Captain American: Civil War Review
All Those Superpowers and They Still Couldn't Free Any Slaves...
So it startled me when I read Marvel's 11 main comic issue series, Civil War. In the story, a group of no name superheroes start a reality TV show where they hunt down and defeat villains. Things go wrong where they fight a villain named Nitro. When trapped, he blows himself up, which takes out a huge chunk of the city, innocent civilians and all.
s that this bill could reduce the freedom of superheroes to act on their own, reducing them to weapons used by the government. Things get worse before they get better as both sides recruit more superheroes and engaging in more and more brutal skirmishes.In one larger battle, a android version of Thor ends up malfunctioning and kills Goliath further increasing the divide on both sides. Things get worse when Iron Man calls on villains to help fight the other side. Things finally do get better after an
The story touches on the cost of fighting in what you believe in and also takes Marvel's bright universe into some dark places. Trust is a huge factor in this story line as there many double agents on both sides. Both lovable characters (Iron Man and Captain America) become refreshingly unlikable. They both fight for what is good, but in authoritarian ways.
So after reading that, I went to watch a movie that I knew would take some liberties and move in a different direction. With that, here is my review.
What I Liked:
The Government Trying to Control Superheroes
I've never been a political guy. Only in recent years have I really paid attention to policies, propositions, and the political system in general. With the 2016 election coming around the corner, it was nice to see the portrayal of the government having a heavy hand in superhero control. Though it wasn't as well done in the comics, I still think it's cool for someone like Captain America to rebel against the government. I felt like there was a good amount of symbolism here. Like I said previously, Captain symbolizes the American people who all grow up with the notion that freedom as citizen is sacred no matter who you are and standing up for what you believe in is paramount to what seems right. Iron Man could also represent the modern way of how our government operates: safety is primary concern at all costs. The two ideas conflict in terms of privacy and freedom which starts this conflict.
Superheroes symbolism can be a vehicle to say things that normally can't be said without drawing a lot of negative attention. The last Captain America movie and this one deals heavily with recent more modern political issues like the Patriot Act and racial profiling. This movie really highlights the subtle way the American government can be xenophobic. We fear what we don't know and the only way to absolve the fear is to control it. By getting the Avengers under the bill, they can be controlled.
I felt like Batman V Superman did this as well. In fact it's very eerie how both movies parallel in terms of government involvement. Both movies' governments want to put through legislation to control superheroes based on the superhero causing massive amounts of destruction. I mean there are a lot of differences, but the way the government tries to rope superpowered beings are similar.
The Beginning Fight Scene
The movie starts off with what I think is the best fight scene in the movie. Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, and Falcon try to stop a heist of a bomb in Lagos, Nigeria. Everyone shows their abilities in full display with well coordinated and communicated attacks. It was fun to see everyone talking through their headset as they mapped out all the enemies and took them out. The best part was how each person had their own moment to shine. I loved how the Black Widow didn't seem so useless and actually did something instead of just become a hulk whisperer.
The end of the fight results in the explosion that kicks of the Super Hero Registration Act that drives the divide between the Avengers.
Spiderman And His Humor
I think it's safe to say that most people loved the new incarnation of Spider-man. Tom Holland does a great job in portraying a modern high school version of Spider-man who looks up to the Avengers, more specifically Iron Man. Spiderman has just started out and is looking to meet people like him. It just so happens that his little social shindig is a fight of two of the greatest superheroes of all time. Spider-man's one lines and dialogue was on point and almost everything he did or said in the movie was humorous and had me chuckling.
His role was more of a teaser, however, of things to come. I think he had maybe 15 minutes of screen time throughout the two and half hour movie. But it did get me interested and a bit excited for a movie of his own.
A Non-Superpowered Villain
The main villain, Helmut Zemo, does not have super powers and isn't some ridiculously rich mad man either. He is just a man out for revenge because of the destruction the Avengers caused in his home nation, Sokovia (think back to Age of Ultron). After losing his family he sets out trying to create a divide in the Avengers since he, having no super powers, cannot do it himself. He starts off by framing Bucky which puts Captain America in bind. With Bucky as a terrorist and Tony Stark backing the registration act, Captain has to further entrench himself against Tony Stark and the government. It was clever that they used Bucky as the main object of the movie since he technically was the villain in the last Captain America movie.
Helmut is also a villain whose motive is most certainly justified. After losing his family and home, he has nothing left except his resolve for revenge. It's his will and careful planning that makes him a formidable foe.
Fight Scene Choreography
I don't have much to say on this one, but I have to give credit for how well the beginning and end fight scenes were done. They were brutal and carried a lot of weight. It felt like there was a lot of impact in each of those fights and the action was very easy to follow. Notice how I haven't said anything about the famous Airport scene (I'll get into that later though.)
"I Know A Guy..."
The Marvel movie factory has official lost me as a viewer. I've tried as hard as I could to keep up with the movies but I've already started to see how each new movie is losing focus and ground very fast. The movie was basically Avengers 3 and focused just as much on Tony Stark as it did on Steve Rogers.
The movie is bloated and expects you to know the relationships of all the characters from all their other previous movies. And since movies can't be ten hours long, introduction of characters in this movie was told by a line "I know a guy." People appeared in the movie for the sole purpose of one fight scene and nothing more. Heck, even Spider-man's sole purpose was that airport fight scene. Everything was introduced hastily and sometimes just with one line to make sure the audience knows that they will appear in the fight teased in the trailers.
Quick! Introduce Spiderman's Character And Motivation In Five Minutes
People were pissed with how the Justice League was introduced in Batman v Superman. I mean, I thought it was badly done as well; emails are just a weird cop out as an introduction. But the fact that Tony Stark figured out that Spider-man was Peter Parker rivals this. Tony sits Peter Parker down in his room and shows him a couple videos and then just says, "look at how you move!" Yes, I understand that Tony Stark is a billionaire but how would he know how to look? I just felt like Spider-man should have had more screen time. It would have been wiser to maybe have Peter at the talk Tony gave at MIT in the beginning of the movie. Peter could then maybe get pushed and leave his mask for Tony to find or something. Just something to show that tony had a suspicion there even was a Spider-man.
But I haven't read anything about it in any other reviews I've read. I guess critics just wanted their Spider-man, and they got their Spider-man.
The Amount Of Characters Put Into The Aiport Fight Scene
Why did they need every superhero in that airport fight scene? I mean they didn't have the Hulk and Thor, but everyone else showed up. I mean why have an entire Antman movie so he can show up in other movies for like fifteen minutes. Antman, Hawkeye, War Machine, and Spider-man were literally all pulled in last minute so that the fight could be bigger. They literally had no other purpose in this fight. There was no weight to it since they didn't want to kill each other.
The Vision didn't do anything in the fight except fire a terribly aimed shot at the Falcon that ends up hitting War Machine (your name is the Vision and you couldn't even predict that the Falcon would try to dodge out of the way?). Wanda (the Scarlet Witch) does maybe two things. The focus was mainly on Spider-man and the main trio (Captain America, Bucky, and Iron Man).
I felt like the whole fight should have been stripped down. Get the Vision and Scarlet Witch more time. Get rid of Hawkeye...and War Machine. Make the fight smaller with more impact. I really wish they had the same ferocity as they did in the comics. Each side fighting to almost the death for what they believe in.
Maybe it's just me, though. I just find it weird that all these characters who've had their own movie or have been introduced organically in other movies are reduced to mainly cameos. Isn't it just a tad bit weird to give so much emphasis to a character (e.g. Antman had his own movie) just so they can be sprinkled in other movies? I get that it was a Captain America movie, but why have him at all? Is it just so Ant-man can say something funny during the third Avengers movie that references this one?
I hope in the future we won't get massive battles like these again. We can save those for the comics.
War Machine. Period.
God, do I hate war machine in these movies. I thought Black Widow and Hawkeye were pretty useless, but War Machine doesn't do anything. Seriously. He spots some lines and gets hit by a truck and then gets hit by the vision. I wish he died in this movie. It would have given some weight to the situation just like in the comics. If Captain America had Bucky, then Iron Man had war machine. There would have a sweet sense of karma since Tony Stark was trying to kill Bucky the whole movie (or at least get him locked up).
Conclusion:
All in all, the movie was well done in what it came to do: get superheroes fighting each other. But I think maybe I'm suffering from Marvel superhero fatigue but this felt bloated and underwhelming. Spiderman is a great addition to the universe but I felt like it would have been better to have a Spiderman movie before this movie and maybe delay the Ant-Man movie to before Avengers 3.
Marvel is running off of an Apple product syndrome. The brand is solid, but it's constantly over-hyped for all the wrong reasons. I'm worried as where the movies will go. Bigger doesn't necessarily mean better. I mean X-men is going into overdrive with the sheer amount of characters in it, and it is suffering for it.
Comments
Post a Comment