Captain America: Civil War

Captain America: Civil War

Starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Sebastian Stan, Scarlet Johansson

Directed by Anthony Russo & Joe Russo

The Story:
While trying to stop a criminal mastermind, the Avengers have to face the consequences of severe collateral damage, which results in the Sokovia Accords - forcing them to be headed by the government instead of being independent of any governing body.  Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) feels this is the best thing, while Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) doesn't believe it is, resulting in a fracturing of the Avengers and causing them to fight one another.

The Synopsis:
While I consider "Civil War" to be the best Marvel movie ever made by a large margin, I was also deeply saddened by it and left the theater with a deep profound sense of loss.  I'll explain why in the end of the review which, as always, is spoiler free.

The Civil War comic series is highly regarded as one of the best series in the entirety of the Marvel Comics.  Ever since the Marvel Cinematic Universe began, fans have been pining for the Civil War to be put to screen, and it finally happened in the third Captain America movie, which, let's be honest, was another Avengers movie.

At first I was filled with trepidation about the Civil War story being confined to just one movie, as you could logically do at least three movies and it still wouldn't be enough to fully encompass the enormous event.  As the years went by, and "Age of Ultron" was released, I started to grow on the idea, especially after finding out it was going to be directed by "The Winter Soldier" directing brother team of Anthony and Joe Russo.  Plus it clocked in at 146 minutes, which is the longest Marvel movie to date.  Unlike *another* superhero film where the heroes battle each other in a very elongated runtime, "Civil War" didn't feel like it was that long, and at the end I was still longing for more.  Honestly, I could've sat through another 146 minutes without batting an eye, whereas the *other* movie had me wishing it would've ended at least an hour earlier.
So what was it about "Civil War" I enjoyed so much?  There's so many reasons I decided to do it in a list:
1. The characters.  We've known these characters since 2008 on the big screen, and we've seen them through good and bad.  If someone had never seen the other films and started off with "Civil War," they probably would think there wasn't much character development or story, but in fact both are in full measure as we've seen character development and story throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  These are people we know and love, and even the addition of the newer heroes was a welcome addition.

2. Black Panther.  This is the first time we see the hero from Wakanda don the Black Panther suit and take on the mantle, and Chadwick Boseman delivers an impeccable performance and shows that his first feature film as Black Panther (coming in 2018) is going to be spectacular.

3.  Spider-Man.  For years, Fox Universal has owned the rights to Spider-Man, and has released several films featuring the webslinger, to both acclaim ("Spider-Man," "Spider-Man 2") and criticism (pretty much every other film).  It seemed we would never see our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man meeting the Avengers, but thanks to an agreement between Marvel and Sony, Spider-Man made his long awaited debut in "Civil War," and it was nothing short of miraculous.  Relative newcomer Tom Holland scored the part, and his performance as the most true to the original Spider-Man than any before him, and, like Black Panther, his first Marvel solo film ("Homecoming," also featuring Robert Downey Jr.) will be undoubtedly the best Spider-Man movie to date.

4. The overall story.  Not going into spoiler territory here, but there's clearly a rift between Iron Man and Captain America, and it goes much deeper than just registering with the government.  This revelation threatens the Avengers more than any outside enemy force ever could.

5.  The action.  There's no surprise here as it's a Marvel movie, so there's action in spades and it more than aptly keeps your attention.  In fact, I would go as far to say that the airport fight scene is one of the best fighting scenes I've ever seen in any movie - comic book movie or otherwise.  My jaw dropped, I was raising my fists in the air, gasping for breath and gripping the armrests.

So with all this praise, you're probably wondering why I said I was saddened by it and left with a profound feeling of loss.  There's two reasons for this:

1.  The ending.  Again, not spoiling it for anyone, but the word "Civil" has no purpose in a Civil War.  When America was involved in our own Civil War, there was a winning side and a losing side - but ultimately everyone lost, and it took decades to undo the damage it caused.  Much in the same way, "Civil War" ends with the team fractured, because you can't fight your friends and then go play Call of Duty like nothing happened.  We won't be seeing this particular group again until "Infinity Wars" in 2018, so we have two years of waiting to see how they'll all come together again.

2.  In 2008, Robert Downey Jr. debuted "Iron Man."  Since then, he's appeared in three individual movies, along with two Avengers films.  Chris Evans debuted Captain America in 2011, and also appeared in several films since then.  War Machine, Hawkeye, Falcon and Black Widow have all been featured in several films as well, and The Winter Soldier, Vision, Wanda Maximoff and Ant-Man have been featured in one film previous to this.  We've grown to love them, root for them, and see how they've established their friendship and how they've worked so well together.  So seeing them at each others' throats, fighting against one another, is like being a part of the ultimate broken family.  There would be no winners, no victors, only loss and pain.  As someone who's followed everyone's stories since the beginning, it literally pained me to see them fighting each other (even if the fight scene was rather epic).

So even though I was saddened, it wasn't because I was disappointed.  Far from it.  Marvel managed to create characters I cared about for the last eight years, and seeing them being ripped apart tore me apart as well.  This is the sign of an amazing film series, and something DC should take note of.  In "Batman v Superman," I saw them fighting, and I honestly didn't care who won and who lost, and what the outcome would be.  Henry Cavill only starred in one Superman film, and this was the first time for Ben Affleck.  I wasn't attached to either one of them, so I really didn't care.  If Marvel had released "Civil War" first before any other film, I might've had the same feeling.  Yet the MCU managed to establish its world and characters throughout the years in such a way you feel emotionally drawn to them.

The Summary:
"Civil War" is hands down the best comic book film ever, due to its stellar cast, compelling story, tight action sequences and most importantly characters you root for.

The Score: A+