After over a year of waiting and three separate viewings, I think I’m now ready to write my review for my most anticipated movie of this year. Yes. Most anticipated. Over Batman v Superman, over Doctor Strange, over Suicide Squad. If I can take us back a bit to 2007. Iron Man was gonna hit theaters next year, and none of us ever thought that it would blossom the most successful and carefully planned Cinematic Universe of all time. Now we’re 8 years and 13 movies in, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe has accomplished and continues to accomplish feats I didn’t think possible in comic book cinema. So lets get to it.
THE GOOD
Normally, I start off the “Good” section by comending the performance’s from the cast, but, I mean, do I really have to at this point? Pretty much all of the people in this movie have been their characters for so long, they know what they’re doing. Chris Evans, Scarlett Johannson, Robert Downey Jr., all of these actors know exactly how to inhabit their characters. Even the newer cast who only have one movie under their belt Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany (well, as Vision), Paul Rudd, they know their characters. However, I would like to talk about two people in particular; Chadwick Boseman and Tom Holland. Boseman is a phenomenal actor, who, surprisingly doesn’t have some huge filmography under his belt, but I think he is perfect to capture the intimidating, calculating coldness of Black Panther. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve imagined anyone else as Black Panther and his side-character role in this movie has me nothing but excited for his solo-movie. Now, I know we only saw about 30 minutes of Tom Holland, and I may be getting a bit ahead of myself, but I think Tom Holland might just be the best Spider-Man we have ever gotten. The problem the previous actors have had was a lack to handle the duality of Spider-Man and Peter Parker. Toby McGuire was a great shy, meek and down-on-his-luck Parker, but a bland and forgettable Spider-Man, while Andrew Garfield was a great wise-cracking, fun-having Spider-Man, but too much of a cute, charming skater-boy as Peter. Holland manages to be a downtrodden nerd while Peter and a confident superhero while in the suit, and even though we only saw a little bit of him, I gotta say, he’s damn near perfect in this movie. And if you’ve stuck with me for a while, you’ll know Spider-Man in the MCU was an idea I was pretty adamently against, but I really do have to give Marvel props here, his introduction and subsequent role into the MCU was great, and didn’t feel forced or gimmicky.
Now, one thing that should strike you about Civil War is the use of Marvel’s long history as an opportunity for some really solid character developement. I mean, the stark (pun intended I guess) contrast between Tony in Iron Man and Tony in Civil War is something, I think that can only have been possible through the years of history and work Marvel has put into his character. This goes for every character, but I think Tony is the prime example, he’s made the slow gradual transition into a truely tragic character and you really have to give Marvel their due credit. They took their time, they didn’t rush anything (Like another comic book company is trying to do with their movie universe…) and really fleshed these characters out.
One of the best aspects about Civil War is it’s fight sequences. Now, I’m not a huge action-movie type guy. Give me well written dialogue over a fight scene any day, but goddamn. This has to be some of the best fight choreography I have seen in a superhero movie period. Everyone’s talking about the fight at the airport (which is epic, I’ll give them that) but I think the fight between Cap, Winter Soldier, and Black Panther in Romania is my favorite fight scene in the whole movie. Seriously, this movie could stand on just its action-sequences alone, but the good thing is, it doesn’t have to.
As someone whose stuck with this Universe since the beginning one thing I really liked about Civil War is where its taking us. This is a huge step for Marvel because it ends on a pretty sour note. The Avengers are torn apart, with half of them in hiding, it does a really great job at finally mixing the conventions of the universe up so that when Thanos finally roles around, the heroes will have some personal shit to figure out. A great ending to the Captain America trilogy and a great introduction into Phase Three.
THE BAD
Now, when I say “bad” for Civil War, its a bit tricky. Some of the problems Civil War is in danger of having, it narrowly avoids, but I think they’re worth mentioning.
To some, the movie could seem a bit overstuffed. I mean, you have all the Avengers plus Black Panther, Spider-Man and Ant-Man all in a Captain America solo-movie. And while all of these characters manage to find their own little place in the story where they don’t really ever feel forced or dishonest, the movie comes very close with trying to do too much. You know when you pour a glass of milk just a bit to high, and you can still drink it normally, but have to be kind of careful when you carry it? That’s how I would describe parts of this movie. There’s ALMOST too much, they do what they did well, but I can see how it would be too much for people to handle.
The pacing of the movie is also sort of like that. One of the problems Batman v Superman had was that it was always “on” so to speak. There wasn’t a lot of time to rest. It was one big scene after another and that can really be a problem in film. This movie manages to calm down from time to time, but it also begins running into that problem. Luckily, the feeling of one epic scene after another is dampened by scenes like Wanda and Vision in the kitchen, or Tony and Steve talking in the office in Germany, but the slower scenes really don’t last as long as they should before jumping right back into the action. But again, its nowhere near the level of pacing issues Batman v Superman had, and they manage, again, to just narrowly avoid this problem.
Civil War takes a staple Captain America villain, Helmut Zemo and kind of boils him down to a slightly above-average Marvel villain. His role in the movie is cool and different, and Daniel Bruhl does a great job, but he’s not exactly as could as he maybe could’ve been, but no one went to this movie to see Zemo anyway, and Cap’s conflict with Tony is far more significant that his with Zemo.
I also think a major problem Marvel is beginning to face is becoming too dependent on it’s own continuity. Now, as a fan I really love the fact that Marvel can everything that has happened in-universe so far to inform it’s other movies, but if you’re a casual fan, it’s gotta kind of suck. I always use the example of someone who maybe really likes Captain America, but maybe isn’t really interested in the Iron Man movies or The Avenegers movies. Up until now, they probably would’ve been able to perfectly follow the plot. First Avenger and Winter Soldier can kind of flow into eachother without much hesitation. “Oh, so after Steve unthawed, he worked for SHIELD, got it” but Civil War is not like that AT ALL. I mean, if you didn’t atleast see Age of Ultron or don’t have a good knowledge of comics, I think you’ll have a really hard time understanding who or why some of these characters are here. So now there’s a guy who can shrink, a girl who can do magic (?) and a pink and green robot-thing with a stone in his head? I just hope Marvel doesn’t dig itself further into this whole in the future.
All in all, I loved Civil War, definitely one of Marvel’s best and a great way to complete Cap’s trilogy. However if I’m being honest, I still perfer Winter Soldier to Civil War, and I doubt anything will ever top Guardians (in my personal opinion) but I really loved this movie and it did a great job furthering a Universe I already have an immense love and respect for.
8/10
THE UGLY
Nothing, everyone is beautiful
