Goddamn Robert Downey Jr is at it again. As soon as you put him in Marvel movie, it will become his movie, even when he isn't the title character. In fact, everyone kind of gets more attention than poor old Captain America, in this which is clearly a secret Avengers sequel.
Batman vs Superman looks all the more dire, now that Civil War tells the same story but considerably better. Here, there is a clear establishment of the central conflict; Captain America, having been repeatedly betrayed in previous movies, has learnt to not put his trust the powers that be. Iron Man, having always shown a finger to the government, has finally come around to seeing why it is worth having some oversight. It's a nice role reversal for both the GI Joe and the Mr Randy Galt, demonstrating how much they have developed over a decade of movies. Plus you can accept the plausibility either side of this debate - superheroes are kind of damage magnets, but also the governments in the Marvel universe are notoriously shady. Heck, even the mystery villain actually turns out to be refreshingly humble in ambition and motive.
The balance is much better than other Marvel movies too. It is too long by about half an hour, but it doesn't do the thing of spending too much time in one setting, or overloading all the action at the last 40 minutes of the movie. There is a nice spread of varied, creative, and fun action scenes. The centre-piece battle manages to juggle a ton of characters, all without it becoming an incoherent mess, though it does steal the limelight from the final fight (which could have done with being truncated).
Really, my main criticism is that this many characters makes it difficult to centre the story on any one of them. There is a lot of promise in the new arrivals Spiderman and Black Panther, only for them to have to step to one side to allow for yet more Iron Man screen time. Black Widow is practically gone and forgotten, and Captain America himself often feels like an afterthought. I wouldn't want the movie to be any more longer than it already is, but these people really needed more time.
Not Really a Captain America Movie
Goddamn Robert Downey Jr is at it again. As soon as you put him in Marvel movie, it will become his movie, even when he isn't the title character. In fact, everyone kind of gets more attention than poor old Captain America, in this which is clearly a secret Avengers sequel.
Batman vs Superman looks all the more dire, now that Civil War tells the same story but considerably better. Here, there is a clear establishment of the central conflict; Captain America, having been repeatedly betrayed in previous movies, has learnt to not put his trust the powers that be. Iron Man, having always shown a finger to the government, has finally come around to seeing why it is worth having some oversight. It's a nice role reversal for both the GI Joe and the Mr Randy Galt, demonstrating how much they have developed over a decade of movies. Plus you can accept the plausibility either side of this debate - superheroes are kind of damage magnets, but also the governments in the Marvel universe are notoriously shady. Heck, even the mystery villain actually turns out to be refreshingly humble in ambition and motive.
The balance is much better than other Marvel movies too. It is too long by about half an hour, but it doesn't do the thing of spending too much time in one setting, or overloading all the action at the last 40 minutes of the movie. There is a nice spread of varied, creative, and fun action scenes. The centre-piece battle manages to juggle a ton of characters, all without it becoming an incoherent mess, though it does steal the limelight from the final fight (which could have done with being truncated).
Really, my main criticism is that this many characters makes it difficult to centre the story on any one of them. There is a lot of promise in the new arrivals Spiderman and Black Panther, only for them to have to step to one side to allow for yet more Iron Man screen time. Black Widow is practically gone and forgotten, and Captain America himself often feels like an afterthought. I wouldn't want the movie to be any more longer than it already is, but these people really needed more time.