After another incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure installs a system of accountability headed by a governing body to oversee and direct the team. The heated debate over this system results in two camps—one led by Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference, and the other following Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) surprising decision to support government oversight and accountability. Alongside the possibility of a new status quo, the infamous assassin known as The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) returns. While Tony Stark and the United States government want to bring him in as they see him as a threat, Steve still sees good in his long lost friend.

All Out War in All out Action

As seen in the trailers, there is a large stand-off between both sides at an airport that is known to be the climax of the film. This scene alone is the fight many have been waiting for as each Avenger and new member goes full-out in their new and enhanced abilities. Along with action being executed well, so was the execution of quipping, something Marvel is highly known for. Quipping has become a difficulty for me to enjoy when watching Marvel films with the exception of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Ant-Man (2015). Civil War however greatly balanced out how much quipping was given in the film, making it thoroughly enjoyable.

While main characters such as Captain America and Iron Man did not particularly fight over ideologies as I hoped, other characters did however. The inner conflicting struggles between Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) were greatly focused on as they both were not only conflicted by ideologies but by their friends as well.

While the film differs from the comic book series in a number of the areas, the connection with Bucky played out fairly well as it connected the overall reason why the governments of the world want the Avengers under government surveillance. Furthermore, we see why Captain America and Iron Man are conflicted over Bucky. Tony witnessed him breaking into the assembly and nearly killing him while Steve still sees him as the friend he is as he is being controlled to carry out assassinations. For the first hour, this was played out very well between these three characters in particular, thereby conflicting audience members as to which side they choose.

Lack of Depth and Cinematography

While the standoff scene was a great and well-executed fight, the film lacked in other action sequences of the film due to the shaky camera. Throughout the film, the camera shakes a lot when fights take place, making it very difficult to recognize how characters were fighting one another and what exactly was going on. Considering how the previous Captain America films were executed in fight sequences let alone Marvel in general, this camera shaking took me by great surprise.

The comic book series "Marvel's Civil War" (2006-2007) is one of my personal favorites of all time. The series not only deals with both sides being at war with each other, but also has a large amount of depth as it really focuses on the ethics and the topic of national security vs. freedom. It comes to the point where Captain America realizes they let their pride and ego distract them from the real reason why they are at war towards the end of the series. While the film was going in that direction during the first 30 to 40 minutes of the film, it immediately takes different direction when Bucky enters into the picture. This is understandable since the film cannot follow the book 100%, this being said, the expanding on the ideology and ethical standpoints of national security vs. individual freedom is quickly glossed over as the conflict becomes entirely centered around Bucky. In Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014), the film deals heavily with the idea of national security and freedom and certainly hoped that it would continue into Civil War when the announcement was made. Unfortunately, the film does not as it lacks the depth of government surveillance vs. the freedom of choice.

Along with the difficulty of plot depth is the difficulty of character involvement. New characters that were introduced as seen in the trailers were "Black Panther" (Chadwick Boseman) and "Spider-Man" (Tom Holland). The introduction to Black Panther was well-executed and connected in his involvement in the civil war. Spider-Man on the other hand was a little difficult. Tom Holland's Spider-Man first off was by far the best Spider-Man to be shown on camera as he is known to be a web-slinging wisecracker. The casting certainly was not a mistake by Marvel. On the other hand however, he had little to no involvement other just than being shown off by Marvel and to introduced into the MCU. He is one of those characters that shows up nearly halfway through the film and suddenly leaves the film with little to no reason as to why. This in particular was a large difficulty due to the fact that Spider-Man plays a vital role in the Civil War comic book series. As previously mentioned, it is understandable that the film cannot directly represent the comics, however, when a character plays a vital role in the story, he should play one within the film. Throughout the film, other secondary and main character that play vital roles are glossed over or not given the proper execution as in the comic book series.

Final Film Thoughts

As an introduction to the 3rd phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "Captain America: Civil War" certainly will stand out, but was not as nearly as significant as the comic book series itself. The film had a large amount of potential to really expand on the philosophy and ethical standpoints of security vs. freedom only to toss it out the window in order to focus on other parts of the film. The film was enjoyable as a Captain America sequel and the first film of the MCU 3rd phase, however it is yet another film that was good but could have been great.

Final Film Review: 3.5 out of 5.