Film 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.
Film Better than Age of Ultron; not as good as The Winter Soldier
— WARNING: SPOILERS!!!! —
Everyone told me how good this movie was. If it had one flaw, they said, it was the villain, who was just unnecessary.
The proof is in the pudding.
Let's start with the bad stuff. The movie tries to make Both Sides Have a Point, but IMHO, it fails — not by much, but enough that I take Cap's side without difficulty. I just couldn't drum up enough sympathy for Iron Man and the UN side.
Second, the climax of this movie isn't at the end — it's in the middle. The 12-superhero fight in the middle of the film makes the 3-superhero fight at the end look paltry by comparison. Speaking of which, having Tony start on one side, then switch to Cap's side in the lead-up to the climax, THEN switch sides yet again to fight Cap and Bucky just feels like a waste of time.
Third, the movie has a HUUUUUUUGE wasted opportunity in the form of the six other Winter Soldiers...who are DOA when we find them. If you were going to go to the trouble of introducing them, why would you have them killed off before we even get a chance to see them in action (flashbacks don't count!)? The opportunity for an EPIC final battle was gift-wrapped for you...and you chucked it aside like yesterday's socks!
Finally, the movie pales in comparison to The Winter Soldier. This isn't really the film's fault, but it's hard to live up to the standard of its predecessor, which pulled out ALL the stops — from Bucky's brainwashing, to Hydra's uprising, and the triscalions crashing down upon the nearby area...especially when the movie actually resonated across the MCU. There's just no way you're going to top that without going WAY epic.
Now for the good stuff. The action scenes are TO DIE FOR. And you'd better believe there are plenty of them. Even the "worst" of them are at the standard the MCU has set in the past.
As much as I love Cap and IM's conflict, the two best characters in the film (other than Ant-Man, who is awesome) are the new ones — Black Panther and Spider-Man. If anyone on the order side has good motivations, it's Black Panther. We actually get to see how the events of the film affect his character, something which is sorely lacking for the Wakandans at large. And Spider-Man is every bit as fun as you'd expect him to be — he won't shut up...which is what he's like in the comics.
I said the movie tried and failed to make the Order side sympathetic to me. But it tried. We do, at least, see some scenes of civilians affected by the superheroes' efforts; it's just that the film makes it clear that the Freedom side is perfectly aware of what they're doing, and regret the mistakes they make.
Overall, I give this movie a 7.5/10. It was really good; but it could have been a lot better.
Film A Tablecloth
Age of Ultron and Civil War in particular have reached a place where they're stuffed full of characters the audience loves, they're in films we all 'like' to like and they know how to have the perfect friendly banter and light low-stakes visually appealing action and drama beats to make sure you will have a good time watching them and feel good inside. (I'm bothered by Civil War playing all it's action at 2x speed to make it seem more frenetic than it is, but no-one else seems to mind)
You can't undercut that achievement. It's _hard_ to get characters right and it's hard to right good fun dialogue - DC is busy proving just how hard both those things are. And Civil War will easily get into the upper half of a list of most enjoyable things this year.
But at the same time it's a pretty covering over a hunk of wood. All the grand cross-film character arcs feel very much like arcs that were mandated on high. It's neat that Captain America is anti-government and Tony Stark is pro-regulation, but it would be more neat if it didn't feel like someone had been bending their characters arcs for 5 films to make sure we would go "oh that's neat".
And then there's the central conflict. It feels good when you're watching, it feels important and you come out thinking it was significant. You can have lots of interesting discussions with friends over which side is right.
The thing is, all those discussions are a lot better than what you can take away from the film itself. The film doesn't really make any arguments, it just seems to. Captain America literally never tries to explain his side once to a civilian in this film. His entire argument is he's strong enough to beat up the police and superheroes who try to stop him. Iron Man's arguments are similarly weak.
Superheroes are kind of ridiculous guys. We all know this. In real life you can't punch crime in the face. Our society spins upon the benefits for stability being strong enough that we will collectively create agencies stronger than any one of us to enforce that status quo. That's how we go to sleep at night.
The world of superheroes works, not because of any societal reasons, but because the good guys are good and always happen to be just enough stronger than the bad guys to beat them in a fight.
That's why the Sovokia Accords don't work, but it's also why not having them doesn't work. In the real world, it's silly to think you can have people doing whatever they want because they're stronger and 'good'. We like superhero films so we let it go. But Captain America pins it's conflict on it, and it has no answers. The conflict seems deep because you can't resolve it, but actually that's just because the entire situation is artificial.
In real life you'd tell CNN that the US government was secretly locking up a famous celebrity without trial in an underwater prison and the media outcry would release him in a day. Captain America doesn't do that. He just punches people.
Film It's Alright.
Alright, first off. Things I didn't get.
Tony was jobbing majorly in this movie. The suits can take hits from Thor and Space Whales and Tanks and yet we're expected to believe that Cap can brawl it out with him and that a few cars falling on Tony would hurt him?
Earlier in the movie, Tony gets sad because some teen dude died in the Ultron fight and his mother confronts Tony over it. So naturally, Tony recruits an even younger teenager, Peter Parker, and twists his arm to get him to join in on a big superhero brawl that has nothing to do with him. It doesn't match up.
What was Ant Man even doing here? Hawkeye I can understand, but Ant Man had no stake in this fight at all.
As usual, there is no reason the heroes couldn't talk this out. They even started to and then they skip to the fighting. Even the final fight was kinda contrived. Tony walks in there treating Cap like a friend again, Zemo shows him a video and Tony goes ballistic against his friend all over again. Especially weird considering that Tony knows Zemo has already framed Bucky before.
I swear, Punisher VS Daredevil is the only super brawl I've seen that actually felt natural. Still better than Showa Riders VS Heisei Riders.
The accords were pointless. They are completely forgotten about early in the movie.
Ross does nothing the whole movie.
Zemo was a decent villain, but the superhero infighting again made no real sense.
Wanda continues to face no real consequences for her crimes.
The Avengers being blamed for the Chitauri.
Cap macking on Peggy's granddaughter not that long after she died just bothered me.
The raft was pointless. It gets taken down by Cap offscreen.
How the heck is Rhodey still crippled? Can't Tony just ring up Helen Cho and her healing ray?
Did anybody else find the rooftop fight of Winter Soldier VS Panther really choppily edited?
The Good
The fights were a lot of fun and there's a lot of variety to them. ASM Spidey is still my fave but we'll see how the new guy does. He totally looks like a mini-Tobey Mcquire though. :laugh:
The no you move speech made it in.
Crossbones went out with a bang.
As weird as it was, Tony VS Cap and Bucky was pretty cool
It's still better than Ultron.
Panther was awesome.
Tony Stank!
All in all, I'd give it about a 7/10. It's good but some things just bugged more in this movie.
Film Civil War vs. Dawn of Justice: Whose side are you on?
Yes, I will compare this film with another one. You can blame DC for this. They wanted Dueling Works, they got them.
- The polarizing idea: Here, it is a heavy issue, and stays being polarizing after the end of the film. In DOJ, it's basically a misunderstanding, and it's casually dismissed with a contrived coincidence.
- The main characters: Captain America and Iron had 2 and 3 standalone films, and 2 shared films. There is a background for this film. Superman had a sole film, and Batman was brand new, their conflict is completely rushed.
- The third musketter: Spider-Man is a great Breakout Character, and for moments you may even forget that it's not his film. The trailers did not spoil anything, except of his Dynamic Entry. Wonder Woman is more similar to a Spice Girl than an Amazon warrior, her entry was her only interesting scene, and the trailers spoiled it.
- The villain: Luthor hates metahumans, but creates a metahuman to destroy another. Not a great plan. Zemo hates metahumans and, staying true to that motivation, his master plan against the Avengers is completely devoid of metahuman help (in fact, he had a chance for that, and rejected it on purpose)
- The secondary characters: As a long and well established universe, all of them have their backgrounds and motivations. In the other, Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg are basically forced into the script, just to "rush" a cinematic universe with a single film.
- The original story: Civil war is based on Civil War, the greatest story by Marvel comics of all time, and makes justice to it. The other is based on the cheap story that first introduced the "kill the character for some easy sales, and bring him back in a couple of months" cliche. And it will make justice to it... but is that a good thing?
- The Future: Marvel has made so many great films, and there is still a bright future ahead of this. Black Panther, Spider-Man, Iron Man 4, Ant-Man 2, Infinity War, etc. DC ruined things so badly (even Deadpool outgrossed them), that they are already considering to abandon the idea of a shared universe.
Film Once more a great movie... but doesn't really live up to its title
Sooo finally saw Captain America 3 Civil War, the adaptation of a comic everyone hates but me. Now, what is there to say about this new entry in the MCU?
Well... it's great, once more... but I still have some problems with it.
Now, I will start with the good. As usual, the movie is great when it comes to the visuals. The special effects are great, so are the costumes. They actually managed to make Crossbones' costume's work. The actors do a good job. The new characters who get added get a better amount in screentime than in Batman vs Superman, appearing enough to make an impact but not to the point they overshadow the others. Black Panther is great, and Tom Holland is by far my favourite cinematic Spider-Man to date: he FINALLY looks like a teenager, and strikes the good balance between Adorkable teenager and snarky badass, something I really needed to see after a specific series did to the character. This Zemo, despite being an In-Name-Only version of the comic book counterpart, still is an awesome villain of his own right: a guy who looks like a perfectly average gus yet turns out to be a psychotic mastermind, while still having a sympathetic motivation. And THANKS GOD, he doesn't die, making him the much needed replacement to Loki as a compelling recurring villain. The jokes, as usual, were hilarious, and the movie definitely makes a better job at giving both sides understandable motives than the comic did. Finally, they made Vision less of a Mary-Sue than in Age of Ultron, and gave a nice development to his relationship with Scarlet Witch.
So, if there is so much good stuff, then, what is my problem with the movie? Well, there are small bits, like Crossbones joining the long list of potentially good villains being wasted as one-shot in these movies. But for the most part, my issue can be summed up to one line: it doesn't deliver what it promised.
I have no problem with this movie diverging from its source material; I know it's necessary, and even though I liked the comic, I knew it wasn't perfect. But here is the issue: this is supposed to be Civil WAR. And really, it isn't; much like Age of Ultron ended up being "Roughly one week of Ultron", the Avengers here end up having only two real battles, one of which only involved the two leaders plus a non-Avenger. Worse, the second conflict isn't even related to the registration thing; In fact, that whole thing, despite being handled so well, is in fact more or less abandoned in the second half of the movie so we can focus on the Bucky/Zemo subplot. Which is awesome too of course, but still, They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot.
Overall, Captain America Civil War is great as a Marvel movie. But as a Civil War adaptation? Not so much. Say what you want about the comic, at least it felt like a real war.
Film 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.
Film AWESOME!!! (SPOILER-FREE)
It seems the previous critics before me don't reflect the general and professional positivity and love "Captain America: Civil War" has been receiving so I'll make this review brief (and spoiler-free) so as to hold over until more professional (and most importantly more positive and fun-loving) critics can come along.
It's a great blockbuster with smaller but more personal stakes (in contrast to typical collateral-damage-heavy set-pieces of most Superhero movies) that really allow characterization to shine, but still delivers on the levity and kickass action while impressively managing to balance/juggle every character and make both sides of the conflict (Steve Rogers vs Tony Stark) look equally sympathetically with valid points for both views making it ambiguous as to who to root for.
In many ways, the movie is two halves: One half is the sequel to Captain America: The Winter Soldier where Steve Rogers is trying to deal with a new world while salvaging what's left of his old one as the plot builds up to and then explodes into the other half which is essentially "Avengers 2.5" and truly earns the title Civil War. It's also FAR superior to the source material as all these characters have undergone Character Development in the dozen+ movies of the MCU so no there's no unnecessary-Character Derailment-for-the-sake-of-conflict here.
In an aversion of Trailers Always Spoil, what you see in the trailers is only a mere tiny fraction of what the movie has to offer. Easily one of the best of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and worth multiple watches.
5 out of 5 stars. Best movie of 2016
NOTE: "Minimum System Requirements" (Otherwise you'll be lost narrative-wise)
- The Avengers: Establishes each Avenger's personality and traits
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Establishes Cap's views and the Winter Soldier
- Avengers: Age of Ultron: Follow-up to The Avengers that establishes new characters while directly setting up the events of this movie.
Film It's a good movie... but not that great.
I think that it's an interesting movie. I can understand the logic of both main heroes: Tony wants to save Avengers and make them accountable for their actions (which I agree to), Steve doesn't think that governments could be trusted to act in the intersests of people as much as they could do, and he thinks (to my mind, he's right), that Bucky is innocent. The special effects are good, and the tragic atmosphere of heroic friends fighting each other has been done splendidly ( and the Big Bad using its situation in his interests is done very well.) "Divided we fall", indeed. The problem is that the main conflict (of accepting Sokovia accords or not) is left unresolved. This conflict is left to battling around Bucky. I have nothing against this plot, but it isn't the ONLY main plot. Multiple super soldiers like Winter Soldiers, Wanda and Vision, .... It's messy. To me, Age of Ultron was better. That's it. 7.5 from 10.
Film What is this mixed feeling I have about this movie?
Even though I don't particularly like MCU anymore (for variety of reasons), but I can admit that some movies were great. This movie... is not one of those movies for me.
Pros:
Meh:
Bad:
I... don't know how to explain it, I just... didn't feel anything about this movie except disappointment. It didn't feel special, even though it should have been. It's not awful, but it's not great either, playing in a safe zone. 6/10 for me. Not a bad movie, but I felt only disappointment.