Movie Review - Captain America: Civil War

   I'm calling it: there has never been a better time to be a Marvel superhero fanatic. Case in point: Captain America: Civil War, the highly anticipated, yet puzzlingly titled sequel to 2014's Winter Soldier, one of the best superhero movies ever made. Can this one live up to the hype? Is it a better superhero vs. superhero movie than Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice? Let's find out.

   Taking place about a year after Age of Ultron, the story follows (most of) the Avengers, who are under fire by people who have suffered personal and financial losses due to the heroes' destructive globe-trotting exploits. When the UN proposes an oversight agreement to make the super-team more accountable, the heroes are split into two opposing factions. Captain America leads the side opposed to it, while Iron Man leads the side in favour of it. The two sides clash, deeper stuff goes on, the plot thickens. The story is partially based off the 2006 event comic of the same name, though it drifts pretty far from the original story, especially towards the end. While I did like that comic (most people didn't) it's probably better that the movie did its own thing (though it does keep true to the whole “vilify Iron Man” thing). It provides for some pretty cool plot twists. It's just a shame that the whole Civil War part is left partially unresolved at the end. Like Winter Soldier, Civil War takes on the feel of a spy-thriller movie rather than a cartoony adventure. The movie raises an important issue of political nature, but just like the previous movie they sidestep around the debate when (SPOILER ALERT) it's revealed that it was all the work of Hydra. What, are we just supposed to forget about that grieving mother who talked with Tony Stark near the beginning? Was she a Hydra agent too?

   As you probably already know, Civil War boasts an all-star cast full of your favourite Marvel Cinematic Universe heroes of the past eight years or so. Pretty much the only ones missing are Thor, Hulk, and Nick Fury. In their place we get Spider-man, Ant Man, Black Panther, and even General Ross from way back, from 2008's Incredible Hulk. In fact there's so many characters that it begs the question of why this is considered a Captain America movie and not an Avengers movie. A significant amount of screen time (I'd say around 50%) doesn't feature Cap. This is just as much an Iron Man movie as it is a Captain America movie. Oh well, I guess it's not that big a deal.

   I have to say, the new Spider-man is great. Played by Tom Holland, he's a fun character to see in action, though I did think his voice was a little too high-pitched. His Ditko-esque costume looks great. They must have borrowed from the Deadpool playbook in giving his mask some measure of expression through the moving eyes. Well done.

   I also like what they did with the Winter Soldier. He's still a tortured and intense character, but he now has no problem being a team player. He's even capable of taking part in jokes. This is how character development should be done.

   With the Russo brothers in the director's chair(s), we get the same level of high-quality production we saw in Winter Soldier. However there were just a couple things that bothered me. First, the action scenes in the first half-hour or so are not easy to watch. It suffers from the old familiar combination of shaky cam and choppy editing. The rest of the movie looks OK, though. Another thing I noticed is that a couple of the subtitles (from spoken Russian) have grammar errors! For instance, rather than congratulating Bucky on his completed mission (“Well done, soldier.”), some dude instead sees fit to inform Bucky on how he likes his soldiers cooked (“Well done soldier.”).

   There were also a couple plot points/holes that disappointed me. It's mentioned early on that Tony Stark and Pepper Potts' relationship isn't doing so well. This is never brought up again, almost as if there was no point in it even being mentioned. There's also this part which looks like it's setting up a bunch of new villains for the heroes to fight towards the end, but this opportunity was completely wasted – by an off-screen event, no less!

   In conclusion, Captain America: Civil War is amazing! I know I complained a lot, but I critique because I care. OK? This movie is fun, at least as good as 2011's Captain America: First Avenger. It's (mostly) well-made and it really feels like crap is on the line. The film's universe is being shaken around and stuff is truly changing and I love it when that kind of thing happens to an established franchise.

Grade: four out of five.