not tied to the central arc of the movie with the same motivation as the other characters, so they can be lighter. I think there are a lot lighter moments because there are much darker moments as well. We did have to work very hard at that”.

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., and Scarlett Johansson, Captain America: Civil War will open in UK cinemas starting on April 29, 2016, and will hit US theaters the week after on May 6.

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Image: Marvel