2016’s Captain
America: Civil War, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo.
Starring Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan,
Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony
Mackie, Don Cheadle, Chadwick Boseman, Daniel Brühl, Tom Holland, William Hurt,
Emily VanCamp, Paul Rudd, Frank Grillo, and Martin Freeman.
What is it about?
Taking place after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron
and Ant Man, we reunite with the Avengers team. On mission in Africa,
the group has to neutralize a villain, last seen in Captain America: the Winter Soldier. While
successful, the group accidentally incurs collateral damage on the population,
which brings up demands of government mandated direction over the super powered
team and its individual members. Lead by former General and Secretary of State Ross
(William Hurt, last seen in The Incredible Hulk), the pressure
to conform to the state’s demands splinters the team in half. With Tony Stark
(Robert Downey Jr) feeling guilt over his historically cavalier results, he
leads half of the Avengers, representing the pro government sanction side.
Eager to maintain their freedom to make choices for their own consciences,
Captain America (Chris Evans) rallies the remainder of the team to fight back for their rights.
With an ex-Hydra agent (Daniel Bruhl) unlocking the secrets to the Winter
Soldier (Sebastian Stan)’s mind via sabotage, will the Avengers
still exist when it is all said and done?
Why is it worth seeing?
Captain America: Civil
War is the 1st film of the Phase 3 stage of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
(MCU), which is parent company Disney’s declaration of war against non
blockbusters. Fresh off of their paranoia inspired, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, directors Anthony and Joe
Russo return to highlight more country hopping superheroes stanzas, where the
heroes grapple with their roles in an ever changing global mixture of
subterfuge and entropy. There’s a lot of ground to cover, and while things can
strain a little, it’s a lot of fun- and sad.
Essentially the third Avengers movie, we get to (re-meet) a
slew of characters- and, in the interest of MCU expansion, some new ones too. Even
with some members of the Avengers missing, there’s a LOT of characters to cover
here. Back stories are explored, new wrinkles introduced, and new characters
are introduced for future stand alone/team up films in the future. While the amount
of ground to cover is quite ambitious, it’s kind of ridiculous that it works at
all- being extremely re-watchable will do that for you.
One of the challenges with comic book films is the onus
required to have a captivating villain. It is very hard to make a galvanizing
film when the villain isn’t compelling by being relatable. Civil War removes this issue, and hedges its bets by having the
heroes battle each other. While there’s a traditional villain (Bruhl, coldly
efficient) to set the plan in motion, and the State Secretary Ross (Hurt)’s representation
of government(s) that are shadowy threats against freedom- the largest amount
of drama is between the 2 halves of the Avengers. It’s the right
move, and we get to watch disagreements be solved through good old fashioned
arc reactor super soldier serum powered fisticuffs.
As in The Winter Soldier, the Russo brothers craft a movie
that has plenty of espionage moments (there's a lot of globe hopping) and chase sequences, on top of the super
powered brawling. Their fight choreography is on par, as evidenced by the
thrill of the Airport scene. On top of the action chops, they also bring a refreshing
amount of humanity to a world that feels anything but. It’s for these reasons
that it’s no surprise that they will be directing the Avengers: Infinity Wars movies.
Civil War brings
about the beginning of the end for the project that has been building since at
least 2008- that of the dissolution of the Avengers. With all things coming to
an end, it’s difficult to not feel the depths of emotion from watching an
unprecedented experiment begin to unfurl. While we have not seen the last of
the Avengers, they remain divided, their spirits damaged, and forever changed.
Isn’t that the law of things? As the Vision character has said, “A thing is not
beautiful because it lasts”.
Although it is somewhat ungainly and overlong, Civil War is also filled
with a slew of colourful characters, crisp action, consistent tone, funny
moments, and the seeds of an end few will see coming (check those contracts
people). Civil War is constantly at
threat of drowning itself with expectations- it’s a small miracle that it works
at all. It cements the Captain America
franchise as the most stable and consistent of the stand alone films. Sounds
like Cap all right.
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