Sunday, May 8, 2016

Captain America: Civil War – review

Coming in as the lucky 13th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Captain America: Civil War is a fun and fresh story featuring a host of the Avengers we have grown to love as well as some new characters to the roster. The movie as a whole is not as bold as past Captain America films but the action is solid and the return of characters keep the pulse of this movie moving strong.

Captain America/Steve Rogers, played by Chris Evans, and some of the Avengers are stopping some terrorists in Lagos. Unfortunately, in the processes several innocent people are killed. This leads the United Nations to decide that the Avengers must register with them as a governing body overseeing their actions. Iron Man/Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., welcomes this change to be held more accountable. Captain America feels that governing bodies will always have agendas and he does not want to be told who to help and who not to help. Both heroes gain supporters which lead to debate, anger, and eventual blows from both sides of the issue.

The action is fun to watch and the characters play their parts well. The addition of T’Challa/Black Panther, played by Chadwick Boseman, Peter Parker/Spider-man, played by Tom Holland, and Helmut Zemo, played by Daniel Bruhl are welcome additions. It was also very entertaining to see Paul Rudd reprise his role as Scott Lang/Ant-man.  To see the characters work well with one another in such fantastic battles really made the movie a solid popcorn flick.

The few complaints I have about the movie are nitpicking things. The stakes could have (and honestly should have been) much higher at this point. There could have been more development to the new characters; however, this is a Captain America movie so the focus really should be on him and his conflict with the Winter Soldier and Iron Man. If anything, this movie probably could have been a third Avengers film but because of the story focus it is easy to understand why it went in this direction. It was bizarre to have an Avengers movie where Thor and the Hulk are absent.

Captain America: Civil War is an entertaining new addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you are looking for a great summer blockbuster give this movie a try. It is exciting and not nearly as dark as some of the past Captain America films. You are sure to enjoy the acting and action playing together in a wild spectrum of comic book intensity.  If you are a comic book fan or a fan of the other films this movie will not disappoint.