The Russo Brothers return to direct the third installment in the Captain America franchise after delivering the fantastic Winter Soldier, while also acting as the thirteenth film in the now massive Marvel Cinematic Universe. For the most part Captain America: Civil War delivers an entertaining film that get’s somewhat bogged down for about the first half of the film. Luckily the last 45 – 60 minutes deliver some of the best action the series has ever offered.
Let’s just get what is so absolutely awesome about this movie out first. The airport sequence is by far the best action the series has ever put on screen and stands on its own as one of the best fight scenes ever. It did a great job at giving all its participants applaud worthy moments, while introducing the fan favorite Spiderman, played wonderfully by Tom Holland. His presence alone almost steals the whole movie. The other stand out during the fight and movie would be Paul Rudd’s Antman. He has a few excellent moments during the fight that will make even the hardest critic crack a smile. There is great stunt work and effects at work in this scene and I would recommend seeing Civil War just for this sequence alone. Luckily there is a bit more to appreciate than just that.
Robert Downey Jr. is once again a joy to watch as Tony Stark in a non Avengers role. I would say Civil War almost feels as much as an Iron Man flick as it does Captain America. While I loved to see the character here, it is one of the parts of the movie that might make it feel less focused. Fortunately towards the latter half of the film, he feels more in place than earlier on.
I also enjoyed the “bro triangle” involving Steve Rogers, Sam (Falcon), and Bucky (Winter Soldier. They have some genuinely funny moments with each other. More specifically Steve and Bucky have some intimate moments that add great weight to the story and is definitely a highlight of the plot.
Another thing that I really enjoyed was Chadwick Boseman’s introduction as T’Challa (Black Panther). His actual character is set up quite well and his motivations are laid out right in front of us during the movie. Although when he became Black Panther, it felt out of the blue. We didn’t get any back story on that side of the character. Was he already Black Panther? Did he just become him after a certain event? It’s not a huge deal, but even a line of dialogue could have cleared things up. Black Panther looked awesome and I can’t wait to see his movie. One detail I loved that many people might not catch is when Black Panther lands from a leap or jump, he make little noise, like a panther light on its feet.
Of course the biggest accomplishment of Civil War is Tom Holland’s Spiderman. They have a scene shortly before his superhero reveal setting up Peter Parker and Aunt May with Tony Stark. It did the job of build a relationship between the audience and the new versions of these characters that people should already be familiar with. The banter from Spiderman during his action scene is so hilarious and this feels like the definitive version of the webslinger.
Again, one of the things that makes this movie so enjoyable is the action scenes. They are extremely enjoyable. The Russo Brothers are very talented at creating intense and amazing fight scenes that are a joy to watch.
Now let’s talk about what I didn’t really find fascinating about Captain America: Civil War. While the new Spiderman was freaking awesome and probably the best part of the movie, he causes everything before his appearance to feel not important. I think Marvel did a disservice to themselves by even showing that he was in the film. I found myself feeling a bit bored with the film before he was introduced. All I could think about was where is Spiderman, show him already.
The main plot with the accords and the Avengers having to pick sides against or supporting them was decent enough. I only wish they would have made that the only major plot happening and tell an even more personal story between all these characters. But of course we needed an actual bad guy to put against our heroes and he is sadly another throw away villain.
The movie really spends a lot of time on this guy doing a bunch of bad guy stuff and it’s without much context, other than that he is somehow connected with Bucky Barnes. Speaking of Bucky, while I like his character, he again is not really himself in this film for some parts of it. It felt like an exact retread of what his character went through in Winter Soldier. These parts of the movie really pulled it down from being exciting and I couldn’t really care less about the character during the film. Even the filmmakers seemed like they didn’t know what to do with him considering how they tied is arc up at the end of the film.
Other minor complaints would be Vision and Scarlet Witch scenes. Seeing Vision trying to do human things was funny and awkward, in the same vein as Thor, but their little side romantic stuff seemed out of place and very unneeded. It did nothing for the movie or the characters. Also, where the heck to Hawkeye come from? He suddenly shows up for the fight and leaves immediately after. He was funny and cool, but there was no context for him even being there.
Another nitpick complaint I have would be the CGI. It’s mostly fine, but scenes involving Black Panther felt extremely fake. His character looked so rubbery and video game cutscene like. It was off putting, considering he was interacting with live action things. It just didn’t look that good. Spiderman sort of had the same effect, but I think his colors helped make him feel more practical. There were also uses of CGI during parts of the film that could have been practical, it almost seemed lazy. The biggest example would be an overhead street shot of a tank like SUV driving down a street hitting a couple cars along the way. It looked so bad.
I know I covered a lot of stuff that I found not done well, but thirteen movies in, I expect these films to start learning things from the past. I am completely stunned that they even put this bad guy in the film, he was so useless. I have seen a few YouTubers defending his character and I can’t help but feel like they are putting this movie on a pedestal. After Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy, I thought these Marvel films were going to start taking more chances. But with Age of Ultron, Antman, and now Civil War, I can’t help but feel Marvel is making variations of the same movie. Don’t get me wrong though, I have enjoyed all these movies. I know I’m coming off as not a fan, I truly do appreciate these movies. I wish Marvel would recognize that these films need to evolve a little more to stay relevant to the people they need to be entertaining, the ones that made Ironman such a success, the fans of the source material. D.C. might be having a tough time, but at least they are trying some different things.
