Captain America: Civil War




Let me start this review with one single little phrase:

DC/Warner Brothers got schooled!

Some Spoilers ahead, read at your own risk

Captain America: Civil War, revolves around the government requirement of making the Avengers a sanctioned group.

Several of the Avengers are in favor of this regulation, while others oppose it. At the helm of each side, Tony Stark / Iron-Man, and Steve Rogers / Captain America.

The movie also has to deal with the introduction of a new character to the cinematic universe: Black Panther; and the introduction of the newest Spider-Man to this universe. It does both in a way that not only serves the general story of the movie, but does not feel forced or shoe-horned in. It works within the context of the movie and because of the way its laid out.

This is the way you do a film that needs to handle several things at once.

The most forced inclusion in my view is Paul Rudd's Ant-Man. He's cool, and we get an extra surprise there for comic fans, but it did feel a little forced. Not too much.

Getting into the movie a little more, the Russo's bring back a character from an unexpected place to play somewhat of an antagonist. General Thaddeus Ross, last seen in the Incredible Hulk movie, is again played by William Hurt now as Secretary of State, and promoter of the accord to sanction super heroes.

Captain America, opposes the accords, and goes on the run, to try to find Bucky a.k.a the Winter Soldier, after Helmut Zemo re-activates Bucky's brainwashing at the hands of the Russians, to get information out of him about the Winter Soldier Program, and the other subjects that still exist in a bunker somewhere.

After helping Bucky escape, Captain America and his team go to an airport to get a Quinjet to go after Zemo, who is thought wants to thaw the rest of the Winter Soldiers, and reactivate them for some nefarious purpose.

The entire super-hero bonanza is unleashed as Team Cap, and Team Stark duke it out at the airport. Eventually Cap and Bucky make it to the Quinjet, and take off.

The rest of team Cap is captured and imprisoned, by Secretary Ross.

Stark, realizes that Bucky was framed, after the real doctor's body is found in a hotel, and Zemo's Bucky disguise is found. Stark manages to get Falcon to tell him where Cap is going, and immediately leaves for Siberia.

As they arrive, Cap and Bucky, discover that Zemo has killed the frozen Winter Soldiers, as he never wanted to activate them, he was preventing any more super-powered beings from roaming the earth. As he believes it the super powered ones that caused his family to be killed during the events in Sokovia with Ultron.

Zemo, plays a video where Bucky as the Winter Soldier kills Tony Stark's parents in one of his missions. This sends Tony over the edge, and he tries to kill Bucky. Cap intervenes and again they duke it out. Eventually Cap and Bucky overpower Stark, though Bucky loses his cybernetic arm in the process.

Cap leaves with Bucky, and Stark takes Zemo in, after Black Panther prevents him from committing suicide.

The movie really shows how you can juggle several threads, and dozens of characters at the same time, without seeming detached, forced or awkward. In the end it does not really set up much for the next Avengers movie, but delivers a fun experience overall. Even though its 2 and a half hours in length, it never feels boring or dragged. It even manages to give a heartfelt farewell to Agent Carter in the middle of everything.

Yes, DC / Warner Brothers released their movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice just a few weeks ago, and Marvel just schooled them on how you do super hero fight movie properly.

The overall setup is the same, two powerful people duke it out, for different reasons. Dawn of Justice tried to throw too many things there instead of sticking with the main story which was their fight. Captain America: Civil War, focuses magnificently on what is driving both people, and it never seems forced, or artificially manufactured. There's also the dialogue; Captain America, always tries to talk to Tony and only resorts to physical interaction when there's nothing more to do. Unlike Superman in DoJ.

In all respects this is a much much better movie than BVS:DoJ. It handles its plots well. It does not go out of its way to create a fight. It gives each new character enough time to get to know them and even has focus scenes for both Black Panther and Spider-Man to showcase what they do.

I wasn't so sure about another recast of Spider-Man, as I felt Andrew Garfield had done a great job with it in both films. But that second film again tried to do to much and tried to set up too much. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how well Tom Holland works with the character, and am really excited to see the stand alone film with him as Spider-Man in 2017.

All in all, I think this movie works great, its a lot of fun, delivers in a lot of aspects, and still has time to not take itself too seriously, joke around a little, and gives a sold new entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Let Phase 3 begin.

4.5 of 5 Cap Shields

 



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