On Captain America: Civil War

I saw it last night. It's the best of the bunch, hands down. GO SEE IT NOW.

Spoilers beneath the cut. You were warned, and I'm not sorry.

The story's a lot more mature and thought-provoking than anything else the Marvel Cinematic Universe has tackled so far. The closest contender is Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but this blows that out of the water. It's also a much more personal struggle for each hero, and as such, you'd be forgiven from the trailers and promotional material for thinking there was no actual villain. Almost everyone's got shit to sort out.

And surprisingly, despite the scope of the issue and the size of the cast, it never actually feels bloated or excessive the way Avengers: Age of Ultron sometimes did. It keeps everything focused and centralized, following a harsh and rigid theme of even their most noble actions having devastating consequences.

Speaking of which, the big question is probably whether I'm Team Cap or Team Iron Man. That's how they generated hype and discussion for this movie: get the two camps out in the open and getting people to discuss who was right.

I don't have a team. None of that matters. Because they're both right. Rogers is right about the Avengers working best under their own power because Ultron and the Chitauri would've gone so much worse otherwise; Stark is right about them needing to answer for when they fuck up like they did with Crossbones at the very beginning (and of course, also with Ultron).

What were my favorite parts? That's probably the other big question, and this is where the spoilers get heavy. I'll break down my favorite elements of the movie, in no particular order.

- Vision in a sweater.
- EVERYTHING about Tom Holland's portrayal of Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Kid's gonna go a long way, and he deserves to, because he is genuinely the best Spider-Man ever put to film. Sorry, Raimi diehards; I was one too, still am, but Marvel did it better for his trial run in this.
- Little tender moment towards the end between Cap and Bucky where they're reminiscing about one of Buck's old flames.
- Zemo. Holy shit Zemo. He's the one who's basically pulling the strings to get these heroes to rip each other to shreds in revenge for the death of his family during Ultron's attack on Sokovia. It's all so subtle, lots of bait-and-switch stuff involving his end goal, and as a rarity for a lead villain, he lives. His plot was perfectly woven into the narrative even among all the infighting, and I can't wait to see what more he offers to the MCU.
- The opening mission against Crossbones. Brilliantly handled, and the best part was the very end where Scarlet Witch stifles his suicide bombing and flings him up in the air... only to accidentally release the explosion right onto a building filled with innocent civilians. That was an extremely uncomfortable way to start a movie in a franchise that set itself apart from its competition by having fun with itself, and it set the tone perfectly.
- Vision in a sweater.
- This one's not a spoiler if you've seen a lot of the merch around, but Ant-Man going Giant-Man. Holy shit that was awesome.
- That entire sequence in the German airport, the all-out brawl that dominated the advertising. The SINGLE best superhero fight ever, and I will personally fight anyone who tries to contest me on that.
- The fact that Iron Man was about to approach Cap as a friend and help him and Bucky stop Zemo from unleashing the other Winter Soldiers... only for Zemo to have shot the Soldiers dead without releasing them and instead opt to drop the bombshell that Bucky killed Tony's parents. And then the most heartbreaking fight of the film commences.
- Black Panther was absolutely STELLAR in this film, and watching him break away from his own thirst for vengeance was extremely satisfying. The Wakanda tease in the mid-credits scene is pretty beautiful too.
- Vision in a sweater.

All in all, Phase Three is off to a GIGANTIC start, kicking off with what I personally believe to be the most riveting MCU movie to date. And this is coming from someone who's held The Avengers up as his favorite movie ever. You have no business NOT seeing this movie, especially not if you've seen enough of Marvel's output to have some emotional investment in these characters. I don't think Doctor Strange, which is coming up in November, has a CHANCE at living up to it now that the bar's set so high, but I'm still excited for it. And I'm strongly reassured that these directors are the perfect ones to headline Avengers: Infinity War.

Also Vision is wearing a sweater. I don't know if I mentioned that, but that image alone is worth the price of admission.

Comments

[RTStephens]

Yeah, really pleased with this movie. Really looking forward to Spiderman: Homecoming and Black Panther's solo movie coming up.

Vision rocked that sweater.

Probably my only two gripes is how characters tend to teleport from one side of the planet to the other. The other is why couldn't Cap and Bucky leave Germany during all the time Stark and Hawkeye were collecting their respective allies? Seems they could have just snuck into the airport before all that could happen. Of course, this would mean we would have missed out on that fantastic fight sequence, so I'll let it slide.

[Vertigo22]

I agree with everything you said.

I'm now also infinitely more hyped to see how Jon Watts and Ryan Coolger handle Spiderman: Homecoming and Black Panther respectively.