Captain America: The Winter Soldier is my favorite Marvel movie and Civil War looked to be the one to unseat it. While I think it’ll take some more time and a few more viewings to make that definitive decision, it’s hard to come out of this movie without a smile on your face.
A lot of smart choices were made for Civil War. They tweaked the set up from the comic book to fit what’s been happening in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and made all the right character moves to make the split amongst the Avengers understandable. Much of what didn’t work in Batman v Superman works in this (there are a lot of similar themes in both films).
There are a ton of characters in this movie and they all get their moment to shine. That’s probably the most impressive part of the movie. We get every on screen Avenger aside from Thor and Hulk along with a few new comers. Black Panther, a character that I think very few people knew before this, gets an amazing introduction and story arc. Chadwick Boseman is perfect and this is going to send his career into the stratosphere. He’s my favorite addition (and it sounds like that’s a constant remark from others I’ve heard/read) to the franchise and the stage is set for him to take off in his own movie in a few years. Ant-Man and Spiderman get fun extended cameos and I even liked seeing Hawkeye! They found a great use for him!
There are so many great moments it’s hard to think of them all. While the crux of the movie is very serious, they also bring funny character bits and interactions to ease up on the gas peddle from time to time. It’s all held together by a terrific cast who showed up to give this movie their all. RDJ and Chris Evans lead this movie and their work in every scene (especially with each other) is commendable. Really well written, there is some fantastic dialog that elevates many scenes to greatness (Stark at the Parker apartment is a great example).
Along with the great acting, we get some of the best action sequences in the entire Marvel catalog. There are many of them, all with different settings, varied match-ups, and ridiculous destruction. The big fight at the airport will be talked about for years to come.
The complaints I do have are more or less nitpicks. Vision disappears for most of the airport fight to the point where it’s almost like the writers forgot they had him there at the start.
The villain of the movie, Zemo, isn’t much of one (in terms of evil doing anyway). He has little on-screen presence and is more or less just a guy that pops up. He’s another boring MCU villain (one of the biggest knocks against Marvel since they started this in 2008). He concocts a convoluted plan to tear apart the Avengers from the inside that requires a lot of coincidences to make his plan work. They smartly rationalize his plan as he does say he knows he’d never be able to exact his revenge on these guys head on (he’s got a fantastic scene with Black Panther that brings everything to a really satisfying conclusion). His motivation makes sense and they do enough legwork to make it believable. The divine intervention angle is easier to accept (for me anyway) considering that Joker’s plan(s) in The Dark Knight requires just as much sheer luck (if not more) to work as well and that movie rules. It’s also a nice change of pace that Zemo’s plan wasn’t an end of the world doomsday scenario. Making it smaller in scope (while still maintaining the action) and personal was really smart. It’s a great counter step to the events of Avengers 2 (I really liked how they say the floating island rescue was far from successful. The general consensus was that the scene was a direct response to the destruction in Man of Steel. The admission that the Avengers aren’t perfect is humanizing and more believable).
The movie is also a little bit long. Spiderman and Ant-Man aren’t necessary to the movie. You could take them out of the fight and the movie would still work. Plus, Tony Stark bringing in a (literal) kid to fight with him makes his argument for the Sokovia Accords hypocritical. Considering Tony Stark causes just about every problem, that’s not too shocking. But the way Spiderman and Ant-Man are used (and introduced) is fantastic. They are both really entertaining so it’s hard to make this a valid complaint. The movie is otherwise really well paced, there’s no wasted time.
While I hoped they’d take the damage to the team further, the ending does indicate big changes for the future which I think is needed to keep things interesting. Everything that doesn’t “work” on the surface is followed through so well that it diminishes those complaints to little more than a shoulder shrug. Years of planning converged in Civil War and it’s an impressive feat. Congrats to everyone involved in making this come to life.