The destruction caused by the Avengers has finally become a cause for concern for politicians; they want a system of accountability in place. This leads to a rift between Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.).
My thoughts on the film
It’s been 2 years since Captain America: The Winter Solider was released, which doesn’t seem that long, and we were certainly lucky to have another 3 Marvel films to keep us entertained since then. Now, I don’t know about you, but I thought The Winter Solider was the best Marvel film to date at the time and that opinion lasted until May 4th at 9:45PM Vancouver time, which is when Civil War ended. My expectations were this: to be on par with The Winter Solider, but the hype of the additional heroes would put it over the top. So, not only did Civil War meet that expectation, it exceeded that expectation.
Joe and Anthony Russo are back in the director chairs for Captain America: Civil War and they certainly knew with the jam packed hero lineup under the Captain America umbrella, they couldn’t let it go down the same path as the Avengers films have. Come on, we can all agree the Avengers films have just been a hot mess, but I won’t go there now. Fortunately, Joe and Anthony Russo made many improvements with very little faults when comparing to The Winter Solider.
Of course with the plethora of heroes in this film, one could wonder how they were going to pull off the screen time and storyline with each one, especially newcomers Vision and Black Panther. Unfortunately, this is one of the little faults of the film as the character development for those two heroes was pretty close to being non-existent. There was a bit more of a story behind Black Panther, but not a whole lot. It was a little frustrating especially when the film is over 2.5 hours long. However, they recovered with Spiderman’s storyline. Yes, without giving too much away, Spiderman doesn’t just show up for 10 seconds and calls it a day. There’s actually a decent storyline development and this is important on so many levels. To keep it short. We’ve had 2 Spiderman reboots in the last 10 years and that’s not a good thing. On top of that, this upcoming reboot, slated for 2017, is starting off with Peter Parker in high school. Now, we’ve all been accustomed to an adult Marvel universe, so certainly, most of us were offput by this new direction. The good news is, Tom Holland did a great job in Civil War and it certainly instilled faith back in me for the upcoming reboot. As for the bad news, well, there’s no bad news. As for the other heroes in the film, they all received adequate screen time and they were utilized well.
If you read the film synopsis, read any storyline premises or have seen the trailer, you’ll know that the storyline of Civil War is about politics and how the Avengers’ activities are causing issues that certain members of the team don’t see as a big issue, where others do. Well, all I have to say is, it’s about time. It has always crossed our minds in every film. They destroy a city, there are buildings blown up, fires all over the place, and it’s just mayhem. Yet, there are never any consequences. Surely, people are in those buildings, which means they are certainly dying when a building crumbles to the ground. Well, I guess it has finally caught up to them and they decided to make it the storyline. Personally, it felt a little cheap to take that road as an easy storyline. On top of that, the storyline is also based around Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), which I’m starting to get slightly bored of. I’ll admit, I haven’t read any of the comics so I don’t know what is actually supposed to happen, but for three films to be about the same guy, come on.
As we know, Marvel films have always been light-hearted, filled with a great amount of humour, but Civil War took a slightly more serious tone to it. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still some humour, but nowhere near to what we have been accustomed to in previous Marvel films, which is totally fine with me and is one of the big reasons why I think Civil War tops The Winter Solider and any other Marvel film. I enjoy what brings the film together. Whether it’s the editing, the cinematography or the visual effects, it’s those aspects that really enhance the film’s experience along with mine. I noticed a lot more precise camera work. A lot of close shots and even some shaky camera work. Also, it felt more like an actual action film than a superhero film. I’m not sure if that’s clear, but it’s hard to explain. You’ll just have to see it.
Rating 5/5
Whatever your expectations are, Captain America: Civil War will hit the spot.
P.S. As per usual, there’s a scene mid-credits and another scene after all the credits.
Captain America: Civil War is now in theatres.
