Review of Captain America: Civil War (2016) by Anzaan A — 19 Nov 2017

Superhero fatigue is a problem that many people think is starting to settle in. Fantastic Four was an abysmal film and it made less than Spy Kids 3D: Game Over. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice received terrible reviews and had one of the biggest Friday to Sunday drops. Are people sick of these films? Well, not if you're in the Marvel family it seems. For one thing, Marvel actually takes pride and careful attention to detail with their films, both the previously mentioned titles are rush jobs for specific reasons. Civil War is proof that the good guy vs good guy aspect of superhero films can be done right.

The world wants to hold the Avengers accountable for all the death and destruction they've caused over the years, so the United Nations put together the Sokovia Accords, which means the Avengers would work for them. Tony Stark supports this. Steve Rogers does not. Things get more complicated when Bucky turns up again and is the prime suspect in a bombing that kills dozens of people. With two prominent members of the Avengers on opposing sides of the issue, will the team ever be the same again?

Civil War has a lot going for it. Stellar cast, great characters, top-notch special effects, excellent action sequences, comedic relief and...well the list goes on. The Russo brothers have delivered a slick action film that makes me comfortable with the fact that they seem to be at the helm of the Marvel franchise now. When The Avengers was first announced, I thought it was going to be dreadful, then they said these guy named Joss Whedon was going to be directing it and my expectations instantly changed. Whedon delivered a great superhero film that set up the rest of the films to come. The Russo brothers now have the task of juggling all these characters and they do an admirable job.

Each character has their shining moments, but the core of the story is Stark vs Rogers. So while it's fun to have Rudd come in and have a few laughs, I don't think anyone is expecting huge things from his character. Same with Spider-Man, who is forced in here to set up his future films within this weird shared universe with Sony. Those are not complaints, they both work wonderfully in the film. If I were to find a complaint it would be in the thought process of the villain, Zemo. His plan is so painstakingly convoluted that I wonder how it even worked at all. Too many things need to fall in place for him to get what he wants and it distracts from the emotional power of the climax. The actors and the history with the characters manage to save it a bit and do raise the stakes, but I had my problems nonetheless.

The grand spectacle at the airport between these characters was indeed a highlight. When you have characters like Vision and Scarlet Witch, who are so powerful they could end the fight instantly, it's a good idea to have them simply do damage control. I wondered how they would handle these two, they did a decent job of it. After this film, I can only hope that Infinity Wars goes this route and gives each Avenger a worthy foe to fight and not a hoard of mindless foot soldiers, which is exactly what the previous two Avengers films did.

Fans of the series will be pleased, the action is great (a bit shaky at first, but they let it breath later on) and some great introductions of new characters that will bring a fresh perspective to the franchise. Black Panther for one, steals a lot of the scenes he is in. Bold move to have such a big character "show up" in the film without a solo movie to set him up, but it works here. The cast is diversifying as more and more characters come into these films and I'm glad to see it. Tony Stark is great, RDJ does a great job with him, but we've seen the guy have a big role in these films 6 times now. I get that Marvel is scared to let some of these characters go because they are so integral to everything, but I honestly believe something along these lines needs to happen to bring more emotional depth to the franchise. For a studio willing to take chances are projects like Guardians of the Galaxy, they need to take a chance.1st, Civil War is basically a copy of BvS. A government building gets blown up by a bomb, killing a prominent government official. A villain manipulating heroes into fighting.

2nd, too many characters just popping up without any reason at all and just shoehorned into the movie - Ant-Man/Giant Man - Black Panther - Hawkeye (was retired, now suddenly abandons the girlfriend and kids to come back and help a fugitive escape from the authorities) - The Annoying Spider-Kid (more annoying than Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace; did more talking than fighting).

3rd, after all the buildup about a disagreement over the issues of collateral damage and government oversight of the heroes, those issues were completely trivialized by a "big fight" that was nothing more than a friendly sparring contest with bad one-liners thrown in: "Are we still going to be friends after this?" "We haven't met before?" "Mr Stark. What do I do now?" "You have a METAL arm?" "I'm from Queens. I'm from Brooklyn.".

Was the "Civil War" supposed to be a real fight for something they believed in, or just a "Joke-Off" to determine who could deliver the best jokes?

4th, MCU fans had been saying for months that Captain America was justified in opposing government oversight of the heroes because he didn't want the Avengers to be controlled by HYDRA. But it wasn't HYDRA who requested the Sokovia accords. It was the United Nations.

The Avengers had caused massive deaths and destruction so the United Nations wanted oversight of the Avengers. But Captain America didn't want the Avengers to be held responsible and have to answer to the people for the massive deaths and destruction that they caused.

Captain America wanted the Avengers to be the supreme authority (exactly like Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam Hussein made themselves the supreme authority) to make decisions on what's best for the people instead of letting the elected representatives of the people make decisions on what's best for the people (like the way a Democracy works). So basically, Captain America opposes Democracy and favors Tyranny.

5th, plenty of plot holes and lazy, contrived writing. Tony Stark had called Secretary of State Ross to evacuate the airport prior to the big fight. So Ross knew before the big fight that the Captain America and the Bucky were planning to hijack a plane at that airport.

So why didn't Ross just have military fighter jets hovering in the sky nearby in case they succeed in hijacking a plane? There's already a "shoot on sight" order for Bucky so if they succeed in hijacking a plane, then the military fighter jets can just fly in and either shoot at their plane to force them to land or shoot down their plane.

Since Captain America and Bucky can't fly on their own, their powers are useless when they're inside a plane being fired upon by military fighter jets. And their plane wouldn't be able to evade military fighter jets. But the script needed Captain America and Bucky to escape so that it could set up the final fight between Iron Man and Captain America.

Also, the 1st half of the movie is all about Tony Stark trying to get all the Avengers to sign the Sokovia Accords, which state that the Avengers would operate only when approved by a UN panel. Then in the 2nd half of the movie, Tony recruits Peter Parker to join his team even though Peter is a minor and wouldn't be able to sign a legal document and thus wouldn't be approved by the UN panel to operate under the Sokovia Accords.

Another egregious error is that the whole movie set up Bucky as the killer of Iron Man's parents, thus setting up the main conflict in the movie, but why would there be video footage of their accident on some random back road in 1991? And how did whomever filmed the video footage know to place the camera at that EXACT spot where their car crashed, and not a mile ahead or a mile behind where the car crashed?

If there was video footage, then wouldn't Iron Man or Jarvis or even Ultron have stumbled across it by now? Tony hacked classified government networks in seconds in Iron Man 2, hacked Shield in The Avengers and has apparently been watching Peter Parker on a regular basis. Seems like he would have found video footage of his parents' deaths a long time ago.

And better yet, how could the coroner rule their deaths an accident when the ligature marks around Maria Stark's neck and the fist imprints in Howard Stark's face would have been immediately evident in the autopsy? Was the coroner just incompetent?

Also, Tony Stark believed his parents died in an accident and never suspected foul play at all. So how did Zemo know that their "accident" from 25 years ago was actually foul play? How did Zemo know there was video footage from 25 years ago of Tony's parents being murdered and how did Zemo find that footage when Tony never knew about or found that same footage?

Tony Stark was more angry at Steve Rogers because Steve knew but didn't tell him. So how did Zemo know that Steve knew the "accident" 25 years ago was actually foul play?

Those are massive pills we're asked to swallow that exist only because they conveniently set up the final conflict between Iron Man and Captain America. Now that's some mighty contrived writing.

6th, another forgettable MCU villain. Zemo was about as invisible in Civil War as Luke Skywalker was in The Force Awakens.

7th, critics and haters of BvS complained about how Lex knew Superman is Clark Kent and how Superman knew Batman is Bruce Wayne, but there was no explanation at all for how Tony Stark knew Spider-Man is a high school kid in Queens.