Captain America: Civil War

If you’re even considering watching “Captain America: Civil War”, then you’re already invested. Literally, you’ve worked your way through a dozen films to get to this one. In every way, this is the event you’ve been waiting for: an explosive adventure filled with character drama, action, special effects, and everything else you demand out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Following their many adventures, a rift has now formed in the ranks of the Avengers. Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) believes that an appointed panel should oversee them. Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) is opposed to regulation. When the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) becomes the registered Avengers’ latest target, Captain America and his fellow rebels find themselves in an epic clash against Tony Stark and the official Avengers.

My biggest concern coming into the film was whether or not this would actually be a “Captain America” movie, or if he’d be lost in the mix. You look at the cast and it blows your mind. Iron Man, Captain America, Winter Soldier, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), the Falcon (Anthony Mackie), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Vision (Paul Bettany), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and even more?! How are they going to manage to give me a great spy/thriller/action story like the one in “Winter Soldier” while also introducing 2 new characters and juggling the insane brawls I saw in the trailers? I think the key is that while new characters are being introduced, this film is set in a world that’s already alive. You don’t need explanations of why people with fantastic abilities can found, you already know why. It takes all of these elements and asks, “so now what would really happen to Captain America?” While there are many characters and events going on, they all relate to a central character.

All of the chase scenes, combat sequences and explosions look terrific, are filmed in a fashion that makes them crystal clear and easy to follow, are exciting… but they’re just icing on the cake. Take away all of the action in “Civil War” and you’ve still got a great movie. What I love about this picture is that it’s about ideas and those ideas make the action set pieces mean something. After an alien invasion, city-levelling attacks by self-aware robots and mind control technology developed by secret societies, the Marvel Universe is no longer the same world that you and I live in. It takes a real, hard look at its inhabitants and examines them. It takes them to where they would go logically. There are actions that are clearly good and clearly evil here, but for a long time, you don’t know who to cheer for. The drama is what makes this film so exciting, not the action. In many ways, “Civil War” is a tragedy. People’s actions have forced a wedge between these friends and honestly, you don’t know if they’ll ever be able to recover.

There’s so much going on here that you won’t even feel the 2,5 hour running time. There isn’t a moment wasted. Every conversation is tying up a loose string from a previous film, asking a new question that’s been on your mind the whole time, or delivering a revelation that’s so amazing you didn’t even think about it. It makes the “Captain America” films before it even better. It’s a complete trilogy, one that takes us through an incredible journey both because of the action and because of the character development we’ve witnessed first hand. “Captain America: Civil War” went through your checklist and made a commitment to deliver everything you wanted to see. It’s more than an action movie, it’s got ideas, intelligence and serious questions to ask, some of which you honestly won’t know how to react to. It showcases every character involved but keeps it from spiralling out of control by also making it an intimate story. I didn’t think they’d be able to top “Winter Soldier” (a film I criminally underrated when I first saw it) but they did. It’s probably the biggest movie of the summer and it lives up to your expectations. I’m looking forward, anxiously, to seeing it again. (3D Theatrical version on the big screen, May 7, 2016)