"Captain America: Civil War" Review

Captain America: Civil War is a superhero action film directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Don Cheadle, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Oslon, Chadwick Boseman, Tom Holland, Paul Rudd, Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Emily Van Camp, William Hurt, and Daniel Bruhl. It is the third film in the Captain America trilogy and the 248th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the beginning of Phase Three. In this film, the US government has taken notice of the collateral damage caused by the Avengers during their hero work and has introduced the Sokovia Accords, agreed upon by over 100 sovereign nations in reaction to the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, aiming to have the Avengers sanctioned and operated by the United Nations Security Council to ensure that they only respond to threats they can control and diffuse without any collateral damage. Iron Man, having been guilt tripped by various families of victims of Sokovia which triggers his serious daddy issues, agrees with the government that the Avengers, himself included, have become too arrogant and need to be put in check in some way. Captain America, on the other hand, refuses to sign the accords, saying that the agreement would involve too much political red tape, would serve whatever corrupt agendas of the UN at the time, and would only pass the blame to someone other than the Avengers themselves instead of forcing them to take responsibility for their actions. This creates an ideological divide among the Avengers, who decide to then punch each other. Also, there's a guy who keeps wanting to get information about Bucky and Hydra. Also, Black Panther is angry. Also, Spider-Man.

So, I'll say right off the bat that the comparisons to Age of Ultron and Batman v. Superman were inevitable, so don't be surprised that I'll be the four hundredth person you hear bring them up while discussing this movie. In my opinion, this film far surpasses both, in that this movie has a lot of storytelling gears to turn and mostly does all of them justice (though it's worth noting that this is a Captain America film first and foremost, even though the cast essentially makes this Avengers 2.5). The premise of this film is significantly different than previous Marvel films, in that there's not much of a big bad villain out to destroy the whole universe (there is a big bad villain, but he's not a giant robot or a cave troll that shoots electricity, he's just a dude), but rather the action, tension, and drama all stems from the differing ideas of characters, and in general, while keeping with Marvel's signature brand of fun silliness, this movie goes a bit darker in its themes and storyline. That being said, this isn't as transgressive structurally or stylistically as, say, Guardians of the Galaxy, so if you're already sick of the formula or general "feel" of Marvel movies, this will probably be passable entertainment to you. But if you're like me and are pleasantly content with the Marvel formula (if a little weary of the consequences of the dawning of our new mouse overlords in the film industry), then this movie's pretty damn excellent.

Perhaps this film's best achievement is making a decent understandable case for both sides presented in the movie. While I went into the film being team Cap and came out being team Cap, there were some snippets during the beginning where I really felt for Iron Man's rationale. I've heard some critics and friends of mine say as a critique of this movie that the conflict was difficult to get invested in because one side was so clearly right, yet all of them sided with different characters in saying that, which to me proves that the film actually does make a compelling case for both characters, to the point that people on both sides can't seem to see how anyone sides with the other. Without getting into spoilers, I was also happy that the ending wasn't absolute. To put it in vague terms, things don't end definitively with everyone one way or the other. In the context of the MCU, this is sort of the dark middle chapter and/or the beginning of the finale, and it's a good kick-off for the last several movies in the series as we see everybody's stories basically start to wrap up.

I was also refreshed to see such a different finale than most Marvel movies for this one. While I do love The Winter Soldier and think it's almost as good or maybe better than this one, it did devolve into a now-cliched "fate of the world is at stake" effects-heavy action scene in its climax. While this one does sort of jarringly shift into a fun, silly fight on an abandoned tarmac (which, while inconsistent with the relative darkness of the rest of the film, is probably the best scene in the whole movie), the actual climax is much more scaled down, to the point that only three characters are involved. It's simply a confrontation that has built up and is for completely personal reason. There's no making up to fight some unrelated monster thing (cough cough, Batman v Superman, cough cough). Most if not all of the characters have well-written and fleshed out reasons for choosing the sides they do (unlike some recent superhero films where their reasons for fighting each other either don't make any sense or are just not explained at all - cough cough, Batman v Superman, cough cough), even including the admittedly under-written villain, who does serve a pretty huge purpose in the story in the end and whose motivation fits well with the movie's themes. I'm probably reading too much into a superhero movie, but I actually found a lot of subtle insight into pretty timely issues of relinquishing freedom for personal security (which it makes sense Captain America would side against), and it's all done pretty smartly. At least, as smartly as a superhero movie can do without being boring or detracting from the fun, but smart nonetheless. It's a big dumb action movie; you look for hints of brilliance.

The action is superbly directed for the most part, save for a few shaky moments in the film's opening action scene, and Civil War has an amazing stunt team on its hands. An impressive amount of the effects, fighting, and stunts were done in-camera, and I urge you to look up some YouTube videos of the filming of the movie, because it is pretty amazing what they accomplish with surprisingly few computer effects. Not to decry the computer effects, of course, which are also state-of-the-art, especially a scene toward the beginning involving a face-mapped younger version of Tony Stark that surprisingly never entered the uncanny valley and was pretty damn convincing the whole way through.

Along with their general tendency to hire talented directors and their near-scientific understanding of what elements of story and action are note-perfect for box office success and audience enjoyment, I think Marvel's greatest strength in these movies that is most evident here is their casting. The Russos have a cast of a dozen or so characters that all get at least one chance to be either funny or badass, and not only do they direct and edit these scenes so fluidly that it never feels nearly as overstuffed as Age of Ultron, but the actors do a wonderful job with the material. Pretty much everyone of the Avengers is fun to watch on-screen - even Vision gets a few laughs. Stark is decidedly dour in this film due to his grapplings with the past, so much of the charm and snark is left to the likes of Ant-Man and Wilson. The show-stoppers for me, though, were the newcomers - Black Panther (played in full badass fashion with an African accent to boot by Chadwick Boseman) and most notably Spider-Man, played by young newcomer Tom Holland. As well as being the youngest Spider-Man (who has fucking Marisa Tomei as Aunt May, which probably led to a few awkward nerd boners), Holland's Spider-Man is funny, charming, and probably my favorite cinematic depiction of Peter Parker thus far. I'm very confident for his standalone film next summer, as he stole most of the scenes he was in.

Now, remember, all of this cool shit is wrapped in the typical Marvel formula, so as I said, if you're already not sold on that, then this movie probably won't be more than a simplistic good time at the movies for you. But as a good time at the movies, and especially as a comic book movie, it's just about as perfect an adaptation you can get in terms of keeping the tone, fun, characters, and most of all, brand recognition. I've heard a lot of people complain that Marvel movies are hard to evaluate individually because the cinematic universe operates as a story on its own and they sort of force you to see the previous seemingly unrelated films in order to understand the story, and I guess that's a valid argument, but I've never really minded it. And judging by the fact that this movie is poised to gross twice as much money as its predecessor, I guess most moviegoers don't seem to give a shit either, most probably because at the end of the day Disney has box office draw and audience fulfillment down to such a fucking science that even non-superhero fans ends up seeing this shit just because there's some visceral entertainment value in most of these movies. It's a massive corporate ploy that tugs at your emotions for profit, but then again, what are movies if not that? I feel my soul is in good hands with Marvel if I've chosen to sell it to them now.

Overall, I'm not sure if Civil War will win many converts, but it's a very tightly written, well performed, well directed, and just overall very entertaining comic book movie with exciting action, well developed characters, some moderately ambitious storytelling with some thoughtful themes, and even some surprising little twists (although every movie buff I've ever talked to always sees popular movies and complains how he saw everything coming because film nerds are little-known descendants of God himself, but if I'm just a stupid idiot with no foresight, so be it). I don't want to seem like I'm blindly praising this movie with no gripes because it's by no means perfect but there's not much I find fault with it as a blockbuster. There's a notable injury late in the movie that I kind of wish had been a death just to add some more emotional weight to the story, and the musical scores of these Marvel movies are pleasant but very calculated and unnoticeable, but other than that, this movie does everything on some level of good to great. This may be a controversial rating, but my grade system is and will never be completely sacrosanct, so fuck it, I liked this movie.

Grade: A