Cinematography:
Trent OpalochComposer:
Henry JackmanCast:
Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Captain America: Civil War picks up where Avengers: Age of Ultron left off, as Steve Rogers leads the new team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. After another international incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability and a governing body to determine when to enlist the services of the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers while they try to protect the world from a new and nefarious villain. (Walt Disney US)
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Reviews (17)
Marvel filled the hero cloning device and then turned on the uniformity generator. When these heroes, profiled long ago, spend the first hour verbally tapping each other to find out how much they prefer diplomacy over muscle, you somehow end up buying it, even though we know their motives and have an inkling of how and why they make their choices. Yet the action at Leipzig airport perfectly defines what's wrong with the MCU. The protagonists, who have stood together until recently, are suddenly about to face a massive battle and... nothing. Where's the personal drama when they manage to tell each other they're still friends between their fists landing on each other? Every move is predictable, every action guessable. The Siberian anabasis also misses a second chance in the same vein. True, in the individual aspects - the partial action moments, though none of them reach the Winter Soldier's momentum, the Black Panther, the Bourne-esque feel of the first half - it is strong and proves that the Russo brothers got it right, but as a whole, it’s absolutely draining, unsurprising, and you forget about it in a few days. Given what the film earned, there’s no reason for them to change anything for years to come.
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I'll say right off the bat that I liked the second Captain America better, but fortunately the Russos carried a lot of things over from that into Civil War. The action is still just as gritty and full of clever moments, and there's plenty of room for the other heroes, both newcomers and those from the other films, to show off their abilities. When the action starts, fans of Cap, Iron Man, Ant-Man, Hawkeye and the newcomers will come into their own – Spidey and Black Pather are excellent. The problem, however, comes when the action stops. The Russos are still great at handling characters and defining their perspective on the whole situation in one sentence, making you understand why Black Widow doesn't go with Captain and why Scarlet Witch is on his side. But it's too much. There are simply too many heroes, so while the shorthand works, few get the space to impress. In the end, this is a film in which Tony Stark and Bucky are at the center of the action and the others are more or less extras. Everyone has a chance to make an impact, but if half of the supporting characters were cut out, it wouldn't matter at all. They don't hurt, they don't step over each other, but there's just no time to resolve the conflicts of these secondary characters in a way that makes one really care. On the other hand, even two sentences tossed off by Vision in a silly sweater are still more interesting than the ramblings of Batman and Superman discovering that their moms have the same name. The third Captain is good, but the thing we feared was a bit of a factor. The Marvel Universe has swelled so much that the even best filmmakers simply can't make a movie out of the pile of characters and motives in a way they all get adequate space in. And it's a bit of a shame. The solos suit this franchise better than the team-ups. On the other hand, if the team-ups look like Civil War, I'll always be happy to be there.
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Three long-term problems of the Marvel movies (if we do not count the uniform unisex kind of movies that Disney regularly produces) is the absence of proper respect for real respected bad guys with clear motivation, who do not only stare aggressively, depersonalized generic interchangeable CGI action and no consequences, impacts or personal sacrifices of the characters. It has always been the case that Marvel movies are better at squabble rather than at blockbuster action. The director brothers did try to change it in the Winter Soldier, and I must compliment them on trying to do the same in this movie too. They were successful in two cases (a scam in the form of the need for a bad guy, no matter how much potential this one has, and amazing action based on stunts) but terribly failed in one, because the unwillingness of Marvel movies to make main heroes any sacrifices has always been obvious but in this movie it is even more obvious in a silly way. In any case, this time the director's duo deserves more praise, because to handle so many characters in a way so that all their intentions are clear and understandable, that new players are properly introduced and do not act as useless as the fifth wheel, that the tension is tangible (unfortunately only in the final) and despite the escalation (although it is more required by the script than the movie itself) and the ambivalence of opinions of both parties, it kept the style of minor exaggeration and on top of all that, all the characters do their job and have enough space. Obviously, even much more experienced movie makers often fail in this department. On the contrary, they did not handle the footage well. It is not lengthy, but it has more sequences with very slow pace than would be appropriate. Other flaws include the epileptic camera in action scenes, and that the whole trifling dispute is more like a pub brawl of a few individuals than a war, let alone a civil war.
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Excellently filmed, almost as good as Winter Soldier, just with a whole load of extra frills. Perfectly balanced characters, clever story and a villain who...wins? Civil War is probably the most ambitious comic movie at the finale, but the most important thing is that it doesn’t disappoint. It doesn’t fall apart and it manages to stick to the skeleton of the original storyline (in the first version it planned just a small role for Iron Man, no huge battle of superheroes) which it then wraps in nutritious action.
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So many themes and subplots that I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually three movies edited into one. Nonetheless, even such a flood of information and plot twists doesn't hurt and makes Captain America: Civil War a dense 147 minutes. I am feeling a dizzyingly blissful feeling that it will be Anthony Russo and Joe Russo who will be orbiting around Avengers: Infinity War. Because here, so many characters are gathered that even Avengers: Age of Ultron seems almost intimate. But I love Steve Rogers' stories precisely because they are... well, simply, about Steve Rogers. Promoting Iron Man's participation to the second main character is a perfect idea, because Robert Downey, Jr. has never given such an amazing performance before, but the detour to Spider-Man, though perfectly functional and enticing, is too obvious a backdoor restart to not disrupt the pace. Something like that would fit wonderfully into an Avengers film, theoretically even into an Iron Man film, but here I felt a slight disappointment that this particular excursion takes away space from more important things. Fortunately, the rest of the newcomers (Baron Zemo, Black Panther, or at last larger roles for Sharon) and familiar faces, led by the perfect Ant-Man, fit into the stories wonderfully, and the incorporation of Wanda or Hawkeye into the plot brings me immense joy. Based on the reviews, I feel like writing that this is Cap's weakest solo film, but considering how much fun I had and the fact that even at its greatest ease, it simply isn't a solo film, it's not necessary to do so. It just seems that this time it enters the genre boundaries perhaps a bit too broadly.
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