Captain America: Civil War
(AKA: Avengers 2.5)
My Grade: A+
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Marvel's complete and total undefeated streak continues. Seriously, this studio can do no wrong with it's theatrical outings. As mediocre or disappointing as Iron Man 2 and 3 were (esp. with 3's handling of The Mandarin) they were still good, entertaining, movies that were well cast, well acted and had good action scenes. They're, for me, only the "worst" of the MCU movies because something has to be at the bottom.
The Captain America sequels have done a great job of playing a role of a spy/espionage/government-ops thriller. They're both movies where you could remove the super-hero elements (and in the case here adapt it for a more mundane situation) and still be with with a good movie that'd be an intense thriller.
The Russo Brothers, it would seem, can do no wrong. What will it take to put them over in DC's movies?
So, it would seem this is the Summer (or movie season/year) of heroes fighting one another and the consequences of that. The other movie, of course, being
Batman v. Superman and, I'm sorry, comparing the two is hard to not do because they're both big-name comic book properties that came out within a month or so of one another and both have fairly similar stories and themes. So it's hard to not compare the two, so that's just what I'm going to do, hopefully, without spoiling either movie.
Civil War starts off with the new group of Avengers (Cap, Black Widow, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Vision, War Machine) trying to prevent a terrorist cell/sect from getting away with a virus in a medical facility that they intent to use as a biological weapon. This sequence mostly is the Bond-movie trope of having an action beat at the beginning to give the impression of these people "always working" but, ultimately, it has little to do with the actual story of the movie. It does tie into some "lose ends" from "Winter Soldier" and the conclusion of the mission has Scarlet Witch using her powers to deflect a grenade from blowing up Cap but she misjudges her powers/the explosion and the grenade goes into a residential building and explodes. killing civilians.
In the aftermath Tony Stark works with the Secretary of State and other government officials to try and mitigate the fallout form the event which is being used as the "final nail in the coffin" following all of the collateral damage caused by The Avengers throughout all of the movies. It seems up until now the Avengers have been operating as a private entity, making their own calls and decisions and are accountable to no one. While "Age of Ultron" implies/tells us that Tony uses Stark Industries to provide relief in areas impacted by The Avengers and a good chunk of the final battle in "Ultron" was The Avengers trying to evacuate the impacted Eastern European town, the international community wants control of The Avengers.
The solution is for The Avengers to operate under the control of an international, UN-like, organization. The Avengers would be told by this group on what missions to take and what missions to not take and would be held accountable to it should something happen. They either sign-on or hang-up their tights.
Captain America shows the most reluctance to doing this, seeing the potential for abuse in it or for them to be too controlled by this council, after wrestling with it he choose not to sign the agreement and is joined by Falcon and Scarlet Witch.
At the official signing/establishing of the accord the building is bombed killing the king of the African nation of Wakanada, ascending his son to the throne, it's found out that the "Winter Soldier" was responsible for the bombing and there's man hunt for him to bring him dead or alive. This is what ultimately pushes Cap off the edge and causes him to go rogue in order to save his old friend, and while he's able to save him another factor comes into play in the form of a man whose family was killed in Sakovia in "Ultron" and he gets his hands on a Hydra book filled with the code-words used to activate the psychological conditioning in Bucky, the man is able to fully set into motion the events that tears the Avengers apart and causes them to battle one another.
Those on Cap's side wanting to protect Bucky, knowing him to be innocent and the victim of the Hydra conditioning, Tony's side trying to stay "in business" and satisfy their now contractual obligation to do the work the governments of the world wants them to do.
Thrown into this mix Black Panther, the Wakandan prince (now king) taking on the role of a protector of his people in the form of a black suit made of a vibranium-laced material with vibranium claws. Ant-man is also eventually recruited as well as the most anticipated addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (that is the movies strictly controlled by Disney/Marvel Studios and not another studio): Spider-Man (recruited by Tony Stark.)
So let's compare this movie to Batman v. Superman.
In this movie a disastrous series of events prompts some to feel that the heroes of the world need to be controlled and held accountable for their actions and for when things go wrong. A big motivator for this is the collateral damage in the battles. A part of it is a personal issue with Tony Stark who has confrontation of a woman whose son was killed in Sakovia during "Ultron."
In BvS a large plot-point is Batman feeling Superman needs to be held accountable for the damage and deaths caused when fought Zod in Man of Steel.
So, both fairly similar. Heroes being judged on the damage they cause while saving the world.
But in the case of CW, the government acknowledges that The Avengers are owed a debt of gratitude from the entire world; so this is about keeping them active but also wanting to make sure there's someone to point to when damage is done and lives are lost. The SoS asks where Thor and Hulk are, pointing out that if he'd lost two nuclear weapons someone would certainly be on his ass about where they went.
In BvS, Batman just hates Superman because of the damage and deaths caused in Metropolis but doesn't ever seem to acknowledge that without Superman's actions there'd be no Metropolis or anyone. Batman is all about the revenge in the name of no real meaningful connection beyond one employee of his, of which he has 1000s of employees. In CW there's a connection that motivates Tony in the form of the picture of the woman's son killed during Ultron. We see how it impacts Tony in his mood and motivates him to do what he feels is right. Sure, plenty of people died and Tony should be aware of it, but there's more of a personal connection here after his encounter with the woman in the hallway.
The connection between Wayne and the employee, and the death of his employees, doesn't seem quite as strong. So, all of Wayne's anger comes from the destruction and deaths caused by Superman while
saving the world. Tony's motivations comes from a woman upset from the loss of her son, she may acknowledge the world was saved, but she still lost her son due to the actions of the Avengers and -though she wouldn't know this- it means that much more to Tony because it's his fault Ultron existed to even cause the problems.
So in BvS battle it seems flimsy. Batman's hate for Superman comes from Superman's actions but not tied to any real personal connection and without really acknowledging that had Superman done nothing the world would have ended. The Avengers split and battle for more tangible and understandable reasons, different positions on who should be in control of them and the protection of one man, Bucky.
More-over it's implied they don't want to fight, but the sort-of have to in order for their agendas to come to an end. The Avengers want to capture Bucky and hold him accountable for the deaths he's supposedly caused, Cap feels Bucky is innocent and is set-out to prove that.
Both battles are ultimately orchestrated by a third party, in the case of BvS the motivations of this third party make no sense whatsoever and aren't clearly laid out and actually seem to contradict. In Avengers the third party's motivations make complete and total sense as the story line plays out. His motivations actually have some real sense and heart to it and actually inspires one of our heroes to make a wiser decision than the plan he had.
The battle between the Avengers makes sense and is well established. There's reason and logic to it.
In BvS it's just "cause we wanna see Superman and Batman fight! Who cares if it makes sense?!"
One battle comes to an end because of a coincidental circumstance, the other battle comes to a soft conclusion but there's still ramifications that'll need to be dealt with in future movies.
Seeing Batman and Superman fight is a "fight" many want to see but it's also a fight that can only happen if you underpower or overpower one of the heroes by some means and it's a fight that can happen and make sense since the two do have different approaches to how their do their jobs. But the way it was done and, in particular ended, makes no sense. Here the lead-up to big fight is well established and it makes sense. Everyone's motivations seem to follow.
There's a big, long, set-piece battle between the two sides that's worth the price of admission alone. This is how to see heroes fight one another. It's done in the open in daylight with colors and the ability to see everything with great action beats, moments of humor and interactions between everyone. By this time Spider-Man is in the fold and makes his trademark quips while fighting the other side.
Speaking of Spider-Man, let's talk about him.
Great. Great. GREAT use of him. This feels like a great version of Spider-Man and it was fantastic to see him use his trademarked mouth during the action scene, and is even called on it by an opponent, and I look forward to his Marvel-handled solo movie. There's some argument to be made he's said to be a bit early in his Spider-career for everything that makes Spider-man, Spider-man to have happened or for those events to not be somehow being impacted by now being on Tony and The Avenger's radar as well as being backed by Tony as well (who gives Spider-man a new suit.)
But, I really look forward to seeing more of this version of Spider-Man and what they'll do with him and if they'll handle of some of the bigger Spider-Man stories in future movies. It's a bit odd -for me- that this Spider-Man lives with his aunt in an apartment, but I guess we'll see how it plays out.
Speaking of his aunt.... She's played my Marisa Tomei. Which is to say she's hot. Now, sure, Marisa Tomei is old enough to have a teenaged nephew and, for me, it's always seemed odd that Spider-Man's aunt and uncle were portrayed as being so old but, I dunno.... This seems odd, but the movie does make some fun use of it with Tony meeting her and making references to her good looks. I wonder if Tony's thinking of taking on a more meaningful role as a "father figure" for Peter?
The movie is fun. A lot of fun, there's also some good drama and story in it and really shows how it is possible to "have your cake and eat it to" with these movies. When people complained about how dark and humorless BvS was people are quick to say that making them to jokey and light-hearted is the problem the Batman movies ran into int he 1990s. But no one's saying you need to go camp. You just need to have some levity. Some humor. Some... something!
This movie has some heart in it with the talks between Vision and SW, character moments that make sense with Tony, and motivations and the touch of friendship that makes sense with Cap. It's also able to have some showcase battle scenes between the two sides while also having fun and making the scene visually appealing.
Marvel does it again. I could find flaws in this movie but I'd be really, really reaching and nitpicking and even then I'm not sure I'd find anything. OH! Bourne movie-like close-up/shaky-came action scene in the beginning of the movie! But the rest of the action scenes are well shot.
There. The Flaw. Shaky came action/chase scene in the first 15 minutes of the movie.
Otherwise, good movie and look forward to going to see it again.
FWIW: I saw the movie in IMAX 3D which looked good but, I dunno. I think a standard showing would work just as well.
