Captain America: Civil War

Plot: After Scarlett Witch accidentally kills some people in Lagos while trying to stop the mercenary Crossbones, the United Nations decide to pass the Sokovia Accords which establishes a UN panel to oversee and control the Avengers. Tony Stark thinks that agreeing to the accords is the right thing to do after creating Ultron, but Steve Rogers believes that they will be sacrificing their freedom if they sign it. So the team is divided and Captain America and the super heroes on his side are now fugitives who have to fight their own friends while Captain America is also trying to clear up the Winter Soldier's name.

The Civil War comic was the story that got me into liking Captain America before the first Captain America film was coming out. So like many, I had high hopes with how they were going to adapt Civil War and put it one the big screen. In the end, Captain America: Civil War was almost everything I hoped for and more. I say almost because there are changers here and that if you are a fan of the book, you should see this movie with the mindset of knowing that this doesn't tell the story the exact same way. But the changes they make are incredibly smart.

One big concern that many fans were concerned about was how they were going to set up the event of the civil war. Because in the book, one feature of joining the government/Iron Man's side included publicly revealing your secret identity as part of earning people's trust. So fans where worried about how they were going to do that when most of the heroes in the MCU already have their identities revealed, thus making that aspect of the accords redundant in the long run. But the makers of the film apparently knew that and decided that the focus should rightfully stay on the idea of The Avengers being controlled and not one revealing secret identities which was a wise move. And what makes both sides of the argument regarding the Sokovia Accords is that they both have pros and cons. The majority of us may root for Captain America's side more, but the film makes it clear that both Captain America and Iron Man have very good points in their sides of the argument, but at the same time neither side is perfect. Both arguments have flaws that lead to serious consequences, and they made that clear beautifully.

The characters are still very strong. They gave us a good introduction of both Black Panther and Spider-Man. Spider-Man in particular - while not in the film for very long, was so fun to watch. I look forward to seeing more of Tom Holland as both Peter Parker and Spider-Man. But with that said, I do hope that they develop him to have a serious side as well. Because Spider-Man is a both funny and serious character and so far they have only given us half of that so far. So until they show us that much with Holland - as much as people are going to strongly disagree with me, I'm still going to say that Andrew Garfield is the best Spider-Man we have. I also enjoy how they have been developing the relationships between the superheroes. I like that they were slowly developing a relationship between Vision and Scarlett Witch. The conflict between Iron Man and Captain America is very clear and strong. But I think one of the most powerful moments in the film was around the first third when something tragic happens to Captain America. It leads him to an empty church with Black Widow where at the end of the scene, she hugs him for comfort. The event is emotional in of itself, but this shows the fact that we've gone so far that their relationship has become so strong that she would do that even thought they have started to become enemies. It really reflects how much Marvel and Disney has done with these characters that we've come to love so much over the past few years and it's wonderful.

If there is a problem that I'm sure some comic book readers will have, it probably would be that there is only one scene of two groups of superheroes fighting each other. There are several other fights over the course of the film, but there's only one giant battle between the superheroes. But I think that is really a nitpick in about the same way that the lack of time with the Winter Soldier in the last film was a nitpick. You may have expected to see it throughout the majority of the film, but you're fine that it isn't there as much because that's not what the real focus is. The focus is the dilemma that these characters are going through and the development you get from all of them. Plus, keep in mind that even though it says Civil War, this is still Captain America's story above all else. Besides, the actions scene are still incredibly fun. Whether it's the big battle that everyone wanted to see or any of the other fights and chases we get throughout the film, we still get a great collection of well thought out action with creative choreography, and a good amount of wit. And it's worth it to have at least one major battle between all of these superheroes because they take complete advantage of what they have. It is a marvel (pardon the pun) to see all of these personalities and powers clash together and give us amazing one on one fights. Hawkeye versus Black Panther, Ant Man versus Black Widow - heck, even Captain America fighting and Spider-man - two of my favorite characters of all time fought against each other. And what makes these fights so strong is that we've become emotionally attached to most of these characters for so long that we sincerely care about the fact that close friends like Hawkeye and Black Widow are fighting each other. It may stink that we only get one battle like this, but they did their darnest to give us exactly what we wanted.

If I had one problem with the film that is half a nitpick and half a real problem, it would have be Zemo as the villain. It's not that he is nothing like the comic book character apart from the name (though given that this makes it the second time that Marvel and Disney has done this on a threequel with the first being Iron Man 3, should we be worried about Thor: Ragnarok and Infinity War in that regard?), but I thought his motivation was corny to say the least. Other people have already stated that he didn't really need to be in the film in the first place, and generally speaking they are right. What made the story of the book so good and what made it so exciting that it was going to appear on the big screen is that there are no real villains because, like I said before, both sides of the argument have their pros and cons. Thus you can easily make the argument that Zemo wasn't very important to the plot and if they removed him from the film, there wouldn't be that much of a loss. But at the same time, he technically was still a good villain. He never fought against the superheroes, but he never had to. His plans involved causing serious emotional harm against the protagonists rather than trying to cause physical harm, and ultimately his plans were very effective.

And that's my review for Captain America: Civil War. Even with the problem with putting Zemo into the mix, we still get a smart, well thought out adaptation of the book with clever changes, strong characters and character relationships, and terrific action that will leave you perfectly satisfied. I may give this film a slightly lower rating then I did for The Winter Soldier because of Zemo, but it's still a fulfilling threequel that you should go see if you haven't seen it already.

Rating: 90%