Captain America: Civil War

So on one hand, Captain America: Civil War is the perfect movie for me. Its a super hero film that essentially does everything Batman v Superman tried to do correctly. It takes two iconic superheroes with two opposing ideologies fighting, not because one is the good guy or one is the bad guy, but because they believe so strongly in opposing viewpoints and their personalities clash. Its not just an action filled punch fest, its a clash of beliefs.

And even if it wasn't, the truth was, I was going to see this movie. I was probably going to enjoy this movie no matter what, and even if it was bad, I was still going to be interested in the story and see every Marvel movie from here on out. Why? Because I'm already too invested in this universe not to. I've already watch all the movies, taken in the stories of Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and the Avengers. I’ve gotten to the point where I actually wouldn’t mind just cutting Marvel a check for 500 dollars and saying, this is for every movie that you absolutely have my business for, for the next 10 years. (Don’t quote me on that math). That’s how invested I am in this movie already.

All that being said, I still try to look at movies objectively not matter how invested I am in it. And this movie falls into a couple of conventions that I’ve started to feel about superhero films in general. I am by no means getting sick of superhero films, but I am starting to see the formulas and a familiar tone that makes me start to think I’m getting tired of seeing the same thing over and over again. I feel like I need to see this movie again to really determine whether or not there is some fatigue going into these films, but for now, let’s talk about the plot.

Captain America: Civil War takes place after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. The new Avengers (Scarlett Witch (played by Elizabeth Taylor), Falcon (played by Anthony Mackie), War Machine (played by Don Cheadle), Vision (played by Paul Bettany)) led by Captain America (played by Chris Evans) and Black Widow (played by Scarlett Johanason) are off doing their Avengers thing. They find themselves in a conflict in the country of Wakanda facing a somewhat familiar threat and they take action. They are successful in stopping the real plot, but not without casualties. This not only shakes the group, but it also shakes the world and their outlook on The Avengers.

On the same end, Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.) feels guilt for the loss of life from previous films, Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Age of Ultron, etc. He teams up with the government, represented by the Secretary of State “Thunderbolt” Ross (played by William Hurt) who informs the Avengers that the United Nations is about to sign what is being called the Sokovia

Accords which will bind the Avengers to a governing body that will decide when and when not to deploy the Avengers. This of course splits the Avengers based on what each one of them feels ideologically on the accords. Tony Stark and others believe it is a good check and balance to a powerful group like The Avengers who, without any oversight, have inadvertently caused the deaths of innocent civilians while they were saving the world. On the other hand, Captain America and others believe the Avengers should have full autonomy and be able to take up any crisis they think is the right thing to do. Ross tells them that the accords are being signed and those who side with the government are free to continue being an Avenger. Those who do not are forced into retirement, and any superhero that works outside government control will be branded a criminal.

Before I move on, I should mention that the differing ideologies in this movie are really great. Yeah the movie is called Captain America: Civil War, so at the end of the day you’re probably going to side with Captain America, but they do a really good job at presenting the pros and cons of both sides. Tony and everyone on his side for the most part believe in the pros of the Accords and believe this is the right thing to do. They believe a governing body creates structure and allows them to do their job, if not better than they used to. If you’re not jumping between sides on during this film, you’re not an open minded person and you’re not appreciating the real value of this movie. It allows both sides to maintain their status as “The good guy” and its not totally a fight between good versus evil as opposed to it being a battle between differing ideologies.

At the same time of this ideological battle, Captain America’s childhood friend Bucky Barnes (played by Sebastian Stan) or The Winter Soldier, the former deadly assassin for Hydra appears from his hiding. The government wants him brought in, but they only want Avengers who have signed the accords to take action. Captain America, knowing what the wrong people will do to his friend, goes after Bucky to help him. On the opposing side you have Tony going after both of them as he recruits the help of the Avengers who side with him and other new heroes, including Black Panther (played by Chadwick Boseman) and Spider-man (played by Tom Holland).

Now before I talk about the performances including the new characters, I should mention that this isn’t just a battle between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. There is an element of this film that is technically the antagonist of the film. The problem is, the way I described this movie, there could be a version of this film that doesn’t include the villain and the movie would be just as good, if not better. Daniel Bruhl plays the antagonist, and I won’t give away who he is, but he’s okay. He’s not the worst Marvel villain but that’s pretty much all he is, a Marvel villain. He’s pretty forgettable, and he’s really just there to give the heroes, the real focus, something to fight and develop their characters from. He’s not the worst, but he’s definitely no Loki or Kingpin.

The performances all around are very good in this movie. I can probably talk more about arcs and how well each individual character did with their individual piece of the film when I talk about story, but I do want to mention a couple of standout performances.

Obviously the conflict between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark is only furthered by the performances of Chris Evans and Tony Stark. These two actors are the quintessential Captain America and Iron Man and they really bring it in this film. This movie is a lot more serious than the other films. While there are your typical Marvel comedic moments, this Marvel movie deals with a little bit more serious subject matter and you feel it in the tone of this film. Things become very personal for everyone involved and there are times this movie does not feel like Marvel film.

A couple other standouts include Elizabeth Taylor as Scarlet Witch. Not only is Scarlet Witch really turning out to be an incredibly force of nature on the Avengers, but she’s also becoming a really great character. She faces a lot of inner demons and she has to deal with all of that in this film. Is it totally developed the way I would like it to be? No I don’t think so, but I really hope Scarlett Witch continues to be a bigger and bigger character in these Marvel movies because I am really digging what Elizabeth Taylor is bringing to the character.

Paul Rudd returns as Ant-man and while he has a pretty small part, he’s incredibly entertaining and it really makes me want to rewatch Ant-man. I’ll talk a little bit more about this later, but I’ve felt since Ant-man, I’ve been seeing Marvel in a little bit of a downslope and maybe I need to give that movie another chance.

Probably one of the best parts of the movie in my opinion is Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther. I actually called what Black Panther’s motivations were going to be when I saw the trailers for the film. But that didn’t change the fact that I really enjoyed the arc they created with him. I don’t want to give anything away, but he really brings a great element to the film and it makes me overly excited for his standalone film, coming in 2018 (I confirmed it is 2018 and I am sad now because I want to see this movie sooner than that).

The other performance worth mentioning is Tom Holland as Spider-man. I wrote a post a while back stating that there is a pretty good chance that Spider-man still might fail even though the character is now within the Marvel Cinematic universe. I still have a suspicion that that scenario might still occur. However, looking at the character of Peter Parker and Spider-man in Civil War, I am once again excited to see Spider-man appear again in another standalone film. There is such a great relationship

between Peter Parker and Tony Stark that is created in this film that I am excited for that to be developed in Spider-man Homecoming! I loved how quirky and kind of obnoxious Spider-man is in Civil War that I want to see this younger version (an age I wasn’t excited to go back to) of Peter Park squirm his way through another movie and be cocky and just down right hilarious as Spider-man. There isn’t enough time to really flesh that duality out in this film but I already see the beginnings of it. I am overly excited of the prospect of Michael Keaton participating in Spider-man Homecoming and potentially being the villain Vulture. Hell, I’m even excited to see Marisa Tomeii as Aunt May and see where that goes. This Spider-man is a lot better than I expected him to be and it was almost surreal seeing him fight all the characters we’ve come to know in the MCU. He basically has a Quicksilver from X-men Days of Future Past cameo, but it’s really good and makes me excited for the future.

The last thing I’ll speak about is the story. I've mentioned before how the story probably could have been just as good if not better if the villain hadn't been involved. However, overall, given a lot of time to recap in my mind and think about what all happened, its a really solid story. I've heard a couple of complaints that have said that the story is too dependent on the other movies that come before it and its too far down the franchise universe hole that its not accessible to casual viewers. This is a very valid complaint, especially since I know a lot of people who are not avid watchers of the MCU films and they could easily get lost in the shuffle. 

However, I really enjoy the Civil War storyline and it really opens up a lot of prospects for the future, like most of the MCU movies have done. The end credit scenes were pretty cool and there's not a lot of complaints to bring up against it except for the ones I mentioned before. 

I'm going to cut this review short due to the fact that I really want to put this review out before I see X-men Apocalypse and due to the fact that I have to get started on the spoiler review of this so I can talk about the bigger points. 

Overall, Civil War is probably one of my favorite Marvel movies just due to the fact that it has a lot of great action, the story is pretty compelling, and it really delves into ideals and has heart as opposed to just being a run of the mill MCU film. I can't say that it has gotten rid of the slight superhero fatigue I can feel developing, but it definitely gave me a better taste in my mouth than Batman v Superman did. 

But what did you think of Captain America: Civil War? You can comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts and predictions via Twitter @cmhaugen24. Let me know where you think the MCU is headed and what your favorite part about Civil War was. You can also send me your requests for future movies I should review on this blog. If you follow me, you can get updates for future movie news and reviews. 

I'll leave you with this. Its the Civil War trailer but in an 8-bit format. Its kind of a fun video. Enjoy!