Film Review – Captain America: Civil War
3 min read
The story-line for Captain America: Civil War shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. The name alone, not to mention the trailers, pretty much give away that the movie ends up with the Avengers in an all -out war against each other, the two opposing sides led by Steve Rogers/Captain America, and Tony Stark/Iron Man. But, the story of how they get there is surprisingly compelling. CA:CW achieves what Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice wasn’t able to: a richly woven story-line that convincingly explains why these superheroes, supposedly fighting for the greater good, would want to destroy each other. Unlike the superficial treatment given BvS:DOJ , CA: CW is more complex and overall much more believable thanks to writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who also penned Captain America: Winter Soldier and Thor 2: The Dark World.
Considering the cast and story, the film feels much more like an Avengers film and actually does play a crucial role in setting up the forthcoming 2-part Avengers: Infinity War films. Most of the Avengers characters are there except Thor and Hulk, along with the introduction of a few new characters namely Black Panther, and Spiderman. Though not really a new character, Spiderman is new to this Marvel world, and one of the few gripes I have with the film. Though played very well by talented young actor Tom Holland (In the Heart of the Sea), Spiderman is not integrated very well into the story and it comes off as a blatant attempt to tie-in his character for the sake of re-booting a sagging franchise. His sudden appearance makes him seem somewhat out of place. On the other hand, TChalla/Black Panther is one of the coolest new characters and I can’t wait to see more of him (and we will get to since he has his own movie slated for release in 2018).
Visual effects in CA:CW are off-the-chart of course, and some of the best yet in all of the previous Marvel films. There are a couple of really cool new tricks introduced, like Tony Stark’s watch that turns into an Iron Man glove, and Falcon’s sidekick Redwing that is not an actual falcon, but a cool super high-tech drone complete with camera and guided missiles. Overall the effects are dizzying, and I can’t wait to see the film again to take more time to appreciate them.
Director- siblings Anthony and Joe Russo have crafted one of the best Marvel films to date, and I was excited to see they are slated to direct the next installments in the Avengers: Infinity War series parts 1 and 2. As typical for Marvel, Captain America: Civil War leaves many unanswered questions and gives glimmers into what the next installments may hold. The two have accomplished something rare and special by blending the Captain America and Avengers worlds together so well, and have managed to formulate a franchise that actually gets better with each installment. I’m excited for what’s to come, but also to see this film again. It’s got so much going on, not only visually but with the characterization and story-line, that you can’t possibly catch it all in just one viewing.
::: Renowned For Sound Technical Director and Film Reviewer ::: Robert is an IT geek, movie fan and part-time movie reviewer/editor. Robert also looks after the ‘behind the scenes’ technical elements of Renowned For Sound.