“Captain America: Civil War” Review

Spoiler free summary: good movie, two scenes during the credits (one during, one after), and sixth time is the charm. We finally get a Spider-Man who won’t shut up in a fight.

Cast and Crew Information

Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man
Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier
Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson / Falcon
Don Cheadle as James Rhodes / War Machine
Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye
Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa / Black Panther
Paul Bettany as Vision
Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch
Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-Man
Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter
Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man
Daniel Bruhl as Helmut Zemo
Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow / Crossbones
William Hurt as Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross
Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross
Marisa Tomei as May Parker
John Kani as King T’Chaka
John Slattery as Howard Stark
Hope Davis as Maria Stark
Alfre Woddard as Miriam
Gene Farber as Vasaly Karpov
Stan Lee as FedEx Driver

Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, taking loose inspiration from the original comic storyline.
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

Premise

The collateral damage from the previous Avengers films catches up with them, and the team is divided over whether or not they need to fall under outsight oversight and deployment orders, in this case, from the U.N. The best part of this adaptation is that everyone acts within their established characters from start to finish!

High Point

The Black Panther is extremely well represented, as is Spider-Man. Neither has a complete origin story, but we get enough to accept them as they are and move forward.

Low Point

One that shouldn’t bug me as much as it does: Spider-Man wouldn’t say “the ice planet,” he’d say “Hoth.” Yes, that actually shows up in his dialogue.

One that should bother everyone: the shaky cam cinematography really disrupted the audience ability to track the action, particularly in 3D.

The Review

This is an original story, thematically linked to the comic story but different in almost every detail. I give it 5 out of 6.

The effects were consistently great, and ranged from subtle to unmissable. Whether they showed us a Robert Downey Jr. of 1991 or a size-changing Scott Lang, they nailed it. I give it 6 out of 6.

The story is well paced and plotted. The reaction of the world is reasonable, the use of Hurt’s Thaddeus Ross character from Incredible Hulk gives a certain sense of reality to the world as an actual place that evolves between films. I feel like Uatu, just checking in on the major stuff. I just wish we had the time to develop all characters as well as the stars. There are a couple of characters who need a lot more screen time to show the fallout of this film, but I won’t name them here for fear of spoilers. I give it 5 out of 6.

The acting is bang on. The entire cast sells the audience on their choices in this divide. You completely understand why both Tony and Steve are so determined to hold their ground in this exact debate. I give it 6 out of 6.

The production suffers only by exceeding use of shaky-cam, particularly in the fight in Nigeria, but it suffers a lot, especially knowing that shaky-cam and 3D individually give eye strain to a significant portion of the audience, combining them is a particularly bad idea. I give it 4 out of 6.

The emotional response is great. We get a non-stop ride that takes us through this story, and leaves us in a challenging status quo before the Infinity War begins. I give it 6 out of 6.

Overall, it’s a great film. I still think Winter Soldier is Marvel’s best to date, but I wouldn’t question the taste of anyone who says this is their favorite. I give it 5 out of 6.

In total, Captain America: Civil War receives 37 out of 42.

7 replies on ““Captain America: Civil War” Review”

  1. I don’t know that a 15-year-old today would say “Hoth”. Unless you’re a really big Star Wars fan, you probably don’t really know the names of all the planets, and I’m not sure the name Hoth is mentioned anywhere but the crawl.

    I want to know what the thing Spider-Man was projecting at the post-credit scene is…

  2. First of all, let me say I really liked the movie. But I have a problem with it…

    Why is this movie titled Captain America: Civil War? It feels like we only got half the story. The team is still split up, the Sokovia Accords are still in effect. Is there some future MCU movie that is going to gives us the real fallout? Looking at the schedule, which is all pointed towards the Infinity War, I don’t think so.

    • I think the movie wrapped it up pretty well actually. There are indications that Iron Man will not continue to honor the accords. All the Avengers in the super prison will be free but in hiding. I’m pretty sure when the Infinity War problems start happening, world governments will be begging for the help.

      Also, I found it interesting that the government blames the Avengers for the damage in New York, when the governments plan to nuke the city would have been waaaayyyy worse. The government’s solution to the SHIELD/Hydra problem would have been to let the helicarriers kill millions of innocents. So really I never bought the government’s “accountability” worries at all. Suffice it to say I was “Team Cap” all the way. However, I think the movie played fair with Ironman and his line of thinking. I was a bit dissapointed in Ironman’s emotional response at the end, but it was fairly understandable (way more understandable than “Martha” – heh).

  3. Sooo much better than Batman v Superman w Wonder Woman. Great handling of multiple characters, interesting Panther, excellent Spider-man, and some fascinating, if not entirely processed thoughts on war, vengeance, and what we do with the mess the armies leave behind. Or the gods, if they walked the earth.

    My low point: Vision spends too much of the Big Fight just hanging around.

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