Film of the Week: Captain America: Civil War

When I first watched Captain America: The First Avenger, I found it an enjoyable film. Compared to the many other Captain America films before it, this was clearly the best one, and being a part of something bigger, the MARVEL Cinematic Universe, it fitted in perfectly. As I was watching it, I did question MARVEL’s decision of putting something that took place in the past as the fourth film in the series, but when it came to its conclusion and Steve Rogers (played by Chris Evans) woke up in modern day New York, after the events of the previous three films, then it all made sense. I didn’t watch that film in the cinema, but I made sure to watch the second one, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It went bigger than the previous film. Steve’s gradual adjustment to modern day society was well written and acted. The events of The Avengers sort of kick started that adjustment, leapfrogging over any struggling. When the events of the Winter Soldier came to light, he was able to settle down and focus more on what the world has to offer, but as for any actual struggle, that was all behind him. The action sequences were incredible, tense, and face-paced to keep you in your seat, but yet slow enough to make sense of everything. It was clear to me that this was the best Captain America film.

And then this one came along, Captain America: Civil War. This film did something that I wasn’t expecting. Usually, when a film is caught up in a lot of hype, people’s expectations rises and when the film eventually comes out, it isn’t as good as people have geared themselves up for, but this didn’t do that. It immediately became a victim of a lot of hype. A popular meme went viral all over the internet, which showed Tony and Steve arguing over something that’s either popular at the time, or just something trivial, and ended with the title of the film. People’s expectations were lifted probably beyond that of what they were before the second one came out, yet this film was actually as good as they expected.

I did have a bit of doubt, I will admit. The Avengers: Age of Ultron, as awesome as it was, struggled ever so slightly to incorporate every character, I felt. There were a lot of characters, each with their own storyline that they had to subtly reference for the audience, and subtly set up events for future films. I can’t blame the film purely on the amount of characters, though. Age of Ultron is a pivotal moment within the Cinematic Universe, so it had to include a lot within the story. This is what Captain America did differently. True, it was a major moment in the main storyline, and yes it had to include everyone’s storyline and make references to future films, but it didn’t do it directly.

Here’s what I mean. The fight between the avengers was the set up for future films. The strong disagreement between values, and when Tony found out that incredible piece of information regarding his parents, that was the moment when I knew that Infinity War had been properly set up. The storyline for the first part of that massive two-part storyline is them on different sides. I believe that when and only when Thanos comes and attempts to take over the world, do they come together. But I’m not talking about the future, Captain America: Civil War was a superb film. Every character had a reason to be there, every character had enough screen time to tell the audience why they are there, and what their role in the film is, and despite there being a lot of characters, the main focus was still on Captain America himself. The story was still told through his eyes. I understood Steve’s values, and why they conflicted with Tony’s. I understood why Steve’s teammates sided with him, and why the others sided with Tony.

I said that the previous film was the best Captain America, but now I’m obliged to say that this one is the best.

But of course, I can’t write a review about the film without mentioning the one character that caused most of the hype in the first place, Spider-man. MARVEL and Twenty Century Fox had a massive legal debate over the character, for months they bounced negotiations between one another, eventually coming to an agreement. MARVEL was allowed to include the character within the cinematic universe, but Fox had final say on what happens to the character, such as coming up with the name of the latest film, etc.

Tom Holland, who plays Peter Parker (Spider-man), is superb. Spider-man is known for his witty humour, and Tom’s performance didn’t make that wittiness feel out of place. It was comical, and the chemistry between him and Tony was just as. When I saw those two characters on screen, I immediately wanted to see more of them together, which is why I was delighted to read the news about Robert Downey Jr. signing on to do the newest Spider-man film.

Overall, the negotiations between the two major companies, the hype from the internet meme and many more people across the internet, and the teaser trailers and even the main trailers just couldn’t prevent this film from being as epic as it is, which just goes to prove that it is possible to defeat hype. Was the hype only defeated because the film was as good as it was, yes and no. Yes, because it generally was an awesome film, and no because a part of me was hoping that it would be a good film, a part of me expected the hype to ruin the film, which may have meant I went into the cinema thinking that it wouldn’t be that good, and when it proved to be excellent, I was blown away with happiness. And yes, because the build up to this film was gradual and well-told. The character development over the course of the entire cinematic universe helped us to understand what the characters were going through, feeling and thinking, which ultimately helped us to enjoy the film that much more.

Without going into a full discussion, I believe that is where DC fell short of. They tried to rush so much in such a short amount of time that most of it just didn’t make as much sense as I knew it could have been. If they want to do their own cinematic universe, they have to do what MARVEL is doing – make enough films to tell a decent story – but do it in their own way – dark, daring, (and dare I say it), a bit more adult, if you know what I mean.

Captain America: Civil War may be the 13 film in the series, but this film proves that this series isn’t running out of energy any time soon.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)