Captain America: Civil War Review
Captain America: Civil War Review
Written by Huzaifa Khan on May 6th, 2016
At this point it's a pretty obvious fact that Marvel tends to deliver the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to things like action, superheroes, and everything in between. But every so often, they deliver something truly remarkable, a film which grounds itself to realism to the point of it being compared to the greats of all time, rather than just a comic book movie. Captain America: Civil War fits that description the fullest extent.
At this point, the team-up film is Marvel Studios’ bread and butter. They set the world on fire back in 2012 with Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, and in the years since then have repeatedly orchestrated creative groupings and pairings that continue to demonstrate the tremendous fun and inventiveness that comes from bringing engaging, interesting characters together. They repeatedly set a high bar in this area, and are not only constantly reaching for it with each new project, but basically have the entire industry doing it, too. Now, however, we have Joe and Anthony Russo’s Captain America: Civil War, which succeeds in raising the bar higher than you’d think it could go, in almost every area you could think of, keep that "almost" in mind for a little later.
Functioning as both a sequel to Captain America: The Winter Solider and The Avengers: Age of Ultron, the film is the most comprehensive Marvel Cinematic Universe chapter to date, and while that put a great deal on the plate of writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the movie soars because the challenge is accepted and responded to in brilliant and entertaining fashion. Bringing together tremendous character dynamics; bold structure; an emotional narrative earned after years of story work; and spell-binding, fun action sequences, it’s everything a blockbuster should be.
Loosely based on the 2006-2007 Marvel Comics event series with which it partially shares a title, Captain America: Civil War picks up with its titular character (Chris Evans) working with his Avengers teammates – Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Vision (Paul Bettany), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and War Machine (Don Cheadle) – to stop terror around the globe. After a mission in Africa winds up causing a tremendous deal of collateral damage, however, the team suddenly finds itself under scrutiny and the subject of controversy.
In order to put the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in check, Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt) presents the team – as well as former members Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) – the opportunity to sign the Sokovia Accords: a document named after the destroyed city from The Avengers: Age of Ultron that would force The Avengers to work under a United Nations panel that would determine exactly when and where the team would go into action. This idea is supported by some, including Tony, Vision, Black Widow and War Machine, but Captain America, Falcon and Scarlet Witch are not shy about their resentfulness of the idea.
The Sokovia Accords are the powder keg, and it winds up being Bucky Barnes/The Winter Solider (Sebastian Stan) who lights the fuse. A terrorist attack is pinned on Captain America’s best-friend-turned-assassin, and while Cap is instructed to leave the situation alone, it’s an order that he rebels against – turning him into a fugitive. All the while, a mysterious man named Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) operates in the shadows, searching for key information tied to Bucky’s past.
Captain America: Civil War features what is unquestionably the largest ensemble we’ve seen yet in a Marvel Studios movie, and while the narrative isn’t quite as strong as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where the film makes up for it is in its tremendous character work – both in its understanding of who these pop culture figures are at their core, and having them play off of each other.
There’s no better example of the former in the film than Chadwick Boseman as the newly introduced T’challa, a.k.a. Black Panther, who is every bit as regal, intelligent, bold and passionate as the hero is on the page. And that's the thing with the characters in the movie. Although it's the largest ensemble of heroes we've seen on screen, no one really feels forced when they're on screen. Characters like Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye/Clint Barton, and Paul Rudd Ant-Man/Scott Lang don't necessarily have the same screentime as the heavy hitters like Cap or Tony, but the scenes they're in create audience hype regardless. On that note, Rudd's role in this movie was surprisingly one of my favourite parts of the movie itself. Granted he doesn't necessarily have a full character story of his own, but the charisma and humour he brings to the screen is delightful nonetheless, showing that not every character has to have their own solo movie to please audience desire.
Speaking of the hidden card in the movie, Tom Holland's Spider-Man/Peter Parker was truly incredible, much better than I expected. His whole story and key moments will be left out of this review, to truly keep it spoiler-free, but it should be noted that although he has minimal screentime, his first impression clearly outranks that of Tobey Macguire and Andrew Garfield, exciting me even more for Spider-Man: Homecoming come time for 2017.
This film isn’t just about singular impressive performances, however: it’s an opportunity to see how these heroes both relate to each other and act when they are at odds, and the work done by the Russo brothers and Markus and McFeely is stunning. The headliner, of course, is the key conflict between Captain America and Iron Man - whose emotional battle will tear at the heartstrings of every fan like they’re watching their own parents go through a messy divorce – but the truth is that this is a feature where you can throw a rock and hit amazing character dynamics. As best friends of Cap, teammates, and former opponents, Falcon and Bucky have one of the most complex relationships in the movie, and it actually translates into a ton of laughs whenever they’re paired up. On the more serious side of the story, Wanda and Vision are wonderfully brought together, not only because of their relationship in the comics but also because there is a bond between them as “newborns” in the superhero realm. Somehow, everybody gets a moment with everybody, and yet Civil War has zero fat and never swings too far away from the central plot.
But once again, this is a Marvel movie, and as such, the villain is yet again lacklustre to the core. It's not that Daniel Bruhl as Zemo (I refuse to call him Baron Zemo, given the fact that no single person refers to him as that), but he just felt forced in up until the very end, where his true motives were revealed. And even then it just felt uncomfortable, since the main conflict, that being the Civil War itself, was over. However, I'd be willing to overlook that given the scale and scope of the movie itself.
It’s easy to respect Captain America: Civil War because of the emotional and thoughtful approach it takes towards its characters instead of just having them punching and kicking each other – but the punching and kicking happens to be pretty phenomenal as well. In terms of action sequences, Marvel features have come a long way since the mediocre final battle in the original Iron Man, and while Joe and Anthony Russo blew us away with battles and set pieces in Captain America: The Winter Solider, their sequel ups the ante in every away. From the Avengers’ explosive mission at the start of the film to Cap and Winter Soldier’s attempt to escape from a building teeming with cops, it’s all intricately crafted and incredibly memorable. It should be noted, however, that every scene in the movie pales in comparison to the airport-set hero vs. hero battle in the second act – which I do not hesitate to call the greatest scene in the history of the comic book movie genre. Oh boy does that scene pack a punch, literally speaking. Seeing that ensemble of heroes fighting on the screen seemed like a fantasy up until a couple years ago, so to see that come to fruition was too good to describe in words here. Each character and their abilities gets to shine throughout, although it wouldn't have hurt to showcase Vision's abilities a little more. All that aside, it truly does set itself up to be the greatest action sequence, and sequence in general, in the comic book genre.
Overall, Captain America: Civil War yet again shows that when Marvel hires the right minds to both direct and write, what comes out of that pairing is pure gold and nothing else. With a couple nitpicks here and there in the forms of Daniel Bruhl's Zemo, this is easily Marvel's most mature and intuitive movie to date, setting up our heroes on a tricky path for what's yet to come in the next two Avengers sequels.
KhanFlix Rating: 9/10
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