Captain America Civil War: Movie Review

Just a month and a half after Batman and Superman clashed, Captain America and Iron Man decide to go at one another, in the thirteenth installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe; Captain America Civil War. The film stars Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Don Cheadle, and Paul Rudd.  

After the events of Age of Ultron, the United Nations looks to put the Avengers team under government control. Tony Stark supports this movement, but Steve Rogers thinks otherwise. As Stark and Rogers grow divided, another threat involving Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier and the terrorist organization, Hydra, begins to take shape. 

The marketing and hype for Civil War was just about,if not more, noticeable than Batman v Superman. Almost everywhere you went, you were bound to see something with "Captain America Civil War in theaters May 6" labeled on it. We've seen the Avengers team up alongside one another for several years. The only time we've ever seen them fight one another before were a few brief moments in the two Avengers movies, such as when Iron Man and Thor exchanged blows for about ten minutes and Mega Iron Man fighting the Hulk in Age of Ultron. Now we've got a whole movie dedicated to these Marvel superheroes fighting one another? Fasten your seatbelts, everyone, it's going to be a wild ride! 

High Points: 

- The film making itself clear it's a Captain America movie. The movie is called Captain America: Civil War, not Captain America v Iron Man. Tony Stark/Iron Man undoubtedly plays an important role, but Captain America is still the focal point of the film, which directors Anthony and Joe Russo do a nice job of. Outside of the big fight with Iron Man, there are plenty of other action scenes where we see Captain America engage in combat with other characters. The film never feels as if it's turning into Avengers 2.5 or Iron Man 4. Robert Downey Jr. is never one to stray away from the spotlight when he gets the chance to shine, but in Civil War, he never appears bothered by the fact that he must take a backseat to Chris Evans since Captain America is the star of the show. 

- The fight involving Iron Man against Captain America and Bucky Barnes. This may be the most serious and gripping fight scene Marvel has done through its first thirteen MCU films. For reasons I won't spoil here, the characters fight with a special kind of emotion we haven't seen from any of them in their previous installments. This fight should be seen as a step forward for Marvel pushing the boundaries of what to show in their Cinematic Universe. Watching the Marvel heroes fight bad guys and save the world can get old and cliched after a while, but when they fight each other for the reasons they do so in this fight, Marvel has proven it's no longer afraid of taking risks. 

Low Points:  

- Spider-Man. Tom Holland plays Peter Parker/ Spider-Man, and was the worst character in the film. Throughout the entire fight at the airport, just about EVERY line of dialogue he had was a one-liner or a humorous remark (by 15-16 year old boy standards). When Bucky Barnes tries to punch him, he grabs Bucky's bionic arm and says, "You got a robotic arm? That's so cool!" One or two of these kind of remarks is perfectly fine, but Holland gets carried away with it, to the point where I began to find him annoying. Iron Man tries to excuse his immaturity by saying, "this is his first time doing something like this", but I found Spider-Man to be just an attempt by the Russo brothers' to sneak in as much humor as they could. 

- The big fight at the airport. This kind of goes off my low point about Spider-Man. From what we saw in the trailers, this arguably was supposed to be the climax of the film. For me, this is where the film began to go on a downhill slide. My biggest complaint with many of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films is that they get carried away with the humor almost to the point where you question if the film is taking itself seriously. I had really hoped Civil War would not suffer from this problem, but alas, it does, and the fight at the airport is where the humor gets out of hand. I think I counted at least 10 times where a character would say something right in the middle of the action that was surely meant to come off as humorous. Again, one or two such remarks is completely fine (heck, I'd even encourage it), but when just about everyone that was fighting was trying to make a one-liner, it heavily diminishes the action. 

Overall, Captain America: Civil War is one of the strongest results to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far. The action and visuals are just as dazzling as ever, but the humor gets out of hand at times and somewhat weighs down the fighting and character interactions. If you didn't enjoy Batman v Superman, then Civil War will no doubt give you the thrills and excitement you might have still been looking for. 

Recommend? Yes, but watch Age of Ultron and The Winter Soldier first 

​Grade: B+