We’ve officially moved into Phase Three of Marvel’s meticulous 11-year plan and this is truly the beginning of the end, as the signs to usher in a new era after 2019 get put into place. Buckle in, because there’s far too much to cover with no spoilers to be given!
Captain America: Civil War sort of picks up where we last left our heroes in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” with a new assemblage of Avengers being trained by Cap (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson). We join the team in Nigeria trailing a familiar face with things not quite going according to plan. Bad things happen, which tie-in nicely with why the heroes become split during the film. The events in Nigeria become the last straw for the United Nations, who decide the Avengers need to be put in check with the a bill called the Zokovia Accords. Either the Avengers accept a new governing body, waiving their right as a team to decide when to act on a situation, or they stop operating in Super-heroic activity thingies effective immediately. If they don’t comply, they will become fugitives. And as suggested in the trailer some are on board, some are not.
Let’s talk about the team behind this wild “Captain America” success. Directors the Russo Brothers (Joe and Anthony) and Screenwriters Stephen McFeely & Christopher Markus. This is the team that brought us “Captain America: The Winter Solider” (McFeely & Markus also wrote “Captain America: The First Avenger”, so this is really their trilogy), and now “Civil War”. Together they will bring us “Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 & Part 2”. This is a team that just works. The “Captain America Trilogy” has been a huge success and it’s fair to say that the “Infinity Wars” are in very capable hands. What I like about the Russos is they just tend to get on with it. They don’t partake in gimmicks. There’s no awkward visual style. They don’t let their own personal egos affect the film in any way. They know what they want to do and they execute it impeccably. If you had to mention any criticism of their film-making game right now, it’s that they tend to include slightly dodgy CGI action sequences. It was was evident in “The Winter Solider”, and it’s still apparen in “Civil War”. It’s clunky, but it’s so minimal that it barely affects your viewing experience, and as the film settles in, it seems to tighten up. The film itself doesn’t feel like it’s nearly three hours either. The pacing flows nicely, the characters bounce off each other and as with all Mavel films the dialogue is snappy, yet hilarious at times. There are serious moments (especially in this film) and the comedy comes flooding out seamlessly. You’re rarely bored, and even with the ass-kicking fight scenes you’re laughing just as much as being on the edge of your seat.
Which leads us on to the characters. This is going to be very much a case of you cannot decide who your favourite character is in the film. “Civil War” is a game of strength in numbers. It could have easily gone the other way, but the recipe works and it brings back that ‘Holy Crap’ feeling we had when we watched the first “Avengers” film. It felt like“Age of Ultron” took away some of the magic, but “Civil War” has made it feel special again. It probably helps that a few new awesome faces have been included. Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther has the potential to be a really big player in the Mavel Cinematic Universe. He’s looks cool, he has that ‘Captain America’ nobility about him and you get the sense that he’s a leader-in-waiting rather than a background character. Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) was a big question mark in the equation when he was first announced to have a solo film. Would audiences take him seriously? Would a stand-alone film work? Yes and yes turned out to be the answers, and if Rudd’s outing in “Civil War” is anything to go by then he’ll have no problem going toe-to-toe with the big boys in the MCU in future films. He more than holds his own and unsurprisingly has some of the best moments in the film. And when he is outshone, it comes in the form of your friendly neighbourhood Spider-man. The young Tom Holland (making his debut here) could have easily been out of his depth trying to establish the popular character in a world of already much loved actors/characters, but what an impact he makes. This Spider-man feels like the one that audiences have been longing for. In the little screen time he gets, it feels like this is a better incarnation of Spider-man than what Sony were ever able to deliver over the course of 5 dedicated films (not that they were bad). Roll on 2017, Spider-man: Homecoming. With more time dedicated to him, we learn a lot more about The Winter Solider (Sebastian Stan) character and the dynamic between him and Cap grows, as does the relationship with Falcon/Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), which is generally quite a tense but funny one. Everyone else of course is completely on form. Black Widow has predictably some of the best one-on-one fighting scenes in the film, but if I go into detail about why every single character is superb then we’ll be here for days. On a quick note, I personally found Zemo (Daniel Brühl) to be a nice change of pace. And while his subtly might not have been to everyone’s taste, the film didn’t need to go any bigger than they did with him, given the story involved. Overall everyone was pretty spectacular, and no matter what #TEAM you’re in favour of, it’ll be hard to walk away from this one with an overall favourite.
Aside from “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2”, “Civil War” could well be the last big MCU tie-in before we arrive at the end game in 2018. We have 5 films still to come (pending schedule changes) before the “Infinity Wars”, but these will probably focus very much on their individual stories with only a few things linking into the big picture. “Captain America: Civil War” was compelling, sleek and a hell of a lot of fun. It’s a near-perfect comic book movie, one that has potentially ripped a hole in the foundations of the Avengers team. And from the view-point of the trilogy, it’s a rare third film that doesn’t ruin all the good work done by the previous two installments, but instead somehow manages to raise the bar even higher.
Captain America: Civil War hits theaters on May 6th in the U.S
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