The Nerd Reviews: Captain America Civil War

To say I was excited to see this film is a massive understatement; for the 24 hours leading up to the film I averted my eyes from social media, watched The Winter Soldier and Age of Ultron repeatedly, I even re read the Civil War event from the comics. The time was at hand to watch Civil at my local theater and 3:50pm, and when the previews finally stopped....a good movie began to roll.



Captain America: Civil War is the 3rd film in the Captain America franchise (yes there was a film before The Winter Soldier) and the 2nd outing from the brothers Russo. In this go around we don't see Cap beating the ass of a giant robot or alien or even really a person (don't get me wrong, lots of people get the boot the face surgery courtesy  of the super soldier), but rather a more abstract battle is at work; The Avengers are finally being put in check and Sokovia Accords (named after the country that was dropped into the Earth in AoU) create a divide between the members. As I said before I reread the comic book version so I know there are things that simply cannot happen but the movie does a great job at capturing the spirit of the conflict. Steve and Tony are the representatives of freedom vs duty; the ability to choose who they can help vs knowing when to help, the rights of a few vs the safety of the many, what it means to be a hero vs....well what it means to be a hero. The idea of a "hero" is something that gets examined throughout the film fairly well. Does a hero leap into action when he sees danger or does a hero do what is right by those whom they are protecting?

The king in his evening wear

In the comics, almost every Marvel character is involved and while the MCU doesn't have as many characters, it did feature a bevy of heroes old and new. The usual suspects were present (Hawkeye, Black Widow, Falcon) and they each played there characters well; Falcon in particular managed to vastly improve upon his first introduction as he was just overall much more useful here and seemed to be able to hold his own. War Machine makes an appearance in the film with much more screen time than he has had in a while, which he didn't waste, and Tony Stark himself managed to be both the joker and the authoritarian. I really feel like this was RDJ's best go as Iron Man, yes he was arrogant as always but he was also emotionally tortured and coming from a place he almost never comes from. There is one scene towards the end of the film where he just really brought and it was a very visceral experience, enjoyed it very much I did. I can't talk about all these characters in a Cap film and not talk about the man himself. The Russos had a very clear idea on how they wanted Cap to be in this film and Chris Evans just nails it; for all his time he's spent acclimating to the new world, he is still very much a man out of time so the stances that he takes don't seem forced but rather logical. He's a man that thought he lost everything and right when he starts to feel alone in the world, his old life comes roaring back and he has no choice but to fight like hell to protect it. Alright know that we've gotten that out of way it's to talk about the new guys for a bit, starting off with the Black Panther. I was very interested to see how they would handle his highness and I can tell you with 100% authority ( because clearly I am the Black Panther) that Boseman absolutely nails it as T'Challa. He captures the intensity and regal nature of the character with such ease that it is absolutely believable that he was groomed to be both a warrior and a king. The way the suit looks on screen is just amazing and he even does an African accent that is the stereotypical Nigerian one. Tom Holland is the best on screen Spider-Man we've seen period. He absolutely embodies what high school Peter Parker is like and boy does he never stop talking once he puts on the underoos (which is a good thing especially if you are a Spider-Man fan).

Very well might I add

Remember when  I said Cap still beats a lot of ass? The fight scenes in this film far exceed the quality of those in The Winter Soldier and that is saying a lot (remember that elevator scene?) From opening battle with Crossbones to the emotionally charged Cap vs Stark match the fight choreography was nothing short of stellar. They managed to really capture (how many times have I said capture?) the personality of each character in their fighting style; Bucky is very direct and tries to quickly incapacitate you but then you have Spider-Man who playfully embarrasses you by effortlessly countering all your moves while having a conversation with you, Black Panther's ferocity is on full display and he never makes a wasted movement. I could go on and on about the fighting but you get it, its really good.

Now here comes the nitpicky part, the "things that were slight annoyances that kinda made me go"eh" " part. Marvel seems to have trouble finding a villain with motives that actually make sense, which in itself doesn't make sense because they did it in The Winter Soldier. Baron Zemo really could have been anyone, he wasn't especially menacing or anything and his plan was so reliant on the plot that there just wasn't any way I could take him as a credible threat. I wont get into spoiler territory here but all I'll say is "all of this for a VHS?" I also felt like the film used exposition a bit too much and the development of Wanda and Vision's relationship seems very forced and didn't have the pay off on me that the film obviously wanted. Speaking of obvious pay off,  I really don't see the friendship between Bucky and Steve. I know I said that he was part of his life and all but from the films we never really got to see that relationship, we've just been told they were best friends and that was it. I felt like the relationship between Steve and Tony was a much more solid friendship. As far as the plot goes it isn't as focused as The Winter Soldier and the movie suffers a bit from it with it's pacing.

Overall its a solid film, the 2nd best one next to Winter Soldier and you should all go see it..even though you've probably already have. Its a highly enjoyable film, the first enjoyable hero film of the summer....that we can all agree on.