Captain America : Civil War Review

Captain America : Civil War Review

"It delivers everything you want from a comic book movie"

5/5 Reviewed by Adi Mursec

2016 could be the biggest year to date for comic book movies, not only to how many we have but the overall anticipation for some of them. Batman Vs Superman has been talked about since the 90s along with making a comic based on The Death of Superman which we have now seen. X-men Appocolypse is also out this year which finally give us a look at one of the X-men’s biggest foes in live action and finally Civil War. It’s based on one of the biggest Marvel comics events in recent history and puts the Avengers against each other once again. It’s a big year for hero vs hero fights and this one doesn’t disappoint.

The movie takes place shortly after the events of Iron Man 3 and Avengers Age of Ultron. The Avengers are all together dealing with global terrorist threats which are caused by the remnants of Hydra. It ties together so many little details from all the other Marvel Studios movies and answers a lot of questions along with giving us a few more.

The guy who kick starts all the trouble in Civil War is a guy called Zemo, I’m not sure if he will later become Baron Zemo and return in later movies to antagonise the Avengers but in this movie he gets inspired in the wake of Age of Ultron. Where the Avengers dropped a building on his family, he has no powers to fight them so used politics to pit them against each other.

The first big conflict with the Avengers is new law they are faced to comply with similar to that in Watchmen. It means they will either have to work for the United Nations and fight the battles they deem worthy or retire. Tony Stark swamped with guilt wants to sign it so the UN can take accountability for any accidents. Captain America won’t sign it as he wants the freedom to fight the battles he believes in. CIVIL WAR

After the events of Captain America 2 there were Black Widow leaked confidential S.H.I.E.L.D. papers all sorts of secrets went public. Using some of this information Zemo researches Bucky Barns and finds out how to trigger his assassination programming buried in his mind by Hydra. From here the movie tells a very intricate story which trigger the Avengers to be very aggressively divided.

Now one thing you will appreciate about this movie is the pace and complexity. Where Batman Vs Superman struggled to introduce three big characters, Civil War introduced loads to the audience and it all makes sense. You know a lot of them from previous Marvel Studios movies which helps but they are all given time to get reintroduced. There are also a few new characters in this movie which you may have heard of including Spider-man and Black Panther.

I think Marvel Studios have finally done right by Spider-man this time round. We’ve seen a few actors play Peter Parker but Tom Holland‘s approach is easily the most entertaining all round. He comes across a lot younger than the Peter that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield played. To be honest I liked their movies but I think when the new Spider-man movie comes out they will be forgotten much like the old Hulk movies.

With Tom Holland’s approach to Spider-man there seems to be a bit more fun about the role and that’s what it should be. He isn’t always living with the guilt of what happened to Uncle Ben, he’s just a kid trying to find a place in the world. This Spider-man is just doing it because he wants to make a difference. Oh and his Aunt May is amazing in this too, it was such a good idea to cast Marisa Tomei in the movie. One thing Civil War has done it get me super excited for the next Spider-man movies. I think they will break all sorts of records when they are released.

The Black Panther is also a great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the comics he gets his super powers from a herb which isn’t explained in Civil War but you do see him kick a lot of ass and bring a lot of morality to the movie. With the Avengers divided he ends up bringing things into perspective at the end and again I can’t wait to see the solo Black Panther movie. Just when you think the Marvel movies are coming to and end they break out all these new possibilities and characters. It’s almost like it’s got more momentum that ever before. It’s got to the point now where Marvel are going to have to consider releasing 4-5 movies a year just to keep up with everyone.

 

Both Black Panther and Spider-man were the obvious big introductions but considering what the Russo Brothers did with Winter Soldier by planting seeds and letting them evolve in future movies I’m wondering what impact some of the new background characters will have in the future movies. This was the first movie we saw Martin Freeman who played Everett K. Ross in. Now Everett in the comics worked with the US State Department and was helped Black Panther out so I’m guessing we will see him again soon. Also we now know Emily VanCamp plays Sharon Carter and with Peggy Carter’s death she’s now Steve Rogers love interest and is likely to be in the next Avengers movie too. I’m a little surprised we didn’t see a clip with Doctor Strange but maybe that would have stretched the casting out a little too much.

With the addition of a few new characters we look to have lost a few, Pepper Potts skipped out on this movie as she is now separated from Tony Stark due to him returning to his days as Iron Man. Thor we can assume is just off world somewhere and Hulk went into hiding at the end of Age of Ultron and we won’t see him again until Thor 3.

Considering how many super heroes they had to give screen time to they absolutely did an amazing job of balancing it all out. Hawkeye even get a decent part in the movie, something Joss Whedon failed to deliver in the previous Avengers movies. There is also a bit of a tease with the Vision, at the end of Age of Ultron it looked like he was pretty much invincible but in Civil War we see a lot of vulnerabilities both from his mental state and the limitations of his powers. Although on the other hand Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch was amazing and I’m glad we now have two really strong female Avengers, with how her powers have evolved from Avengers 2, she could now be the most powerful Avenger.

The only downside to the movie was a bit of the CGI. Spider-man looked a little too computer generated and Giant Man too. If I was Disney/Marvel Studios I’d really want to improve on the CGI costumes. They look ok now and in a few years they will really hold the movies back from standing the test of time.

Overall after watching Civil War I want the Russo Brothers to direct every comic book movie. They have done an amazing job of putting together one of the most challenging movies made in recent years. It’s pulled together parts of all the Marvel Studios movies, setup a whole host of new possibilities going forward for the franchises and made the Avengers look like an actual team. It is also one of the first comic book movies I’ve seen in a long time that didn’t look like it was made to sell toys, it was an all round enjoyable movie from start to the two post credit scenes.

Posted by Adi Mursec on April 30, 2016

Meanwhile...

Top unanswered questions from Civil War

Spoiler warning, a run down of some questions we now have following Captain America Civil War. The Marvel Studios Universe just got a whole lot bigger

Captain America Civil War Trailer featuring Spider-man

The latest trailer for Captain America : Civil War shows off Spider-man and a few other epic scenes from the upcoming Avengers showdown movie.

Black Widow and Hawkeye face off in Civil War

A few clips from the leaked D23 Civil War trailer including one of Hawkeye fighting Black Widow. Who knows who will win but it’s going to be a tough fight for the closest of the Avengers.

Civil War teams concept art

Which team will you side with when it’s Ironman vs Captain America. Thanks to some leaked concept art we now know who most of the Avengers will side with.

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