Member review

The end is near, the grand finale of the MCU is only a week away and I for one cannot wait! But before we all start speculating about how this gargantuan journey is going to conclude, let’s look back at one of the MCU’s most popular instalments, “Captain America: Civil War.”

“Captain America: Civil War” is a massive movie. It tears the Avengers apart, wraps up Steve and Bucky’s arcs that began in 2011, continues Tony Stark’s story, plus it introduces Black Panther and Spider-Man AND addresses the fallout of “Avengers Assemble”, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron!” Not many directors could pull off such an arduous task, but thankfully the Russo brothers did a stellar job of balancing so many characters and storylines in one surprisingly tidy narrative. This is not a faultless film as I do have my issues with it, but overall “Captain America: Civil War” is a thrilling ensemble piece with gut-wrenching character drama and complex political themes that must be commended.

As much as I would love to praise each member of the cast individually, there are so many people in this movie that mentioning them all would take a LONG time, so I’ll just go over a few of them.

Chris Evans gives another superb performance as Captain America, he’s endearing, likeable and incredible in both the action sequences and the gripping character driven scenes. This story gives him more range and depth to explore his character, as Steve Rogers contemplates everything he stands for.

Probably the best performance in “Captain America: Civil War” (in my opinion) is Robert Downey Jr.’s seventh turn as Iron Man/ Tony Stark. Downey’s work in the MCU is often downplayed because he “just plays himself” as Stark, although there is definitely some validity to that, you cannot deny how brilliant he is here. Even though we still get the trademark wit and charm, Tony Stark is much more conflicted and anguished in this film because of his previous mistakes. The big reveal at the end of the movie (that we all saw coming) is one of Downey’s most powerfully acted moments in the MCU, he does most of the work with his eyes where the audience can see the rage and grief that is controlling him. What I’m saying is, Robert Downey Jr. is an absolutely phenomenal actor and it’s a travesty that he hasn’t won an Oscar yet!

“Captain America: Civil War” introduced two scene-stealing MCU heroes into the fold, Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther and Spider-Man, played here by Tom Holland. Black Panther is a welcomed addition to the series; Boseman plays him so well, he brings wisdom, charisma and anger to the role which got everybody (including myself) very excited for his solo movie. Tom Holland is by far the best live-action incarnation of Spider-Man yet, unlike the previous versions, the wall-crawler acts like a teenager for once and not a thirty-year old acting like a 1960s teen. With excellent actors portraying them and spectacular action sequences featuring them, “Captain America: Civil War” cemented Black Panther and Spider-Man as two of my favourite characters in the MCU; I cannot wait to see what they do in Phase 4 and beyond!

And finally on the hero’s side, I love the inclusions of Hawkeye and Ant-Man here. Jeremy Renner has always played Hawkeye well, but the MCU has never quite found the right way to utilize him; I really enjoyed his scenes in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” but they were very forced. Here however, Hawkeye gets some fun action beats and great lines of dialogue in a small yet memorable role in the movie. Ant-Man is outstanding here, even though we had only spent one film with him, it was a joy to see him interact with the Avengers and butt heads with some of the heavy-hitters. Also, his heroic moment in the airport battle is breath-taking, I don’t want to spoil what it is but I can assure you, it is magnificent!

Many people dislike the antagonist of this movie, Daniel Brühl as Zemo. Personally, I think that he’s fantastic and quite possibly the most underrated MCU villain. Zemo doesn’t present any sought of physical threat, but mentally, he is a force to be reckoned with. His tragic backstory makes the audience understand why he’s acted the way that he has, even if we can’t forgive what he’s done. Brühl’s enthralling performance coupled together with some engaging character writing makes Zemo an effective and sympathetic villain.

Where “Captain America: Civil War” really excels is with its character drama. The division in the Avengers’ ranks over The Sokovia Accords is wrapped in real human emotions and political debates; the rift between Steve and Tony is much more believable and touching than another superhero vs superhero story from 2016 (that we shall not mention.) The reason why this conflict works as well as it does is down to how well planned out the heroes rocky friendship is, the filmmakers of the MCU did a marvellous job of slowly ripping these characters apart over the course of several stories. Their battle is made more compelling because both of them are right whilst also being wrong.

Steve is correct that doing the right thing should not be a political issue and that most governments have agendas and are out for themselves. On the other hand, people with extraordinary abilities should not be able to run into other countries and blow stuff up without consequences.

Tony is right in saying that the Avengers caused the destruction of Sokovia and should therefore accept that responsibility, but he is wrong that they should be controlled by a United Nations panel.

The action set-pieces in “Captain America: Civil War” have their ups and downs. On the one hand, the airport battle sequence is a dream-come-true for any Marvel fan, filled with jaw-dropping moments and near-iconic shots. The final fight between Cap and Bucky against Iron Man is the best set-piece in the entire movie, it’s beautifully filmed, emotionally charged and hard-hitting, no one is pulling their punches! However, most of the other sequences are ruined by nauseating shaky-cam and atrocious CGI. It’s a shame because the opening scene and the set-piece in the middle of the film are extremely well-choreographed and would be awesome if not for the unpleasant way that they are shot.

This leads us into the issues with “Captain America: Civil War”, the first one being that whilst some of the character drama is believable, not all of the conflicts are realistic. I understand why Cap and Iron Man would fight, but why would Scarlet Witch battle Vision if the two are in love? And why would Scott Lang and Clint Barton leave their families to tussle with their friends? This is probably due to the amount of characters in the movie that not all of them can get rich and defining arcs, it’s not a criticism just a minor nit-pick.

The CGI in “Captain America: Civil War” is abysmal, I don’t understand why the CGI in 2010s “Iron Man 2” and 2012s “Avengers Assemble” is so much better than it is in later films! The Iron Man armour here looks worse than ever, which is a shame because the design of the Mark 46 is really cool; it looks quite good in the darkly lit third act but awful in the airport battle. The moments where Tony is in the suit without the helmet on look so bizarre, it looks as though Robert Downey Jr.’s head is floating in mid-air!

The colour grading here is really ugly, many scenes look like dull, drab and wet cement. The cinematography would be stunning if not for the bland and lifeless tint to everything!

Martin Freeman is in this film for about two minutes, sadly his performance is ruined by one of the worst American accents that I’ve heard. As a huge fan of the BBC series “Sherlock”, I was excited to see Freeman appear in a Marvel movie, but as soon as he started to speak I let out a groan. Why hire such an amazing British actor if you’re going to shackle him with such a terrible accent?!

And finally, the problem with creating a conflict between two beloved characters where neither are completely in the right is that the audience can feel indifferent when the two fight. When I watch Cap and Iron Man punch each other, I can’t choose a side (even though you are supposed to) because I like both characters so much. This is probably an issue with me rather than with the movie itself, I just thought it was worth mentioning.

In conclusion, “Captain America: Civil War” is by no means a perfect film, but it is a very good one. Some of the action is astounding, the character drama is devastating and the story actually has something to say about politics and governments. It’s not my favourite movie in the “Captain America” trilogy as “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is better in every way, but it’s still an entertaining and riveting tale. I can’t wait for Steve and Tony to reconcile and fight together for what may be the last time in “Avengers: Endgame!”