In the modern age, a place where mass marketed entertainment has decided not to be simply pandering explosions, repetitive dialogue, and clichéd plot lines, it seems almost natural that a movie like ‘Captain America: Civil War’ would eventually worm its way through the woodworks. It is a film that is at once entirely original yet predictable in every way. It is a rush of interesting action and direction with techniques we’ve seen a thousand times before. It introduces new story elements and characters to the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe, but doesn’t ultimately further anything relating to the overarching plot.
The story only makes sense to those who have been following Marvel’s exploits since the beginning. Steve Rodgers/Captain America (Chris Evans) is the leader of the newest incarnation of the Avengers, including Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Natasha Romanov/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), James Rhoades/War Machine (Don Cheadle), and Vision (Paul Bettany). After a mission in Africa turns sour and bystanders from the reclusive nation of Wakanda are killed, the United Nations under the influence of Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (a returning William Hurt) concoct an accord that would force the Avengers to be at the beck and call of a joint council who would make all tough calls for them. Steve sees this as a dangerous limitation that would restrict the Avengers’ ability to save lives while a traumatized Tony Stark/Iron Man (you know who plays him) insists that the collateral damage they cause justifies a system of checks and balances. However, the ratification of the accords is interrupted by a terrorist attack that leads Steve on the trail of his long-lost friend and only remaining childhood friend, Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). This sparks the conflict that leads to the various other heroes choosing sides and gearing up for the ideological confrontation. With their own agendas and purposes, they are both aided and attacked by the vengeful Prince T’challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Steve’s part-time-girlfriend Sharon (Emily VanCamp), and the conniving Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl).
The film, as a whole, is very good. All the returning Marvel actors are all familiar and comfortable as their characters by now, and even get to show different sides of their personas that audiences haven’t been treated to before. It’s an interesting dynamic and meshes well with all the newcomers who seem ready, willing, and able to take on their roles, however big or small. The cinematography noticeably improves over the course of the film, evolving from annoyingly inconsistent shaky-cam armed with standard action beats to more streamlined action sequences with creative hits and blows. This can be distracting, but not nearly as much as the obnoxiously large location titles that inexplicably fill the entire frame each time a new setting is visited. However, the questionable camera and editing choices made by the directors, brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, are well offset by the actors and the story itself, which is fairly convoluted but also quite natural, almost logical in its development and conclusion.
It is feasibly impossible to discuss this movie without devoting no small space to Tom Holland, who plays the MCU’s incarnation of Spider-Man/Peter Parker. In short, he’s astoundingly good but not of his own volition. He’s given just enough time to develop his character and become relatable, but not so much that he begins to wear on the audience’s patience. It’s clear he’s a good actor and can hold his own surrounded by the megastars the Marvel movies have produced over the years, but his entire presence feels like what it is, a last minute addition after Marvel re-acquired the film rights to the character. He doesn’t hurt the movie and does add a measure of spirit to a very character-based narrative, but I’m now anxious to see if he can hold his own in his own spin-off movie. It also must be noted that Aunt May, played by Marisa Tomei, is clearly just shoveled into the movie so Robert Downey Jr. can make jokes about how hot she is.
In total, the movie is entertaining, but should also be considered a warning. With ‘Batman v. Superman’, DC proved once and for all that their cinematic universe will not be as smart or enjoyable or event as culturally relevant as the already-established MCU, so the pressure is now on Marvel to carry on providing quality comic book movies for a wide audience. However, ‘Civil War’ is beginning to mark a pattern in their films. ‘Iron Man 3’ and ‘Thor: the Dark World’ showed that after the success of ‘The Avengers,’ solo superhero movies might not be able to carry the same weight. ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ exhibited how expectations and strength of the original Marvel movies couldn’t be replicated. ‘Ant-Man’ made it clear that introducing new superheroes with the same formulas as previous movies would not reinvigorate the franchise. And now, ‘Civil War’ should prove to Marvel that over-hyping their product makes it harder to enjoy the end result. Is ‘Civil War’ the game-changing superhero movie that Marvel advertises it as? No, not even close. It makes some changes to the cinematic universe’s landscape, but nothing that can’t be reversed in the first fifteen minutes of their next movie. So if you want to see a fun action movie with enjoyable characters pushed to their ideological edge, give it a look. If you will only stoop to see a movie if it alters the way we see cinema, save your money and wait for the Ghostbusters reboot. 4/5
