Review – Captain America: Civil War

I just got back from Captain America: Civil War and wanted to write a review while it was still fresh in my brain. I really liked it, and I definitely thought it was worth the wait.

That’s it. Goodnight everybody!

Kidding. It’d be a pretty boring review if I didn’t have at least a couple minor quibbles. But honestly, not as many quibbles as I thought I’d have: this one was hyped half to death, and it stood up to the hype better than I expected.

I won’t spoil anything major, but I’m going to be talking about who was (or wasn’t) in the movie, so if that’s going to spoil the surprise for you I don’t mind if you see the movie first and read this later.

I couldn’t help comparing this to Avengers, but I think doing that isn’t realistic for a lot of reasons. Avengers and Age of Ultron were huge moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Civil War is really the beginning of an arc. Yes it’s got a huge cast, much bigger than we’d usually get in a Captain America or Thor movie, but it doesn’t have the feel of Avengers. It really feels more like a lead-up movie: no that’s not a slap, I’m not saying it’s minor or filler. It’s a movie that’s setting the stage.

We get to meet Black Panther and (the MCU) Spider-Man, we get a little more screen time with characters we’ve only met once before, and we get a ton of character development in Cap and Tony. Marvel’s using this movie to set the pieces in place for bigger movies later on.

It’s also obviously different from Avengers and Ultron because we didn’t have Joss Whedon at the wheel, but it’s still fun to compare the styles of Whedon vs Russo (in directing) and Whedon vs Markus and McFeely (in screenplay.)

There’s a lot of the same quippy, fun dialog, but it’s slightly more subtle here than in a Whedon film (though I do love me some Whedon cleverness.) I noticed that several of the most fun lines took a beat to register with the audience, just because the humor’s more subtle.

In one or two places a character would have a line I thought wasn’t needed; it had the weight of a “dramatic moment” but didn’t quite come off. But those were few and far in between, and never reached cringe-worthy levels.

What I loved was how some lines on paper might not have looked that impressive, but the actor’s delivery really nailed it. Tony has a line like that late in the movie that pretty much tore my heart out, no joke.

The cinematography was gorgeous, with a great sense of composition in the shots. But some of the fight scenes, especially when they’re between just two people, had a jerky quality that’s not my favorite (I like to really see the choreography) but I’m sure that was done on purpose to give it a frenetic quality. I’d prefer smoother shots, but I didn’t hate this.

As for the choreography itself, I have no complaints whatsoever. There’s a scene early on in an old building, and I loved how the fighters were using every element in the room as a weapon: furniture, rugs, doors, walls, you name it. Everything was extremely well planned but always looked improvised. I’d watch the movie again just to see some of those fights.

Speaking of which, Black Widow was a badass. So was everybody else of course, but her fight scenes are excellent.

I’ll pause a moment to say, before I let my opinion be swayed by anything I read on the internet later: as a bit of a feminist, I have no problems with this movie. I can’t think of anything I saw that I’d think was demeaning to women, or portrayed the women in the movie worse than the men, or marginalized them, weakened them, over-sexualized them or de-sexualized them, or anything else. I’m sure the internet will find some problems in that respect later (it usually happens) but my honest opinion is that everything’s fine.

I’ll also say for the record that I don’t think Whedon did badly in that respect either; my only problem with the whole Bruce/Natasha scene in Ultron was that I thought it slowed down the pacing of the movie, and also I’m a die-hard Hawkeye/Black Widow shipper, so the scenes with Bruce and Natasha and Clint and his wife were a knife in the heart of my shippy little dreams.

Oh, and yes, Clint and Natasha are on different sides in this movie, and that made me very nervous. But there’s a fight between them in this movie, and I honestly thought it went as well as it could have, given the circumstances. When the scene was done I nodded and said “Yep. That’s just how it should have gone.” (Well, okay, I’d have wanted them to make out or something, but whatever, nevermind.)

I thought some of the motivations might have been a little weak in places: I was never completely clear why Natasha chose Tony’s side. It felt a little like a coin-toss to me, especially considering her actions later in the movie.

It’s possible that in order to get more of her motivations, we might have had to get more explanations that could have dragged down the pace of the movie. But Falcon and Rhodey didn’t have a ton of explanations behind their decisions, and I still bought their choice more than I bought Natasha’s.

The motivation behind bringing Spider-Man into the Avengers was also a little unclear. Not the filmmaker’s motivations, no, he was a crowd favorite from the second he appeared on the screen, that was definitely a great choice. His dialog was perfect and Tom Holland just owned the role.

It’s just I couldn’t figure out why Tony would suddenly think bringing this kid into a fight between experienced super heroes was a good idea. Yes he’s awesome, yes he held his own, but going into it Tony couldn’t have known that. I’d say he “saw something in the kid” and knew it’d be a good idea, but it felt more rushed than it had to be.

Once again, though, to get better motivation that might’ve meant more talking and a slower pace. And we can explain it with “Tony’s being impulsive. Again.” That always works.

Having Ant-Man in the movie was also a great choice. Paul Rudd doesn’t get too much screen time, but what he gets is excellent. I’m really glad I finally watched Ant-Man, it made seeing him here that much better. He brings a little bit of comedy to Team Cap, the same way Spider-Man brings comedy to Team Iron, but both of them are a lot more that comedic relief.

But back to motivations, the “Big Bad” was interesting too, even though his motivation got unclear for just a second while he was “monologuing.” Tony guesses why he did what he did, Big Bad says no that’s not it. I assumed Tony was way off the mark. But it turns out Tony was pretty close with his guess. It might just be me who was confused for a moment, though.

A friend of mine was a little let down by the Big Bad but I liked it. He had a realistic motivation and a pretty realistic method of carrying it out, once you know everything he knows.

The movie also benefitted from not having Bruce Banner or Thor in it: not that I don’t care for those two. (Though I wish Bruce would keep his mitts off Natasha. Sigh.) But with the introduction of two new characters the movie was doing plenty of work already. Thor and Banner would add more dialog, more character development, and more Bruce/Natasha interactions (darnit) so I was happy to let Thor and Hulk have a break.

I’m looking forward to seeing more of T’Challa: Black Panther’s never been a character I follow closely, but Chadwick Boseman did such an excellent job (in such a great costume, those claws are neat) I really want to see more of him. And I’m pretty sure the “move or you will be moved” woman was T’Challa’s sister, and she needs to get more screen time too: she’s got all of fifteen seconds on the screen and you already know she’s a badass.

I could stand to see a few less of the “dramatic superhero shots,” though; I didn’t like it when it happened in the beginning of Ultron, and I didn’t care for it at the showdown between Team Cap and Team Iron. (Not so much the moment where they’re standing, but the slow run-at-each-other bit.) I don’t hate it, you understand, but those kind of overdramatic super-stylized shots always yank me out of the movie for just a second. Most of the filming in this movie was more subtle, so that made those scenes stand out even more. It’s not a deal breaker, and that kind of thing goes with the territory when it comes to big-budget superhero movies, but I felt it deserved a mention.

But I do need to see more of Falcon flying. As much as I can get. Anthony Mackie is fantastic without the suit, I love his acting, but the CGI of the Falcon suit is amazingly well done. The high-speed chase scenes took my breath away, and the quick turns and spins that blocked bullets were perfect.

All in all I really liked the movie. Any “problems” I have are pretty minor, and none of those problems involve the skill of the actors themselves. Marvel’s done an amazing job with the casting. And since Civil War has set up a whole new arc, I’m in for the next movie too.

(Like that was ever in doubt.)