Captain America 3

Superhero films have remained crowd-pulling VFX spectacles since their inception and possibly box office gold with a good screenplay. Good news folks, Civil War has a great story to tell behind those crazy CGI action scenes.

Our protagonists, The Avengers, have smashed the block one too many times whilst saving the world (Avengers, Avengers 2, Captain America 2, Iron Man 3, this list will go on forever). Now the government asks for the Sokovia Accords: accountability and oversight from the Avengers. Half the Avengers believe oversight isn’t an idea to be dismissed if they want to reduce the casualties whilst the central protagonist Steve Rogers believes "the safest hands are still our own". This escalates in a fight that pits half the team against each other. All while this is going on, Steve has to protect his best friend Bucky Barnes from the government, the Accords and the schemes of a new villain. Can Steve protect Bucky? Who is the new villain? Does the new villain’s intentions succeed? How will the Accords shape the future of the Avengers? Civil War has these answers.

As you can tell from the summary, the plot of this movie asks a lot of questions and has a huge potential in shaping the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it. More potential exploited and more questions asked than Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, which despite having so much potential didn’t click for me somehow. This film, however, clicked for me because the jokes are placed appropriately, the new characters get a good account of themselves and the villain despite not having the strength of past villains ends up doing more damage to the Avengers status quo.

The direction by the Russo brothers is top-notch and the writing by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. I was a fan of the foursome’s work in Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier and this film only makes say the same thing twice. In the comics, the Superhero Registration Act was a legislation passed that all superhero activities must be registered and regulated. This storyline was a great trigger for conflict because there was face-offs, death, imprisonment and a struggle for optimism. In this movie, the writers keep out the "registration" part and focus on government oversight. This is a good move because cinematically X-Men and Avengers aren’t linked so only certain aspects can be adapted onto the big screen.  

Another credit I’d like to give to the foursome. In the film, they’ve adopted a clever role reversal. Captain America known as "God’s righteous man" is forced to become an anti-hero of sorts in an attempt to reinforce his ideologies whereas Iron Man, dangerously lingering on impulsiveness in his "save-the-world" stance is represented as what the world wants to see as the "hero". This plot point is another underrated reason of why the action-lacked climax works so well.

The action must be given a special mention. The Lagos action scene is terrific for its awesome coordination between the Avengers. The culmination of this scene is what drives the resulting conflict. The airport action scene which was a major talking point of social media when the film was released. The explosions, the martial arts choreography, the technology, the banter, everything in this scene was perfect. You can sense the struggle of the Avengers not wanting to hurt their friends whilst at the same time having to uphold their values. Then there’s the climax. Any true Marvel fan will appreciate the epic-ness of this fight as it’s superbly choreographed between Iron Man vs Captain America and the Winter Soldier whilst at the same time, your inner child wishes they weren’t up against each other.

Black Panther and Spider-Man are the newest entrants of the franchise and I believe they deserve a separate paragraph of their own. I’d seen Black Panther in my childhood as a guest appearance in the Fantastic Four TV Series and instantly became a fan of his Batman-vibe. So seeing him on the big-screen had the fanboys excited. A key reason I liked Black Panther’s arc because the actor playing him, Chadwick Boseman, brings out the relentless pursuit without looking like an aimless killing machine. Though he benefits from good writing, I think it’s the acting and the eye expressions that did the trick.

Spider-Man’s debut in the MCU was long overdue. Though he’s made five appearances courtesy of Sony, the Marvel incarnation easily gets more right than wrong. The boy playing Spider-Man is the college-going age and his Aunt May is correctly his mother’s sister’s age and not his grandmother. Though his suit has too much Iron Man influence and that initially bothered me a bit, I eventually got over it. The actor playing him easily brings out the innocence, confusion and bravery of a school-going-teenager-turned crime fighter.

Onto the rest of the cast, Chris Evans and Robert Downey Junior get the maximum screen time. Robert Downey Junior gets to add more layers to his characters rather than be a self-destructive playboy. Chris Evans does everything we’ve seen him do before yet still appeals every time. I’d suggest the franchise do something new with his character before he becomes repetitive.

Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen share a warm chemistry as Vision and Scarlet Witch and are given better material to work on than their last film. Anthony Mackie and Paul Rudd bring a lot of fun to the proceedings as Falcon and Ant-Man. It was great to see Frank Grillo reprise his character as Crossbones. His send-off was really good even though I wanted to see more of him. William Hurt returns to role of Thaddeus Ross after eight years and surprise surprise still hates the good guys. Jeremy Renner has a brief appearance and his role has a lot more sass than his previous outings gave him. Daniel Brühl deserves a special mention as Helmut Zemo. He is easily one of the best villains Marvel has produced and is more memorable for the intrigue and ruthlessness he brings to the role. Although this hasn’t been written accurately comic book wise, it’s still a great character.     

Overall, there’s great action, great characters and an interesting storyline to bind them together. Captain America: Civil War is definitely worth a try.