Captain America: Civil War

So I got around to watching the latest film from Marvel over the weekend. Avengers 3, I mean Captain America: Civil War…it’s Avengers 3 disguised as a Captain America sequel isn’t it?

Seeing as the last time I was at the cinema, it was to watch that god awful; Batman v Superman mess. I was not holding up much hope of being impressed by yet another “vs comic book movie”. Because, let’s be honest. This is basically Captain America vs Iron Man.

I’m going to avoid major spoilers here, but there may be the odd mini spoiler along the way.
So what did I think of the flick?

Well first, lets take a quick look at the plot.
So why are Captain America and Iron Man fighting each other? Well, it seems that the government wish to control the Avengers after the death and destruction they have caused via events in the previous films. Headed by U.S. Secretary of State; Thaddeus Ross, the United Nations are preparing to pass something called the Sokovia Accords, this will establish an international governing body to oversee and control the Avengers. The team are divided. Tony Stark supports the idea as he feels responsible for the creation of Ultron and Sokovia’s destruction from Avengers: Age of Ultron as well as feeling responsible for a lot of the other damage the Avengers are being blamed for. While Steve Rodgers believes he would be better using his own judgement and the Avengers should remain free from government interference and is against signing.

This causes tension between Stark and Rodgers. Later in Vienna where the Sokovia Accords are set to be approved. A bomb goes off and security footage indicates that bomber is none other than Steve Rodgers’ old friend, Bucky Barnes (The Winter Soldier). A manhunt ensues as the government want Barnes dead, but Rodgers wants to help his old friend and keep him alive. This causes Steve Rodgers to be seen as the enemy as he becomes rouge and is now working outside of the law. The Avengers split and chose their side between Iron Man and Captain America.

And there is the basic set up to the beef between the Captain America and Iron Man.
There is much more to the plot than that, but I don’t want to spoil too much and just want to cover the basics as there are some nice surprises along the way.

There is a huge cast here. All of the main Avengers are back with the exception of Thor and Hulk, though Hulk does pop up in archive footage. Still, while two of the main Avengers are missing, some new (and old) faces make very welcome appearances. Now joining the crew we have Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) as well as Ant-Man making his second appearance after his solo film.
And that’s about it for the new additions to the team, except for somebody else, though I forget who now…

Yes, Spider-Man is back at his rightful home of Marvel after his miserable purgatory that was Sony Pictures.

This time around, they have cast the role more aptly by hiring young Tom Holland to play the iconic Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Yes, no more 30 year olds pretending to be teenagers. Tom nailed Peter/Spider-Man perfectly and is the best part of the film. His young age and look really does work well and makes for a believable character, he is supposed to be a teenager and that is exactly how he is written and acted. As this is the first time he really gets to be Spider-Man, he is portrayed as being nervous, he makes stupid mistakes but all the while, he has that trademark Spider-Man humour all the way through.

Its a shame he is only in the film for a few minutes. He has a great scene where he is first hired by Tony Stark to join his team and then he shows up for the big fight between the two factions. So he’s not in the film too much, but what little screen time he has is well spent. Really got me looking forward to the stand alone Spider-Man film coming next year. Honestly, for me, Tom Holland stole the entire film.

Oh, and about that big fight between team Iron Man and team Captain America…it’s awesome. Beautifully shot with so much going on and so many characters all interacting with each other. It never gets confusing as to who is doing what to do or where they are doing it. Its a huge and visually impressive fight scene that features so many superheroes but it never gets lost in itself and its really the centre piece of the entire film.

I don’t want to say too much as I’m trying to avoid spoilers as much as I can, just go watch the film.

The film is good, but it does have a few problems. I felt it was a slow starter and the first 40 odd mins seem to drag and weighed down with too much politics. It also jumps around the globe a bit too much, we are in Serbia in 1991, then we are in Lagos, now we are in America, quick go to London, then Vienna, Berlin, Bucharest, etc. I quite honestly got lost as to where we were and why were we there as it just keeps jumping from locale to locale every few minutes. To be honest, my gripes with this film are really, really minor.

The critics are lapping this one up right now. Its currently sitting on a 91% rating on rottentomatoes.com with many reviewers calling the film “the best superhero movie ever”.
I certainly enjoyed this, but “best superhero movie ever”? I’m not sure about that.

A good, enjoyable film with a great sense of humour running through it, along with some more emotional and character moments too. Really worth making the effort to watch this on the big screen if you can. If Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is the disease, then Captain America: Civil War is the cure. This is how you do a good vs comic book film.

Spider-Man:: “Hey guys, you ever see that really old movie, Empire Strikes Back?”