Friday, June 3, 2016

Film Review: Marvel's Captain America: Civil War

Directed by: Joe and Anthony Russo
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Martin Freeman, Marissa Tomei
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action/Adventure
Runtime: 2 hr. 27 min.

Captain America: Civil War is one of Marvel's finest to date. Although the film does focus on -yet another- team up, the plot fluidly picks up after the events of Winter Soldier, focusing largely on Captain America and Bucky. Age of Ultron plot threads fit in as well, which could easily have been overcomplicating matters, but instead drives the central plot forward. As you may have heard, or at least garnered from the title and poster, events in the film eventually lead to our heroes -particularly Cap and Iron Man- having different opinions when it comes to signing a contract, which places the Avengers as a government-controlled regime, rather than a private source for good. After his many perilous decisions over the last few films Tony Stark decides control is necessary to make sure the team doesn't go AWOL, but Cap, of course, is against such control and believes the team should continue to work free from political agendas. The setup may seem like boring politics, but it's also deeply ingrained in the characters' behaviors up to this point, and the recruitments for Team Iron Man and Team Captain America do not seem out of place or forced.

Some new recruits for this film, Black Panther and Spiderman (thanks to Sony's new deal with Marvel), are shining examples of how, even in such an already packed narrative, Marvel continues to define its characters without submitting them to caricatures, subpersonas, or plot devices. Sure, Spiderman plays a major part of Civil War in the comics, and his previous solo films have made a lot of money, so throwing him in seems like no-brainer fanservice. Again, however, the way in which both him and Black Panther are introduced feels organic to the storyline, and both are given enough screen time and character growth to be meaningful and memorable. As a side note, Tom Holland is easily the best Peter Parker we have had yet.

If the film has any problems it's the final act. The second act consists largely of the build up and finally outbreak of the "Civil War" feud; I won't go into details, but it's up there with the New York battle in terms of pure joy and visceral action. Afterward, the final act consists largely of falling action, which services the Captain America plot thread well enough, but seems out of place and not nearly as exciting as the act two progression. Still it's a solid enough finale, and the final fight -while not nearly as grandiose in scale- is definitely filled with white-knuckle intensity.

Captain America: Civil War admittedly has a few narrative setbacks, particularly when focusing on tertiary plot threads, but overall it stands as one of the premiere entries in Marvel's canon, and one that reignites a franchise heading into its third act. 4/5

- The Catalyst



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