Captain America: Civil War

photo courtesy of forbes.com

     Captain America: Civil War is many things: the third installment in the Captain America trilogy, the thirteenth installment in the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the first installment in Marvel’s Phase Three. It’s an ambitious (even impossible) undertaking: it attempts to give a satisfying conclusion to Captain America’s story-thread, adapt the popular Marvel Civil War comic book event series, and introduce some of the new players who will be involved in these movies down the line. Despite that tall order, Captain America: Civil War delivers on almost every level.

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

     Captain America: Civil War follows the journey of Captain America/Steve Rogers (played by Chris Evans) as he leads the superhero-team the Avengers a year after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. In the course of their high-flying escapades, the Avengers have caught the notice of the public for the destruction they frequently cause in the name of “saving the world.” The UN, therefore, presents the Sokovia Accords, an agreement which would make agreeable superheroes the agents of a pre-ordained committee and make fugitives of the rest.

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     Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), guilty after causing the events of Age of Ultron, leads the team who signs up for regulation. Captain America is torn between the decision of many of his friends and what he believes to be right (freedom for the Avengers to choose their missions independently). As lines are drawn between the members of the Avengers, Captain America finds himself fighting some of his closest allies. Mixed up in the chaos is Cap’s long-time friend and ex-brainwashed-Hydra-agent Bucky Barnes/the Winter Solider (Sebastian Stan), who’s on the run, still semi-brainwashed, and confused.

     Directed by Captain America: The Winter Soldier team Joe and Anthony Russo (who, interestingly, will also be directing the two-part Avengers: Infinity War in 2018 and 2019), Civil War is an incredibly satisfying venture. It features the usual Marvel combination of impressive action and CGI, acting talent (with an officially HUGE cast of heroes), and humor. It also has some really exciting surprises. But Civil War is also more than all these pieces combined: it transcends the flashy, crowd-service, action splendor—though it does have all that—to tell a much more mature, emotionally honest story. In the age of eighteen billion superhero movies a year, it’s a refreshing twist on the formula that subverts expectations and conventions—more than once.

photo courtesy of theguardian.com

     It’s the Avengers sequel we wanted and didn’t quiiiite get with Age of Ultron. If The Avengers was Marvel’s A New Hope, this is Marvel’s Empire Strikes Back. It matches the friendliness, excitement, and heart of its predecessors while presenting the characters with a new, more serious, challenge. Most importantly, it makes its heroes truly vulnerable.

     Contrary to the sentiments of lead executives of both comic book movie franchises, this film from Marvel serves as direct challenge to DC’s Batman V Superman. DC Comics may finally have its day of victory, but this is not it. Civil War is a decisive and humiliating defeat of Marvel’s major competitor. Say what you will about different tones or Universe-building approaches—Marvel has issued a resounding triumph that succeeds in just about every place that Batman V Superman failed. More on that later.

     Captain America: Civil War is a must-see for any Marvel fan or anyone who follows the Marvel Universe, however casually. It’s a game-changer that will have major repercussions going forward. It’s also a good flick for someone just looking to walk into an entertaining action movie. In terms of violence, it definitely matches the usual Marvel fare, with some things that are perhaps a touch darker than usual (more on par with Winter Soldier than Guardians of the Galaxy). It’s generally safe to take your kids to see, as long as they know what they’re going to be walking into.

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     An important note: Civil War introduces Spider-man/Peter Parker (Tom Holland) to the Marvel Universe. This is thanks to an unprecedented deal between Marvel and Sony (who owns film rights to the character) allowing them to essentially share the character within the pre-established Marvel canon. The new Spider-man is a fun addition to the action, and major praise is due to Tom Holland, who performs excellently as Parker. It’s also fun to see Marvel’s most-beloved character hanging out with the rest of the ensemble.

#teamcap
photo courtesy of theguardian.com

#teamironman (minus Spider-man)
photo courtesy of screenrant.com

     The rest of the cast is, as usual, excellent. Chadwick Boseman, a terrific young actor, brings the new Black Panther/King T’Challa of Wakanda to life wonderfully, and will star in a solo movie based on the character in 2018. Marisa Tomei stars as the new Aunt May, and Daniel Brühl is the film’s (sort of) villain, Helmut Zemo. Scarlett Johansson returns as Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff, Jeremy Renner is Hawkeye/Clint Barton, Don Cheadle is War Machine/James Rhodes, Paul Bettany is Vision, Anthony Mackie is Falcon/Sam Wilson, Elizabeth Olsen is Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, Paul Rudd is Ant-Man/Scott Lang, and Emily VanCamp as Agent 13/Sharon Carter. –gasps for breath-

     The movie is, however, not without flaws. The main one seems to be that the movie takes about an hour and a half to get going. Once it does, it provides non-stop thrills, but you can’t help but feel that things are going a little too slowly and ponderously up to that point. It’s not unjustified (we’d rather have realistic conflict build-up than unwarranted conflict) but the effect is a bit of a drag on the first half of the movie. And seeing as it’s 2 and a half hours long… it feels long.

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     Also, it should be noted that although, yes, it is a Captain America movie with a lot of Avengers and not technically an actual Avengers installment… it basically is. The first third of the movie is most definitely Captain America 3, but beyond that it’s equal parts Iron Man 4 (not a derogatory comment, because Downey Jr. offers many if not most of the movie’s most compelling moments). And in the end, it ends up being more about the Avengers as a team that Cap himself, so you could definitely make a strong argument that Civil War is really Avengers 3.

SPOILERY DELICIOUSNESS

     This movie really just goes for it at every opportunity. Some spoiler-filled moments that deserve mention are:

-the introduction and origin of Black Panther, complete with the murder of his father King T’Chaka and the on-screen debut of his nation, Wakanda.

-the fall of War Machine and his resultant paralysis. Crazy.

photo courtesy of io9.gizmodo.com

-Spider-man. Cuz, Spider-man. Teenage drama and awesome action all in one package.

-Ant-man going giant. Unexpected, beautiful, and humorous. Wonderfully executed.

photo courtesy of io9.gizmodo.com

-Pretty much any hero-on-hero fight matchup: of particular mention, Ant-Man v Black Widow, Spider-Man v Cap, Scarlet Witch v Vision, and of course, Iron Man v Cap (both times).

photo courtesy of geektyrant.com

-Iron Man’s revelation that Bucky was the one to kill his parents. Just a beautifully crafted, well-acted, and completely unexpected turn to the story that completely justifies and deepens the conflict between its main characters. Marvel’s “I know it was you, Fredo.”

     That brings me to a comparison with Batman V Superman, promised above. Both are serious, both have to do with hero-v-hero fights. But where Batman is ponderous and dark, Captain is at times humorous, at times somber. There’s an overarching comradery and familiarity that endears the characters to the audiences and makes the stakes all the higher. Where the former integrates the elements of the shared universe poorly and shamelessly, the latter does so seamlessly, with real story motivations. There aren’t five movies in Civil War; there are lots of pieces united around a central focus. The characters don’t forget their whole motivation because their moms have the same name (still not over how ridiculous that was), but they do become blinded by rage when they find out their histories and parents are intertwined in sinister ways.

     So where does Captain America: Civil War leave the Marvel Universe? Certainly, some properties are relatively unaffected (Thor, Hulk, and the Guardians could probably all care less). But everyone else (including any new-comers) now stands on one side of the line or the other. That is, they’re going to sign up for the Avengers officially, or they’re going to operate outside the law. Most people, it seems, will be in the latter category. Iron Man, Vision, injured War Machine, and presumably Spider-Man are around, but the rest are hanging around with Cap and company.

photo courtesy of crisisoninfinitethoughts.com

     The Avengers team stands divided, but with the potential to reunite as needed (if, say, Thanos were to come to collect his Infinity Stones). In the meantime, all the heroes will have to operate within that reality. The Avengers, like SHIELD before them, have fallen. When Black Panther and Spider-Man get their own solo movies, however, it seems likely that they won’t be facing things alone. Marvel seems to be trying to squeeze more than one hero into most Phase Three movies (to increase their marketability and avoid the Phase Two questions like “where is Iron Man while all this is happening?”). Thor’s teaming up with Hulk for Thor: Ragnarok next year and Iron Man will be in Spider-Man: Homecoming as well, so it seems likely that the other movies going forward will feature more than one hero.

     Cap, interestingly enough, didn’t die at the end of all this like he does in the comic book counterpart. He does, though, seem to make a statement by leaving his shield behind and by not wearing his uniform to rescue everybody at the Raft prison. That, more than anything, makes the argument that the movie is truly a Captain America sequel from start-to-finish: Captain is forced to make a choice about his identity going forward. It’s a powerful character moment, but how much impact it’ll have on future movies remains to be seen (remember how Iron Man 3 ended).

     As long as the creative minds like Kevin Feige, the Russo brothers, and James Gunn are on board to steer Marvel into critical and financial success, good things are probably still to come. 

photo courtesy of superherohype.com