Captain America: Civil War

0    15. Captain America: Civil War 

By this stage of the continuation of Marvel’s movie mission, Captain America was a well-seasoned superhero. He started it all in 1945 as The First Avenger, was crucial in the formation of The Avengers, and showed he could hold his own against The Winter Soldier. It’s been eight years since Tony Stark announced to the world he was Iron Man, and the planet had been forever changed. The good citizens of planet earth were no longer strangers to the existence of super-enhanced humans running around, and as much as the world was thankful for their heroes, the damage from their efforts was starting to pile up. 

This is the set up for “Captain America: Civil War”, which brings our heroes together, and for the first time, will divide them all. Watching the film feels like a reunion of all the Avengers, although two of its biggest players – Thor and Hulk – sit this one out. The show belongs to Cap of course, but even Iron Man gets in on the action, and the stage is set for a battle between these two very different heroes. 

With each phase and each film entry in the ongoing series, the talent behind the Avengers related films were just getting better and better. The real game changer was bringing in the Russo Brothers to direct The Winter Soldier; they elevated that film to a level not expected, and showed they were the masters of action and high stakes drama in the superhero playing field. They return again here on directing duties, to continue to flesh out the character of Steve Rogers, and raise the stakes even higher for the ultimate hero smackdown. 

From the opening scene were Captain America and a few of his team take down some baddies, but accidentally kill a dozen civilians in the process, General Ross from “The Incredible Hulk” returns on the scene to issue The Sokovia Accord; a policy willing to be signed by 117 countries calling the Avengers out for their actions, which although have saved the world on several occasions, are also causing damage beyond repair; buildings can be replaced of course, but the toll on innocent bystanders was starting to mount up. When Tony Stark is approached by the mother of a college student skilled in the Sokovia attack (from “Avengers: Age of Ultron”), Stark has an attack of conscious and tries to convince the whole team to sign the accord. Naturally, Steve Rogers/Captain America sees it differently, and ever defiant, disagrees to sign the forms. He splits for Europe on personal business, and the team begin to decide which side of the Accord they sit on. 

This conflict is what drives the action forward in Civil War, as well as a sub-plot involving the return of The Winter Soldier who is accused of killing the King of Wakanda. This brings out his son, T’Challa, and here you will have your first introduction to the Black Panther ahead of his solo film. The premise of the film, and all the characters it includes, means the film is epic in scope and similar in size and feel to the previous Avengers films. Although it’s not one of the Avengers films itself, the events that  transpire here will play more of a part on the unity of the team than they first realise, and the actions of all involved will determine how effective the Avengers can be when Thanos comes knocking on Earth’s door in a few movies time. 

There is so much going on in this film, with a wide canvas of locations, characters and dramatic tension to sort through, its running time is longer than most of the previous films in the series. But you won’t be thinking about the films length; from its smash-bang opening,  the story movies quickly and doesn’t stop, taking the audience halfway around the world, into the past and back to the present day, where even more characters are revisited (Ant-Man) and introduced, including a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, who is recruited by Stark to join the fight. This was certainly the moment in Civil War fans were waiting for, as the trailer showed the web slinger make his entrance ahead of his first solo film (and third reincarnation) with “Spider-Man: Homecoming”. 

The technical precision of each action scene, driven purely by the characters motivations is the biggest strength of this film. You have characters running away from attack, running towards each other to help out, and running away from each other as loved ones are avenged, and pollical tensions mount. Each encounter tears our Avengers further apart, and when it all comes to a confrontation at an airport, the stage is set for the biggest Avenger fight in history, where you won’t find any aliens, robots or terrorists involved – it’s Captain America and his team versus Iron Man and his cronies. Although they fight to what appears to be the death, none of them wish to kill each other – rather just stop them in their tracks, so each side can emerge triumphant. But with each character on the battle field, fighting for their view point on the new world they live in, their strengths will come out, as well as their weaknesses, and it creates one fantastic action scene after another. 

Captain America: Civil War is another stellar entry in the series, and by this point the regular Marvel audience were so deeply invested in these characters and the story line, that we couldn’t wait any longer for the next instalment. In fact by this point, we were seeing at least 2-3 Marvel films a year, as our new characters took the spotlight and our original Avengers became divided and scattered around the world (or the Universe in Thor and Hulks case) to sort out their own issues. 

If you haven’t seen any Marvel /Avenger films at the time of reading this review, I recommend you don’t watch Civil War, as you will be lost in the depth of the story and complexity of the characters and their interactions at this point. But, I’m guessing if you’ve read this then you have seen the film, and probably loved it like I did, and have seen it more than once. I enjoyed watching it for the third time to write this view, and as we get closer to Avengers: Endgame, my excitement for the finalise is just getting bigger. 

Post Credit scenes – things were now getting bigger and bolder in the world of Avengers, and as audiences realised part of the film was to stick around for the credits and see the reveals, the scenes got juicier. The two post-credit scenes following Civil War are no exception, with the first showing Bucky and Steve Rogers talking about him going back under until he can control his mind. Bucky (Winter Soldier) enters a cryo-freeze chamber, and is covered in ice and mist for what we assume is a suspended sleep. Then Cap and Black Panther talk about protecting Bucky for as long as they can, as they look out a window to a misty jungle, where an enormous statue of a black panther is perched at the top of a mountain. The second scene shows a young Peter Parker – introduced in Civil War as the new Spider-Man – resting on his bed, being looked after by his Aunt Mae. Once she leaves the room, he pulls out an electronic bracelet on his wrist he was hiding under his sleeve, turns it on, and we see a holographic Spider-Man mask projected onto his ceiling. Ooohhhh….

Continue with "Black Panther" 


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