Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Directors: Anthony & Joe Russo
Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson,
Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman,
Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Tom Holland, Marisa Tomei, Daniel
Bruhl
I finally got to watch Captain America: Civil War, one of
the most anticipated films of the year and it was quite noticeable that
audiences were salivating to see this one, how much? Well, my plan was to see
this one on an early screening, during the morning, on a weekday, you know to
avoid the crowd. I got there early but to my surprise the first show was sold
out! I started to realize that maybe I had underestimated this movie, so I decided
I’d better buy tickets for the next show. The thing is this was a weekday, a school
day and yet, there was a huge line to buy tickets and it was mostly kids on the
line. Kids who were supposed to be in school I might add! My take on it was
that Captain America: Civil War was way more important on their list than the
math test they had that day. So yeah, looks like everyone and their mother
wanted to see this one, which says a lot about the kind of money this movie is
going to make once everything is said and done. On this screening of the film people
were audibly excited, clapping when Black Panther and Spider Man first
appeared, and yelling stuff like “no that movie didn’t just finish there!” Don’t
know about you guys but I love watching a movie with a giddy audience. But,
excitement aside how was this third Captain America movie?
Well, this time around, same as in a lot of recent comic
book movies, the heroes are seen as the villains because they’ve caused so much
death and destruction while ‘saving the world’. The government wants to bring
in Captain America and his team of sympathizers in order to keep them under
control and used whenever they see fit. But Captain America will have none of
that. On the other hand, we have Iron Man, who sympathizes with the government
and thinks they are right, heroes are out of control and need to be kept in
check. Who’s right and who’s wrong? Of course this all leads up to the big
battle, which is just as cool as you’d expect it to be.
This story line was recently played out in Batman vs.Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), a film in which the world starts seeing
Superman as more of a threat than a savior. And same as in that one, the
government wants to exert some sort of control over the super powered
individuals. This similarity in plot lines and themes doesn’t surprise me
because Hollywood has always fed on each other when ever a new idea pops up.
When a new idea is hot, the 'modus operandi' is each studio will put out their
own version of it, at the end of the day, what matters is how well they played
out their version of the idea. Superman vs. Batman had flaws but I managed to
enjoy it. You do get the feeling they could’ve gone further with the whole
government trying to control superman thing. Instead, that film focused more on
Superman fighting Doomsday and left the whole government after Superman story
floating in the air. In retrospect, it does seem like Batman vs. Superman:Dawn of Justice (2016) should have stuck to one story line, maybe it might have had the cohesiveness that this film has, you see Captain America: Civil War stays with its proposed plot line and plays it
out well, without introducing a new sub plot every five minutes.
An example of this cohesiveness is the fact that they didn’t
really go into the whole Infinity Gems/Thanos plot line that will be played out
in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War films. They’ve been leaving little hints
in other movies, and could have easily added something about that film on this one. Instead, there’s not much about the upcoming Infinity Gauntlet story line except for The Vision
talking a bit about the yellow Infinity Gem that’s on his forehead. Other than
that, this film is solely about Team Captain America, the group of heroes who want to be in
control of their actions and Team Iron Man, the heroes who think it’s best to
be a government lap dog. Who will win? Freedom or subjugation? Will superheroes
be subdued?
The thing about this Captain America movie is that, it feels
more like an Avengers film than a Captain America movie, I mean, look at the
credits! This is one gigantic cast! Everyone gets their time on screen, but
like I said, there's so many characters on this movie that we sort of lose focus on the main guy, Captain America. That’s really the only
flaw I could find on this otherwise perfect comic book film. The action
sequences are spectacular, loved that chase down the highway, where the heroes
are running faster than the cars themselves, that was a novel approach to a
chase sequence. The entire airport fight sequence was like, wow, gigantic in
nature and had some unexpected twists and turns. Then of course we get the
Black Panther and Spiderman intros, both of which got claps from the audience
of mega geeks I saw the film with. I must say, Black Panther was so well
introduced, it definitely feels like he could get his own movie, same with
Spiderman, who’s portrayal was one of the moments that everyone was expecting
the most here. I gotta say I loved this new Spiderman. He comes off as an inexperienced
kid learning to be a hero. He doesn’t look like an adult trying to play a
teenager, he is a teenager, he talks like a teenager and that’s how it should
be. Loved the father son relationship that’s building up between Iron Man and
Spidey, that was extremely cool. Another surprise is just how much Spidey is on
this movie. I thought he’d do more of a cameo appearance, but he really is a
part of the film. Actually it feels like his first try out at being an Avenger!
I’m really curious to see what Marvel will
do with Spiderman: Homecoming (2017), the upcoming Spiderman film from Marvel.
All in all, Captain America: Civil War is a film jam-packed with goodness, and
all delivered in a coherent and thoroughly entertaining way. By the way, this
movie has two extra endings, so stay all the way to the end of the credits to
see both. Marvel/Disney has got comic book movies down flat, it seems like they
get better with each passing film.
Rating: 5 out of 5