The First Avenger declares Civil War!
Don't adjust your monitors (or mobile device screens) ladies and gents, your vision is just fine:
I'M BACK!
Let's dispense with the tears and fanfare my faithful peeps, let's just bask in the fact that I have returned.
"Why now," you ask?
Well, I've had the itch, and now I finally have the time to scratch! It's the right time and the right movie for a comeback.
So let's get to it:
Captain America: Civil War
I knew from the moment I sat down in my comfy reclining seat in the Hoboken Bow Tie Cinema that this would be my movie review comeback, and because of this, I took notes throughout the flick.
Please pardon the rudimentary style of this review as I'll just go through note by note and let you know what the deal is.
Synopsis:
Upon yet another Avengers mission ending with innocent people being killed, the government (well, more like the United Nations) demands that the superheroes register in order to be under legal scrutiny should they cost anymore innocent lives. Footage from the previous movies (like the first and second Avengers movies, Thor: Dark World and Iron Man) is shown from the perspective of the civilians, and it looks awesome! One scene showed footage taken from the street as the Hulk took his famous leap from one building to another in his first action sequence with the Avengers. It shows the debris of the buildings falling right onto the person filming as they looked up at the Hulk landing on the building, and now, all of a sudden, the reality of the effects of the Avengers battles really hit home. A good point is actually made during this meeting: the Avengers come in and kick butt, destroy a city, then go home. Yes, they saved lives, but they don't even help with the cleanup!
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| "Um...got a broom or something?" |
Captain America (Chris Evans), on the other hand, understands the circumstances but feels that it'd be best to work without the possibility of having a Hydra-compromised government send them on missions that may incriminate them. He feels that they have a good grasp on who and where to fight, and while there are sometimes casualties, they save many more people than those that are lost.
While this argument plays out throughout the movie, there's a certain Winter Soldier who is on the run whilst being hunted by the US government and a vengeful panther prince who believes the assassin murdered his kingly father. Cap finally intercepts Bucky and tries to prove his old friend's innocence and save his life from the Black Panther who aims to kill the one armed man.
Despite what the trailers imply about the movie, this is NOT a continuation of the Avengers, but a continuation of Captain America: Winter Soldier, which happens to have the Avengers involved in it.
"Whose side are you on?" was the recurring theme from the moment this movie was announced, and I must say that walking into this I was on Captain America's side.
If you have feelings, you WILL flip flop between sides until the end of the movie. Just based on the trailers, I walked into the movie on Cap's side, but as the movie progressed, I switched back and forth until I settled on one final side at the end. This movie does an excellent job explaining the reasoning for both Cap and Iron Man's views which will really make it hard for you to stay firmly on one side.
The movie jumps right into the story. No extended credit scene and no long drawn out unnecessary sequence to get you involved (ahem, Avengers Age of Ultron.....).
PLAYER PROFILES:
Iron Man, Captain America & Black Widow aka the Usual Suspects.
These three have essentially become the Holy Trinity of the MCU much like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are that of DC. There isn't much to say about them that you don't already know from the plethora of movies that have them involved. Cap is in four movies before this (five if you count when Loki took his form for about 2 seconds in Thor's movie), Iron Man has three movies under his belt with two Avengers movies and a post credit scene in the Incredible Hulk movie, and Widow showed up in four movies herself including Iron Man 2, both Avengers movies and Winter Soldier. Although we've gotten all the backstory we can from Iron Man and Captain America, we still haven't gotten all the details of Widow's (Scarlett Johansson) past yet; BUT, her character has been explored more with each passing movie she's in and she has gotten more screen time with every flick.
War Machine (Don Cheadle) aka who cares?
Now don't get me wrong, I actually really like the War Machine character. He was one of my favorites from the comics and I was excited when I heard he was coming to the big screen in Iron Man, but I was a little disappointed when Terrence Howard was cast as Rhodes. When I learned Cheadle was brought in to replace Howard, I jumped for joy! Then the jumping turned to eye rolling and deep sighing when I saw how ridiculous they were making his character in the movies. Not only was he a second rate Iron Man, he was made into a joke and was not intimidating at all. From his horrible one liners to his ridiculous story telling in Age of Ultron, he's constantly played second fiddle to everyone else in the MCU.
The War Machine has appeared in four movies before Civil War....FOUR! That's as many as the power players (Cap, Tony and Widow)! Yet we know close to nothing about him other than he's Tony's good friend and he's military. We know nothing about the man himself or where he's from, but we know that Hawkeye has a family and a baby on the way when he's only been in two movies before Civil War with a 10 second cameo in Thor. Every time we see War Machine, he's failing at making jokes similar to Tony when in the suit.
The only time I feel he would have been validated in the MCU was in the first Avengers battle when they fought off the alien invasion in NYC. If he would have been there and been SERIOUS when fighting, I think we'd have all accepted him as an extended part of the team (like Hawkeye).
"Yea, where was he anyway?" you ask?
According to an Iron Man 3 prequel comic, Tony actually called him to help fight the alien army, but he couldn't be there because he was in China fighting another threat (possibly the Mandarin who was the baddie in Iron Man 3) and wouldn't make it to NYC in time. So we get to see him get slapped around in Iron Man 3, then he comes in Avengers: Age of Ultron to make corny jokes while chasing Ultron robots who are running away (not even trying to fight him).
All this leads to him being in Civil War and taking a nasty fall when hit in mid-flight. The trailer shows Tony kneeling next to a bloody nosed Rhodes (new nickname?) looking very upset and suggesting War Machine might be dead. You know what? I didn't care. I saw it as the weak one being weeded out.....and that's a sad thing considering I liked this dude before the movies came out.
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| "Dead or alive, nothing about this story will change sooo....." |
Falcon (Anthony Mackie)
Mackie is so much better in this movie than in Winter Soldier and Ant Man. He's no longer a joke, but a viable threat and great addition to the team. His wings now do more than make him fly; we find that they can become a bulletproof shield for him and can shoot missiles. The first movie I ever saw Mackie in was 8 Mile where he played 'Papa Doc', and I haven't let go of him in that role until this specific movie. I know he's been in many roles since then, but they never felt as genuine to me as Papa Doc until right now. I think he finally found his stride and is comfortable putting himself into this role. It's also worth mentioning that Falcon finally gets his sidekick Redwing (in a roundabout sort of way) and it's actually pretty cool! In the comics, Sam Wilson is telepathically linked to an actual bird he calls Redwing whose eyes he can see through. In Civil War, we are given a technological incarnation of Redwing and because of Iron Man-like tech, Sam can see through its eyes like the comics. Very, very cool.
Wanda "Don't Call Me Scarlet Witch" Maximoff
The chemistry and teamwork between Wanda (Elizabeth "I still don't believe she's the Olsen Twins' sister" Olsen) and Captain America is great. They make quite the double team. She may be the least used hero in this movie, but they made the most of every second she was on screen. You really see her powers on display and realize how strong she can be.....and she still hasn't even used her powers to her full potential yet! Can't wait to see how she meshes with Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch)!
Side note: if you haven't seen the trailer for Dr. Strange, I don't know where you've been. Please watch it.
Bucky (Sebastian Stan)
I honestly don't know what to say about Bucky. I mean, I absolutely love the guy. He's, in my opinion, been the best comic to movie character in all comic movies! Stan can play both a villain and a hero convincingly, as seen in all three Cap movies. His fights are intense and he's truly convincing as a tortured soul trying to be free. You actually feel sorry for the guy while cheering him on to kick some serious butt!
Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman)
As usual, Boseman is just an amazing actor! He is so believable in every role he's played so far and gets me excited for the solo Panther movie. He's been James Brown and Jackie Robinson already, so what better way to test his acting range than to play a Nigerian Prince who isn't trying to get your money through an email scam?
Motivated by the murder of his father, Prince T'Challa is on a warpath that leads straight to the Winter Soldier's front door, and only killing Bucky will satisfy him.
Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner)
Not much to report on the archer. He gets his usual shine as a marksman with trick arrows and he's still just as uninteresting outside of a fight.
The Vision (Paul Bettany)
I'm a huge fan of Bettany, so I was super excited to hear he was chosen to be The Vision. So far I feel he doesn't get enough screen time, but the time he gets is usually well spent. I like the dynamic between him and Wanda, it plays out really well on screen with him still learning how to be more "human".
SPIDER-MAN (Tom Holland)
He was amazing!
He was spectacular!
He was sensational!
I have a 'Superhero Syndrome' post for Spider-man coming very soon, but I'll tell you right now: this was the PERFECT Spider-man.
Tom Holland has been my favorite portrayal of both Peter Parker and Spider-Man in any movie BY FAR (and I'm a huge fan of those played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield)!
He's just a teenage boy who's had these wonderful powers for all of six months and wants to make the world a better place for the little guys who were like him before he became a hero. Him yelling "you have the right to remain silent!" at Falcon was just epic.
There has already been talk that he has no business being in the movie, which is essentially true, but he was still a very welcome addition to the cast and it helped in giving him a spotlight to show what we can expect in his upcoming movie
On a similar note, it was so refreshing having a young Aunt May. Marisa Tomei is just an extremely wise choice of an actress! This casting of Spider-Man and Aunt May just makes the prospect of the Spider-Man solo movie so much better!
Ant Man (Paul Rudd)
Rudd meshed amazingly well with everyone. The casting directors knew what they were doing when they picked these people. Not only do they all portray their characters well (except maybe Cheadle as War Machine), but they have such great chemistry together!
We get to see Ant Man grow to a giant (a power of his in the comics that we were all wondering if they would show in the movies), and it was not cheesy!! The only problem I have with it is that, for some unknown reason, he moves tremendously slow when big. I don't get why giants move so slow in movies. Regardless of that, he shows that he can hang with heroes and give it as much as they can dish it out.
Crossbones (Frank Grillo)
While not getting nearly enough screen time as he deserves, Crossbones makes an impact from the very beginning. I was hoping he'd have a bigger impact on Cap himself, but his role in the movie was still great and he more than served his purpose.
Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp)
Carter is given essentially the same amount of time as she was given in Winter Soldier. With no real backstory, she finally shares a kiss with Cap and is then gone, but even she gets a little hand to hand combat time.
Whose Side Am I On?
Like I said at the beginning of this post, Civil War will have you jumping from side to side between Cap and Iron Man. I changed sides about four times throughout the movie.....but, I now stand firmly on the side of: |
| CAPTAIN AMERICA!!! |
The Bucky chase scene and ALL the fighting was absolutely EPIC. Everyone had a chance to shine. Plenty of intensity throughout the movie with just enough levity to keep it from being overly dark.
It's a highly enjoyable movie, though if you really want to understand what's going on, you'd have to watch the Captain America and Avengers movies. If you just want a fun and intense superhero movie to watch, you're safe with this one.
Highly recommended!
My Rating:
4.9883875 out of 5 stars
"Why not a perfect score?" you ask? While this is just a personal dislike, Vision looked ridiculous dressed in a sweater and khakis. It would've been better to keep him in his superhero garb the whole time, but you get past that silliness when he starts fighting!
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| .........really? |
So there it is folks! It's been awhile, and I may be a bit rusty but you now officially have my comeback post!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go and watch Civil War again!
Thank you for reading and making this the success it is! If there are any movies you'd like to see reviewed, feel free to email me at jayreviewsfilms@gmail.com.
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