Review: Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: Civil War is finally in theaters, and, unless your livelihood depended on it, you’re going to see it pretty soon. In what’s easily the biggest Marvel film of this and quite a few years to come, the question isn’t if it’s good but how good is it. Rest assured, while the movie could never live up to the extensive and wide range of characters in the comics, Civil War is still easily one of the best Marvel movies out there with plenty of repercussions for the future.
The film kicks off as expected. After a destructive mission in Nigeria, mostly at the hands of Captain’s distraction and Scarlet Witch’s powers, the United Nations draft a new regulation known as the Sokovia Accords. All the Avengers must now act on missions under supervision of a UN council for fear of more casualties like New York or Sokovia. Tony Stark, in his guilt for Ultron (which to be fair was his fault) wants to sign to keep them in check, but Steve Rogers fears the regulation and control by a group that could reject missions they want to help or force them on missions they don’t want. Added to the problem is the reappearance of Bucky Barnes who becomes the prime suspect in a bombing and T’Challa whose newest goal is to hunt the Winter Soldier down after the death of his father. Obviously, people take sides, and we’re introduced to the new Spider-Man.
That alone gives the idea that this movie is stuffed (and it is), but the biggest accomplishment of the movie is that is doesn’t feel that way. It helps that movie runs at 2.5 hours to the last post-credit scene, but the movie is just good at balancing out everything while still getting a decent story. We get Steve’s perspective, Tony’s perspective, Bucky’s perspective, T’Challa’s perspective, Zemo’s perspective, Sam’s perspective, Natasha’s perspective, heck even Vision and Wanda get a turn at the focus. By the end of it all, you get an idea of why everyone’s doing what they’re doing even if you don’t agree with them.
Of course, since this is a Marvel movie, I have to give attention to the action which is easily the best in the film universe so far. The fact that it involves heroes verses heroes gives a really creative backbone to the action especially adding new players to the groups like Black Panther and Spider-Man. The trailers honestly don’t do the fights justice when you see Hawkeye firing Ant-Man off an arrow to disable Iron Man’s Suit. Or when Spider-Man defeats the first appearance of GiAnt-Man by pulling a move straight out of Empire Strikes Back. Or even Black Panther easily fighting hand-to-hand with both Bucky and Steve.
Speaking of which, I should dedicate a paragraph to the introduction of Black Panther for two reasons. One, his intro shows the perfect way to introduce a hero without pulling the whole origin story movie fiasco. We understand T’Challa’s duty to his father’s legacy in leader and hero as well as the challenges that come from entering the public world. From that, we can just jump right into the idea of him being a hero in the next movie. The second reason is that he’s the character that perfectly embodies the challenges in the movie. He feels righteously angry at the death of his father, blinding him to vengeance. However, he is the only character, that's including Steve Rogers, who is eventually able to let go of his sole perspective to understand the big picture. Steve is guided purely by his desire to protect Bucky. Tony is guided purely by his self-indulged desire to regulate heroes. T’Challa ultimately lets go of his path to protect Bucky in the end, making him probably the biggest hero in the movie.
Also, and this one is obligatory, we’re introduced to Spider-Man. This may be the third live-action movie Spider-Man we’ve seen, but it easily proves why Marvel should be in charge of casting heroes. This Spider-Man, or just Peter Parker, perfectly embodies the young and wisecracking Andrew Garfield character mixed with the I-actually-care-about-this-guy-as-a-decent-human-being Tobey Maguire character while actually managing to look like a teenager. Even though it’s been less than five years since the last disappointing ride with the hero, the airport scene alone makes you remember why he’s one of the most popular heroes. He’s fun. He’s innocent. And, according to the tag scene, he will return.
However, the movie still has its flaws in the way that a 150-minute movie is bound to have. Some of the heroes are thrown to the side a bit in light of the conflict narrowing in the climax. They still don’t give a decent reason for Hawkeye to appear, and Ant-Man is more of a glorified cameo appearing in a total of three scenes. Furthermore, I have no idea where Black Widow went at the end of the movie, and Sharon Carter, who is finally revealed to be Peggy Carter’s niece, disappears earlier than her. Plus, no matter how big or flashy this movie may be, it will never reach the scope or significance of the comics. I suppose it could if the universes connected with other heroes in some other Marvel projects, but what are the odds of that?
With the plot we have though, there are some interesting points in the movie. Even after this movie, I am still firmly on Team Cap for obvious reasons against regulation, but the film does a decent job at proving that blindly following Captain America, or anyone, isn’t a good path. In the end, however, that comes from the narrowing the plot away from the Accords issue and placing it with how to deal with Bucky. It’s a shame that the story doesn’t focus more on the regulation issue, but, then again, if the Avengers can’t deal with this problem, what hopes do they have in the government?
Civil War also has some pretty deep implications with that question, too. The team of Captain America, the Falcon, Hawkeye, Ant-Man, Scarlet Witch, and now Black Widow are all fugitives of the law, though it’s probably good that all but two of them don’t have their own movies. The Sokovia Accords are ultimately in play, which leads us to question every major player in the future. Even Zemo makes it out alive which, granted, was probably the least interesting aspect of the movie, but his plan actually works, more than I can say for most villains here. It may not be like the comic, especially since Steve survives, but they work hard to have it make a difference.
This is probably one of the largest reviews I’ve written, and I still haven’t covered everything about the movie. In a way, that’s probably the best compliment I can give to it. Marvel’s had some failings as of recently this year, but this movie reminds us of the best it can be by showing iconic heroes fighting impossible battles. Civil War without a doubt proves that the Marvel legacy will still continue.
