Captain America: Civil War – Movie Review
Why couldn’t the two “Avengers” movies be even half as good as “Captain America: Civil War”? Sure they had Thor and Hulk, but the latest Marvel Universe film is easily the best “Earth-based” installment yet. “Guardians of the Galaxy” is still my favorite, but “Civil War” comes in a close second. Much like “The Winter Soldier”, the latest Captain America outing is more political and also sports great writing and direction. It’s a good thing that writers Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely and directors Anthony & Joe Russo all returned.
The film begins with a flashback of Bucky Barnes being brainwashed by Hydra, which turned him into the Winter Soldier. We then cut to present day where Captain America, Scarlet Witch, and Black Widow are on a mission to stop former Hydra agent Brock Rumlow aka Crossbones from getting his hands on a biological weapon. Unfortunately much like each of the Avengers outings, there is collateral damage and now the United Nations have created an accord that will require the heroes to act under their supervision. Although Tony Stark thinks this is a good idea, Captain America does not.
The accord splits the Avengers down the middle. Black Widow, Vision, and War Machine take Iron Man’s side. Joining Captain America is Falcon. To make things even more complicated. Cap’s best friend Bucky is being hunted down by the United Nations, Iron Man and Prince T’Challa aka Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) because they believe he is responsible for a massive bombing. It is up to Captain America and Falcon to help prove he is not responsible.
“Civil War” runs 147 minutes but never feels like it, unlike last month’s “Batman v. Superman” which felt like it dragged on for days. The Russo brothers know how to move a story along and the action set pieces are just fantastic. In the film’s best scene, we see the divided Avengers duke it out and there are quite a few surprises. Ant-man joins in on the fight, taking the side of Captain America and we are introduced to a brand new Spider-Man who back’s up Iron Man. Tom Holland is easily the best version of the web-slinger to date. It was wise of Marvel to go much younger with their casting.
We do get a villain in “Civil War”, but Zemo (Daniel Brühl) is unlike any bad guy we have seen before in this universe. He isn’t a big baddie and his motives aren’t quite clear until near the end. This is a good thing as the story does a good job focusing on the battle going on within the Avengers family, rather than giving them a super powered villain to fight against.
Fans of the Marvel Universe films know that things are going to get downright crazy when Thanos appears in the near future, so it was definitely a good idea to get all this in-fighting out of the way now so that the super-heroes can work together and fight their toughest opponent in the “Infinity War”.
By: Marc Ferman