Previous Post Captain America: Civil War Review (no spoilers at the top, spoilers below the break) Heroes meeting, fighting, and teaming up was a big part of the silver age Marvel formula. It was reinvented writ large for the comic Civil War crossover ‘event’ when the forces of good ripped themselves and each other apart, occasionally literally, while the bad guys stood aside pointing and laughing. It wasn’t Marvel’s finest hour because it mischaracterised many heroes and did lasting damage to them, especially Tony Stark. I was less than enthused when Marvel Studios announced that the content of Captain America 3 would be Civil War. I’d genuinely have preferred the Serpent Society. It appears that the decision to go with heroes fighting was made in response to Warner Brothers announcing Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice and Kevin Feige’s opinion that Marvel therefore needed to “up our game”. Fortunately, Civil War the movie takes relatively little from the comics that share its name. This time both sides of the conflict have valid viewpoints that each is able to express. Some characters develop and modify their opinions as the story progresses. Nobody ends up looking like an idiot or a fascist. This is a confident movie. It’s not afraid to slow down, to allow long periods without action – but not without drama. It avoids frenetic cutting away as scenes are just getting interesting, so lots of bits are not just one-punches but one-two punches or more. It takes time to show consequences and to consider them. Cap 3 has an insanely huge cast. It’s a tribute to the production team from writers to camera operators to the actors that each character has his or her own moment to shine and most have good two-hander scenes; and yet the focus remains on the guy whose name appears in the title. The movie has themes of power and responsibility, so its good to have the poster-child for that introduced. Spider-Man brings a definite tone to the proceedings. Best of all, he feels like Spidey. The Black Panther is another significant addition, and of all the cast T’Challa gets to most set-up for movies yet to come. It is a mark of how deftly he is used that his story arc doesn’t feel like a trailer. The film isn’t perfect. The main villain is a generic revenge-driven baddie with a famous name pasted over him. He might as well have been called Colonel Schemey McVengeful rather than waste a well-established and distinctive Avengers villain identity. The ending felt downbeat, with quite a lot still to resolve that won’t be addressed for several movie instalments to come. Still nobody has shouted “Avengers Assemble!” But those flaws pale compared to the achievement of bringing so many characters together in so many potent ways, with proper emotions as well as great action scenes, with moments that provoke thought and moments that provoke affection for our heroes. If there must be Civil War then this is how it should be done. This film is a milestone in superhero movies. It’s good entertainment. It will reward multiple viewings. It will stand the test of time. I recommend it. Big spoilers below, so do not read ahead until you have seen the film… . . . . . . . . . Really, I mean it. I recommend you resist the urge and watch the film first…. . . . . . . . Let’s get the problem bits out of the way first, because none of them are enough to sour what is a quite excellent film. The villains were weak: Colonel Helmut Zemo of Sokovian Special Forces has none of the operatic charisma and vision of his comics namesake. Rumblow is more like Cap’s comics antagonist Crossbones and has a good if brief showing before he is wiped out as the disposable opening-act bad guy. And yes, Zemo wins; he destroys the Avengers. He’s still generic and forgettable. The last act: Presumably someone decided the selling point of the movie was going to be a ‘who wins’ fight between Cap and Iron Man, because that’s what the big finale is about. There’s no heroes-fight-then-team-up-to-stop-the-baddie moment because the villain’s whole plot is to get the heroes to fight. Neither Winghead or Shellhead stop Zemo. The Panther does, eschewing the way of vengeance as the culmination of his story arc. I’d really have preferred Rogers, Stark, and Barnes against the Masters of Evil at the end. Zemo actually got hold of five more Winter Soldiers then put bullets in their heads while they were sleeping. It was a narrative swerve justified in his exposition but it felt to me as a viewer as if I’d been robbed of a scene. There were a couple of character arcs that seemed unfinished, although it might have been deliberate. The last we see of the Scarlet Witch is her again straight-jacketed and imprisoned in the Raft, back to the start of her nightmare. We know Cap releases her (presumably while the final credits are rolling before the first of two post-credit scenes) but her journey about controlling her powers and finding identity seemed truncated, as did her relationship with the Vision. Likewise the Vision was left with unresolved questions about himself, about Wanda, and about the Infinity Stone he bears. A closing moment to check in with him as we did with Rhodey would have been nice. I question one casting choice. Did we really need a thirty-something Aunt May? Why eliminate one of the few strong roles for older women in the Marvel Universe? A younger May seriously changes the Peter-May dynamic and I doubt it will be for the better. But after that’s said, all that’s left is praise. Praise for introducing a pitch-perfect T’Challa, with a revised origin that has less dated Colonialist overtones (Klaw was not involved in T’Chaka’s death, which instead happens onscreen in Cap 3). Praise for a quippy, bright, light-hearted, big-hearted Spider-Man who is fast and cocky and inexperienced and always fun to watch. Praise for using Peggy Carter’s passing as a trigger for Cap’s resolve to resist signing the superhero-controlling Sokovia Accords. Praise for Sharon Carter, who gets to quote Aunt Peggy’s “plant yourself like a tree” speech (a direct borrow from the best Cap scene in the comics’ Civil War), and her eventual inevitable lip-lock with Steve. Special mention to the comedy shot reaction of Bucky and Falcon to that. Robert Downey Jr. really brings the goods to this film. His Stark runs the gamut of the character with practiced skill and pushes his limits further than before. This is a Stark who has taken a series of hammerings, from Ultron to Pepper leaving, from the Avengers split and Rhodey’s critical injury by friendly fire to the revelation that Bucky murdered Howard and Maria Stark. Downey manages to carry it all in his face and voice in his most mature and masterful performance. Some of the relationship stuff was really fun. The nascent Vision/Wanda romance was well laid out. The Natasha/Cap and Natasha/Hawkeye friendships were given due acknowledgement. Ant-Man and Spider-Man’s newbie fannishness were used to great effect. The mid-credits accord between Rogers and T’Challa also tasted right. For a movie about superhero clashes a lot of its quality did not depend on the action scenes, which is a compliment. But when the fights happened - and there were a whole lot of them in many combinations - they were done very well. They were all framed in different ways with different filming techniques with different props, settings, and lighting, so they never got same-y. A little shaky-cam aside they were always clear about cause and effect, storylined as intensively as the plot stuff. As a fanboy I had my own long-held views about how various fights should go. What amazed me was how much the movie agreed with me. Spidey was remarkably hard to hit and impossibly dextrous. The Winter Soldier could probably best the Widow but not the Panther. Ant-Man would be fun inside Iron Man’s armour but shouldn’t underestimate Tony’s micro-defences. The Vision is an unstoppable heavy-hitter (and yay, a density-changing one!) until he crosses Wanda Maximoff. What was I left with at the end? A movie about flawed heroes, one who cared too much about his friend and another who had been pounded by life once too often to be able to trust any more. A series of jaw-dropping battle scenes, too few of which were against the bad guys. A desire to see what happens next. A positive moviegoing experience that I’m eager to repeat (despite the seat-kicking child behind me). A Captain America who was again tested as a man as well as a hero and who came away beaten up but unbroken. More please. IW

On the whole I enjoyed Civil War. It was a hell of a lot better than the awful Batman V Superman. I left the theatre thinking I needed to see it again as I think I may have missed some plot intricacies.

Rather than do the usual good stuff followed by bad stuff, I'm going to reverse that.

Bad Stuff
- I am one of the few people who would be totally fine if Spider-Man never existed in the MCU. I didn't think it made a lot of plot sense for Tony, who is arguing that the Avengers need to be more responsible, to draft a teenager without telling his legal guardian he was taking him across the globe to engage in a super-powered free for all with Captain America. To me it added to Tony's hypocrisy in supporting the Accord when his recklessness is probably the primary reason behind it being drafted.

- I also dislike the trend of continually de-aging Aunt May. Of course, it's pretty much impossible to do a better job than Rosemary Harris in the Raimi films.

- Unless I missed it, Tony never seems to really get called out for his role in the Accord needing to be drafted. He started the modern superhero era in the MCU and flat out told the US Government that he had successfully privatized World Peace. Throwing Ultron in his face would have been justified too. While the death of a single US citizen in Sokovia was used as the catalyst for Tony changing his tune, I don't think I ever heard him say "I" need to be held in check, always "We", still avoiding personal responsibility.

- I think Cap is putting a little too much Super into Super Soldier. Each movie he tends to take bigger hits and dish out bigger feats of strength. I always liked the classic "With no powers and just a shield" take on Cap.

- The kiss between Cap and Sharon felt really awkward, and I know it's comics cannon but it still feels skeevy that he's with Sharon but it feels skeevy that he's moving on from Peggy with her niece.

And that's about it for the bad, so really not that bad at all!

The Good
- The Avengers vs Avengers fight was done very well. As noted, every hero got a chance to shine. I recall thinking that Cap's team was pretty under-powered compared to Tony's going into the battle but they did a great job making it pretty even and convincing me Cap's team could hang with Tony's team. I think it important to note that unlike other films (*coughBatsVSupescough), great character work was delivered during combat.

- Vision's casual wear was fantastic. I could easily watch a character-focused Avengers film with no fighting because I love this kind of stuff. The beginnings of a potential Vision/Wanda relationship was great for me as I've always loved them together as a couple, current comics be damned.

- Removing Thor and Hulk was a smart move, as either could very much overshadow the rest of the characters due to their power levels and you could easily argue both would be on Cap's side, though I think you could sell Banner being on the Registration side, as the Sokovia Accord is a very different document than the Registration Act from the comics.

- While I didn't like the Sharon/Cap kiss the Falcon/Winter Soldier reaction was fantastic.

- While I have a hard time believing Cap could beat Iron Man one-on-one, the emotional pain Chris Evans and Robert Downey brought to that final battle was fantastic. When Cap and Bucky are tag-teaming Tony, tossing the shield back and forth, it's just brutal. And with Steve leaving his shield behind, I wonder if we're going to get to see him as Nomad?

My good might seem kind of short, but I could break down the entire Avengers vs Avengers battle into things that were fantastic, really all the action was great (though Bucky, Cap, and the Panther running faster than what looked to be pretty fast moving vehicles was a bit much I thought).

And I keep ragging on Batman V Superman in comparison, but here's the biggest reason why. Marvel has been building up to this for some time. Tony and Cap have never been the best of friends in the MCU, but they have an established history and can be seen to grow friendlier with each other through each film. That relationship, and that of all the Avengers on opposite sides (Clint and Natasha, Wanda and Vision, etc) adds so much more emotional weight to their conflict. Batman v Superman tried to take a shortcut and hoped that fans existing knowledge of Batman and Superman would deliver the same effect, and they were so wrong (and it still gets me that if Superman's mom's name was Donna the Earth would've been destroyed). DC is trying to play catch-up and take shortcuts and it's not working, Marvel is reaping the rewards of the slow burn they've been working on.

While I have long wanted to hear an Avengers Assemble, I think they are saving the line to unite the heroes again against Thanos and it's going to be a pretty spectacular moment. The general population may not get the significance but for us fanboys it's going to be a great moment. While I felt Age of Ultron almost felt like a placeholder movie just to advance the plot for the Infinity War films (or whatever the title is), Civil War I think was enhanced by knowing the team has to come back together to battle Thanos.

~Hat~