On March 13th 2016, I embarked on a full re-watch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films - finishing up with Ant-Man last night. Today I went to my Gold Class session of Captain America: Civil War. I booked this ticket as soon as they went on sale. The level of anticipation and excitement has been feverishly building for a long long time. It all culminated this morning.
After all of the films revisited and ranked, I suppose the one thing I was pretty sure of going in was that I was going to love it. In fact, it was probably near on impossible for me to not love it. So, guess what happened - the impossible did not happen. I loved it - review over.
No, just kidding. I got few more things to say. Anthony and Joe Russo delivered in 2014 what I consider to be the best MCU entry - Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Well, I did have that belief up until now. Now, I am not so sure. Some of you may be wondering about The Avengers film - well, I love that too, and sometimes struggle with which one out of that and Winter Soldier I love more. It is a first world problem - that struggle.
The team behind this film take the great aspects of Winter Soldier and amp it up a few more notches. That is - great story telling and exciting action set pieces. Couple those two with very very good scripting and character interaction, and it is difficult to even walk away from this film without enjoying it. Whether you think it is the best or not, well, we can debate that shit till the end of time. Hell, I might not even debate it - I'd just agree.
The story - it seems simple on the surface. Steve Rogers and Tony Stark don't agree with each other, so they fight about it. It really wasn't a simple one though. There are a lot of layers to the story. That is what I really enjoyed about Winter Soldier, and they've pulled off another deeply engaging film with real emotional weight to it. What really surprised me though was how difficult it was to pick a side. The character arcs and their reasons for opposing each other were very well done. I don't want to go too much into it - because I like to write reviews that are generally non-spoiler material. I walked away from this film probably leaning towards Team Cap, but, it was not an easy decision - I still love Iron Man.
The action - like Winter Soldier, it feels more tangible. Is that the right word? Hmmm. Although we're dealing with superheroes, it just feels more grounded. In particular, the fighting feels like a souped up Jason Bourne film. You feel those hits. The overall explosions and shit like that seemed a bit more restrained in this film as well. It is definitely about the conflict and the character's struggle. Don't get me wrong, there is some great great set pieces, but, it is very different to The Avengers and Age of Ultron - hell, even quite different in some ways to Winter Soldier. Once you watch, or if you have, I hope you see what I mean. If not, then what the fuck aye!
Ok, what else is there. Cool story, cool action. Characters - we've got our favourites here, plus another couple added to the mix. Black Panther is introduced well - so well, I am quite excited to see more of him. I believe he has a solo film coming up, so I'm keen to see more exploration of his character and origin. The big one people are talking about is Spider-Boy...yep, he is an actual teenage boy this time. No, he is not actually called Spider-Boy, he is still Spider-Man. Very different to the interpretations we've seen so far - well, just younger and less mature I suppose. He's got a solo adventure coming next year. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Aunt May as well ;-)
All up, we've got another great entry in the MCU. Not all have been great though. In fact, I reckon 7 out of 13 are great films - but the rest a pretty damned good as well. This one sits near the top - if not on top. I need another viewing. I'll give it a few weeks I think. After so many superhero films in the last 6 weeks, with a lot more actually watched in the last 2 or 3 weeks, I actually could be experiencing superhero fatigue. Don't worry about me though, it is a good kind of fatigue.
4.5/5
I finally saw this one. I wish I hadn't learned of the inclusion of Peter Parker beforehand as it would have been great to see unexpected. I felt the constant argument between CA and IM went nowhere as they ignored the repetition of one another's point for two hours. The film had fun action so I'd rate it 3.5/5.
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