Reviews Film / Captain America Civil War

A Strong Start To Phase 3

Civil War followed up the surprise hit Winter Soldier and the good, but not amazingly received Age of Ultron. From its conception there was a lot of pressure for this movie, especially since the directors and writers will be working on the next Avengers. Surprisingly enough they didn't fold under the pressure and produced a strong movie.

Civil War is by no means a perfect movie. Like all movies it has it flaws. It also has strong characterization from returning characters, introduces some great new characters, has a strong story, manages to tie plot points left over from WS and Ao U well enough, and has a lot of great action.

One common criticism I saw going into this movie was Iron Man and Captain America's relationship was too underdeveloped for their fallout to have emotional weight. The movie showed that while not best friends that they are actually close. Ironically enough they were at their closest here despite actually coming to blows this time around. That is what the movie did well. It made the Avengers feel like a family in a way that even Whedon hadn't done yet. It plays a big part in how the story develops. Despite the Accords and Bucky's situation splitting the team up it is obvious no one really wants to fight each other and that adds to the conflict on a emotional level.

All characters had reasons and beliefs for doing what they were doing. We get a good glimpse from the characters on where they stand on the Accords. Both sides are presented fairly and neither one is painted as the wrong side. It leaves it up to the audience to decide, just as promised. The action sequences are impressive. The airport battle captured all the awe and spectacle of comic magic and brought it to life. I felt like a kid again watching these titans clashing. For all the fun this movie has it balances the darker elements perfectly, never becoming too heavy or too silly. The final battle with Captain America, Bucky, and Iron Man is very emotional in a tragic way. Not a single joke was uttered. I was afraid their lives. New characters, Zemo, Black Panther, and Spider-Man were all great and introduced to MCU well without hurting the plot and in some cases enhancing it.

We get to the flaws. The romance with Sharon is ill timed. It was a bad choice to do it only after Steve learns she is Peggy's niece and after Peggy's death. It feel like he could be projecting onto Sharon. The ending leaned too much on the hopeful side that it might make people think there will be no fallout from this movie, which I don't think was the intention. The MCU is a ongoing universe some things aren't given in depth explanation despite being new, like the Raft prison or how Ross became Secretary of State.

I'm still not sure if I liked CW better than WS, but I did like it better than both Avengers movie, which easily puts this in my top 3 MCU movies. I'm excited for the next two Avengers movies. This team sold me that they can handle it.