Everything about “Captain America: Civil War” screams Marvel, and yet, compared to both the “Avengers” films and the previous “Captain America” entries, this film is not particularly loud. The dialogue is still 90 percent PG-13 one-liners, the fight scenes are still twice as long as they should be, but there is a suspicious lack of MacGuffins or extraneous side stories that makes one suspect that Marvel is trying to tell a coherent story here.

I’m over-exaggerating when I imply that previous Marvel movies were incoherent, of course, but they were often unfocused and overcomplicated. Not so here. The premise of “Captain America: Civil War” is actually simple. In the aftermath of the absolute, city-rending destruction wrought by the climaxes of every other Marvel movie, the UN starts to take notice and proposes the Sokovia Accords, which establishes a board that will oversee the Avengers and approve their various world-saving endeavors.

Some Avengers, namely Iron Man (Robert Downy Jr., like you didn’t already know that) agree with the Accords, while others led by Captain America (Chris Evans) feel that “the safest hands are still our own.”

Perhaps Marvel should change its name. None of the best parts of “Captain America: Civil War” come from a feeling of amazement at its spectacle or awe at the immense price tag of every scene. The best parts come from a captivation with its comparatively quiet, character-based drama. It may be melodrama, but melodrama was more than “Age of Ultron” provided, which was an extremely deafening bit of filler.

This focus is not new for Marvel, and the Anthony and Joe Russos’s last directorial effort, “Captain America: Winter Soldier,” was similarly focused. But it may be signaling a shift in Marvel’s storytelling philosophy, especially with the upcoming “Infinity War” storyline helmed by the Russo brothers.

Even it’s most all-out, hero-stuffed fight scene takes place in an abandoned airport; the backdrop little more than gray concrete. It’s climax is in an even more dull bunker, featuring only Iron Man, Captain America and the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). The fight is more an emotional struggle than a battle of physical might.

“Age of Ultron,” to contrast, has a climax on a floating city and features the Avengers fighting hordes of nameless robots. Maybe this is Marvel finally getting past the philosophy that more plus bigger equals more interesting and better.