Spoilers Captain America: Civil War - Grading & Discussion

[Commander Richard]

Political asylum.

 

[JD]

This is definitely one of my favorite Marvel movies yet.
They did a great job of building up the conflict leading up to the big airport fight. The fact that we've spent so much time with most of these characters, and care about them definitely helped to give it a big impact. I liked BvS overall, but I think by basing a movie around this kind of conflict so early in that series was a mistake. For this kind of a conflict to really have a big impact we really need to already be attatched to the characters, and care about them and their relationships. This definitely helped to raise Civil War quite a bit above it. I think they also handled the conflict better overall.
They did a great job of giving all of the characters enough attention. One of my biggest hesitations with this one was the fact that it had so many characters, but they proved they could handle it.
Black Panther was awesome. I didn't expect him to play such pivotal role in the story. They managed to work him into the story in a way that worked, and were able to let us get a really good feel for the character. He also got some great fights and action moments. I'm really looking forward to his solo movie, especially after the set up in mid-credits scene.
Spider-Man was another highlight. They did a great job with the character. I wasn't bothered by his recruitment scene, and he got some great lines and action moments in the airport fight. I can't wait to see Homecoming now.
Like The Winter Soldier this movie had some awesome action sequences, with the airport fight being one of my favorite action scenes in the Marvel movies, possibly even movies in general.
Zemo was a great villain. They managed to have him manipulating things in way that made sense, and gave him an easily understood motivation.
I have to admit, the big reveal that Bucky killed Tony's parents was a surprise for me. I knew they were killed by Hydra, but it never crossed my mind that Bucky would be the one to do it.
It will be interesting to see what things are going to be like for the Avengers in the movies formerly known as Infinity War.
This gets an A+ from me.

 

[Reverend]

Did anyone else notice that in the briefing Ross gave at the start of the film, the map indicated several more locations that he didn't get around to illustrating before Cap had him stop? From memory I'm pretty sure I saw one on the US west coast, which I'm assuming is the events of Ant-Man. There was another in South America which is probably the first half of 'The Incredible Hulk'. One on the coast of the Black Sea (I'm guessing Sokovia) and one in West Africa (probably Lagos?) But there are also one in Australia, two in China and I think one was in Egypt.

What struck me as odd is that I'm not sure what those other dots represent and there are others that you'd think should be there (like the Thor's activities in New Mexico & London) but weren't. Neither was the incident with the Hulk In Cape Town,

Anyone have a clue what those mystery dots might be? One of the Chinese ones could be Dr Strange related I suppose, or possibly Iron Fist. There was an indication on AoS that the Australians had an Inhuman in custody, so that might be related.

 

[STEPhon IT]

It was awesome, everything BvS wasn't, and it was worth every penny I paid to see this movie. Going to see this movie again tonight.

 

[Velocity]

Stark calling Spiderman "Underoos" made me spit Coke Zero on the seat in front of me.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

This is another Russo Brothers movie that does not disappoint in the slightest. I was trying to knock off something, but I can't. Even the villain aspect is something I was fine with. He served his role and he served it effectively (with a clear motivation). Just as importantly, he wasn't a distraction from the reason we were watching the movie. He is what Lex Luthor should have been.

But everything else was great. The tension and fighting between the sides was brutal. The take on viewpoints was reasonably balanced with Stark's ego and Steve's stubbornness clouding their takes, which otherwise had reasonable points (obviously, the evidence actually supported Steve's side, while the politics were more mixed). Every character had a good role - I liked Scarlet Witch's underrated role, Ant-Man was quite good. Even Barton was fun in a limited part. And let's not forget the new additions. Spider-Man was what he should have been and, as for Black Panther, they fucking nailed it. Thinking about him still brings a smile to my face. Finally, I like that this still felt like a Captain America movie no matter what.

 

[Snick27]

Wow, just Wow. This movie was everything that BvS wasnt. God i hated BvS with a passion and its great to see a comic book movie done correctly.

Also this movie was sooo much better than Age of Ultron. Its like the writers realized where they screwed up and fixed those mistakes.
1 mistake that really bothered me about Ultron was it felt like know one died or was really hurt. Felt like everyone was saved . But this movie, right off the bat, people got killed, was darker and more serious. I really loved that.
Plus everyone was more fleshed out this time with Falcon, Rhodes, Wanda, an Vision not feeling like the B team.
Up till this movie, i could of cared less about Ant Man, Spiderman, and Black Panther. Now i actually want to watch Ant man and will go see Spiderman and Black Panther movies.
Humor was great, action was great and the ending i did not see coming. Unlike BvS these hero's fought through most of the movie and ended with Stark all broken and hating Captain America and Bucky, and honestly i cant blame Stark either. To watch your parents get killed and having Bucky right next to him, he acted like most of us would of and hearing that Cap knew this and was still protecting his buddy , yeah his anger was justified and made sense to me.

The few things i didnt like where the movie didnt feel long enough, Which is funny cause it was like what 2.5 hrs long i believe. About as long as BvS which felt forever.
Zemo, i get this story and made sense. But man i would of loved to of seen our hero's fight those 5 Winter Solders or just that one bad ass dude that was kicking Buckys ass. And after that battle have Cap,Bucky vs Stark. But im sure that might be over kill.
Just kinda of missing that big bad but we all know thats coming soon.
Another thing that bothers me about Marvel and this movie, how in hell can they keep acting like Agents of Shield is not happening? All of those Inhumans out there causing trouble, Ward being Hive and trying to turn everyone into Inhumans, and Ward being almost unbeatable. How can that all be ignored? To me that is a bigger issue than this Sokovia Accords, yet its like Avengers and Agents of Shield are in two separate universes. Hell just a throw away line bout the Inhuman problem as being one of the reasons for the Sokovia Accords as the public is going nuts and scared.

Oh and Hail Hydra!

 

[Campe]

Good. Not great. While it surprisingly balanced out, I think the film started rough with too many characters. It felt very bloated. But once Peter came into play? Much better. And I have to admit, while I love the character motivations and the idealogical conflict, I felt like some of the fight scenes were a little too much.

I feel like in general, and CW was no different, that the action set pieces are just designed to be: how can we outdo ourselves? This is starting to reach a breaking point for me. From that perspective, I'm just starting to see some cracks. It's okay to take this in a completely new direction and I'm hopeful as we go into Doctor Strange and beyond, we'll start getting that.

But for now I'm a little nervous.

Still, it was a very good movie. Solid B.

 

[Set Harth]

Stark calling Spiderman "Underoos" made me spit Coke Zero on the seat in front of me.

I take it you didn't see the final trailer, which had already spoiled that?

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I just rewatched the trailer and noticed two lines aren't featured in the film (both from Tony):

"I was wrong about you. The whole world was wrong about you."

"You just started a war!"

Also, his "Sometimes I want to punch you in your perfect teeth" is a different take from a different angle.

I thought the "So was I" line was a different take too. The feeling wasn't so much remorse as "good riddance," it seemed (although maybe it was more context than line delivery).

Another boohoo my family died under a building so all good people in the world must die villain, who causes even more pain and harm *sigh*

I thought we'd see Hydra crushed in AoS only to have five new superhuman Hydra warriors....and they just die without waking up. That was a complete waste of storyline altogether and a complete waste.

But he didn't want the world to die, he wanted the Avengers to die. That's why the Winter Soldiers were killed off. He didn't care about building an army, he wanted to avoid having more Buckys and Caps.

On a related note, I didn't realize that John Slattery was going to be appearing as Howard. Who else was hoping for a cameo from James D'arcy as Edwin Jarvis in the flashback?

I'll admit I did, but I figured that was unlikely. Good on Slattery coming back (and they did seem to keep it under wraps. I knew hayley Atwell was back, but not Slattery).

I thought it seemed like he was admitting to Tony that he knew it was Bucky.

Having watched the relevant scene in TWS again, it actually isn't clear that it was supposed to be Bucky specifically. Maybe this was supposed to be inferred?

It wasn't explicitly stated that it was Bucky in TWS. I actually didn't realize it was, but others figured it probably was. I think that's the same with Cap. He tried to deny knowing specifically that it was Bucky since he was only specifically told it was Hydra. However, he had to admit that he at least suspected it probably was Bucky.

 

[Gryffindorian]

Better than Avengers: Age of Ultron and about as good CA: The Winter Soldier, I give it an A. There was no shortage of action in this movie, balanced with the right amount of humor and drama. The storytelling was fast-paced and solid with great performances from the major players as well as the supporting cast.

The ending could've been better, imho, seeing as the team remains not only fractured but also divided. As long as Captain America remains loyal to his friend Bucky, who murdered Stark's parents decades ago as the brainwashed Winter Soldier, there can be no forgiveness from Tony. And as the post- credit scene revealed, this schism could be a factor in the next movie featuring the Black Panther.

A few nitpicks: I don't know if I'm sold on Tom Holland as Spider-Man. He's the youngest actor to play Peter Parker in all the Marvel films featuring the hero. And he just appears too young and naive to play a super crime fighter. I realize this is a rebooted version of the web-slinger, but there's nothing particularly special about his character. In fact, he's so obscure that only Tony Stark knew about his secret abilities.

Also, I was surprised Black Widow got away with helping Captain and the others escape from the hangar. She could've been locked up with Rogers' team.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I liked how they incorporated Cap's classic "No, you move" speech from the comics. Even if it didn't come from Cap, I liked it as Peggy's final advice to Steve (By way of Sharon, of course). I think it motivated Steve's resolve in this movie as much as Peggy's line about "Sometimes the best you can do is to start over" did in TWS for his resolve to wipe the table clean of both SHIELD and Hydra.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Perhaps the best thing to do here is NOT compare CW with BvS. I know that it's easy to do, since that's what a lot of people were curious about, but there's 99% certainty that that's gonna turn into a huge bitchfest. So perhaps we should just discus CW by itself?

Please, indeed let's do just this. As well, I'm a supporter of BvS, and could care less about what the haters (who are pining away for Superman Returns-a movie that they should have been defending against the people that hated it) think of it.

 

[Mage]

Please, indeed let's do just this. As well, I'm a supporter of BvS, and could care less about what the haters (who are pining away for Superman Returns-a movie that they should have been defending against the people that hated it) think of it.

That's a good view to have. But if we start a discussion like that in a topic specifically for CW, within 10 posts it's gonna be pages of shouting and anger. Discussions like that take over very fast. If people wanted to discus BvS versus CW, then perhaps start a seperate topic. And leave this topic purely for discussing Civil War.

 

[Gaith]

The best Superman movie ever made to date - including the Christopher Reeve ones - and I'm honestly not joking even a little bit here - is Thor: The Dark World.

"Mwa ha ha ha!" FWOOSH! *vanishes in a puff of cinammon-smelling smoke*

 

[Star Wolf]

My favorite visual gag. Giant-Man stomping around in slow motion like Godzilla with War Machine's weapons having the same effect as the Japanese Self Defense Forces had. And our middle aged warriors annoyance at having the kid talk about that old movie Empire

. Also wondering how this new status quo will affect the Ant-Man sequel, as Scott is now a fugitive (poor move by Ross to imprison two men with families in a secret, unvisitable prison...).

I will head canon that he will have Hank Pym as a patron, there were no trials just throwing folks into an underground prison which might be okay for many in the UN but not Lang's nation and technically he is not "enhanced" he just has access to technology. Hawkeye is the spy and presumably had his Borne retirement hide plans in place. Captain America now has Wakanda and I supposed Falcon can follow him. I guess other nations would follow suit there is public relations about exposing the mercenary vigilantes but they will have their own Secret Warriors.

I am less concerned about Lang then I am how does Peter Parker remain secret? You can't have a superstar Parker in high school and have his movie work, or can you?

Saw it again today and enjoyed it even more the second time around. The transition issues I had before (London to Vienna, the insertion of Spidey) don't bother me quite as much but they still stand out. The editing could've been a bit better around those points. Spidey doesn't stand out as badly considering Tony and Natasha's conversation about their team being a bit light, but it does feel odd that Tony would spend two thirds of his limited time allotted to him by Ross to go seek out Peter, convince him to join up and create a new costume for him. Not a big problem, but still odd.


I missed this the first time around, but it's because the CIA-operated Joint Counter Terrorism Center is located in Berlin (the same organization that Sharon now works for post-SHIELD). Doesn't quite explain why the German police were in Hungary, but it explains how Zemo knew where things would go down.

I think they should have pushed the Stark recruits Peter up earlier in the movie when he was at MIT.

It was not just German police but GSG-9 technically police and not soldiers like the SAS or Delta Force and they have had a history of providing mutual aid to other nations without an as experienced special ops force

Cap: "I can do this all day", great call back to the first film.

That last fight was gruelling, whilst the airport battle had plenty of more light-hearted moments. I'm excited about this new incarnation of Spidey. He's clearly strong but inexperienced as a hero. Also plenty of the quipping.

I am really upset at the promo monkey here I was locked and loaded for that line along withthe Spider-Man Winter Soldier head to head moments released on TV the last few days when I was already on an internet blackout to avoid losing the suprise.

Just kinda of missing that big bad but we all know thats coming soon.
Another thing that bothers me about Marvel and this movie, how in hell can they keep acting like Agents of Shield is not happening? All of those Inhumans out there causing trouble, Ward being Hive and trying to turn everyone into Inhumans, and Ward being almost unbeatable. How can that all be ignored? To me that is a bigger issue than this Sokovia Accords, yet its like Avengers and Agents of Shield are in two separate universes. Hell just a throw away line bout the Inhuman problem as being one of the reasons for the Sokovia Accords as the public is going nuts and scared.

Oh and Hail Hydra!

There was a line about the enhanced to continue use Agents of SHIELD terminology had been expanding exponetially since Stark escaped from Afganistan

 

[Set Harth]

There was a line about the enhanced to continue use Agents of SHIELD terminology

Of course, that terminology was also used in AoU.

I knew hayley Atwell was back, but not Slattery).

Wait, Hayley Atwell was in the film? I only remember seeing her photo at one point. Sure, they had her character's funeral, but they didn't actually make her get in the casket, did they?

It wasn't explicitly stated that it was Bucky in TWS. I actually didn't realize it was, but others figured it probably was. I think that's the same with Cap. He tried to deny knowing specifically that it was Bucky since he was only specifically told it was Hydra. However, he had to admit that he at least suspected it probably was Bucky.

I've seen it suggested that Steve, as of CW, knew it was Bucky not because of Zola's little presentation but because it was covered in the files that Widow gave him at the end of TWS. ( Which would mean that Widow was also keeping the info secret from Tony, for whatever that's worth. )

 

[Alidar Jarok]

A few nitpicks: I don't know if I'm sold on Tom Holland as Spider-Man. He's the youngest actor to play Peter Parker in all the Marvel films featuring the hero. And he just appears too young and naive to play a super crime fighter. I realize this is a rebooted version of the web-slinger, but there's nothing particularly special about his character. In fact, he's so obscure that only Tony Stark knew about his secret abilities.

That's precisely the point. What's special is he is young and doesn't know how to be a super crime fighter. But he's a smart kid with amazing abilities and he has to try. And he has to balance this with real kid problems.

Wait, Hayley Atwell was in the film? I only remember seeing her photo at one point. Sure, they had her character's funeral, but they didn't actually make her get in the casket, did they?

I suppose you're technically correct. I suppose I should say that I knew her funeral was in this movie.

 

[Tosk]

And he just appears too young and naive to play a super crime fighter.

Comics Peter started out as Spider-Man at age 15.

 

[JD]

I realized earlier that this movie actually ended with a similar set up as the comics, with one government sanctioned team of Avengers and a second underground team. I was also a little disappointed we didn't get any kind of hints or set up for Dr. Strange.