Captain America: Civil War Review
THIS IS A SPOILER HEAVY REVIEW! DO NOT READ IT UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE OR DO NOT MIND HAVING MAJOR PLOT POINTS SPOILED!
THE REVIEW IS ABOUT TO BEGIN. REMEMBER THERE ARE MAJOR SPOILERS.
SPOILERS, GUYS. OK, HERE WE GO.
I was really debating with myself over the last 17 hours since I saw this movie whether to review it or not. One of the reasons was because I knew I would have trouble conveying my opinion without the use of spoilers (remember, there are spoilers in this review, I mentioned that before, right?). However, one of the main reasons is because I figured no one would want to read my unpopular opinion. However, I thought that if I wanted to be a credible critic, I should write about my opinion whether or not any or everyone will agree with me. So, here it goes....Captain America: Civil War is full of plot holes and I did not enjoy myself while watching it.
I would like to preface this review with the fact that I read Mark Millar's Civil War comic prior to seeing the movie, so I have some knowledge as to the source material, though the movie really does not connect with the comic much at all.
The story follows Captain America and his crew, who once again are saving the lives of the innocent, but not without a few accidents along the way. One of these accidents, which happened in Serkovia during the events of The Avengers: Age of Ultron, was brought to the attention of Tony Stark, as a woman's son was killed by the chaos that was caused during the fighting. Because of this, Tony teams up with the government to put rules on the vigilantes to help keep their collateral damage to a minimum. This is actually similar to the way the government became involved in the comic as well. Some of the heroes, including Stark and Black Widow, agree that these sanctions are necessary in helping them with their mission to save as many lives as possible. The others, led by Captain America, feel like these actions will prevent them from getting a lot of their ground work done. These motivations are clear, and are the driving force of the entire two and a half hour long story, which makes it all the more frustrating that there is no real conclusion to this disagreement.
Now, there is clearly much more to the story than this, but if you are reading this, odds are you have already seen the movie and don't need me to break it down for you. One of the bright spots of the film was how they were able to take these many plot points, from Winter Soldier's framing to the introduction of Black Panther and Spider-Man and actually weave them into the universe with fluidity. There is a lot going on here, but not once was it hard to follow or unclear. It was just unresolved.
One of the reasons I am not a big fan of Marvel films is because of their attempted use of humor, which I usually do not find funny, that is often featured during unusual and inappropriate circumstances. And boy, is there a big one here. In the first scene, Black Widow and Falcon team up to take down two baddies, one of whom is holding a biochemical weapon, that if dropped, would kill everyone in the area. Falcon takes out one man while Widow takes out the other, as she just barely catches the weapon before it hits the ground. That's right, they and tons of civilians were literally an inch from death. The first thing Falcon says after the catch is a joke. For a movie that is trying to become a bit more gritty than some Marvel predecessors, a joke at this time does not fit. There are also many jokes crammed into the big fight between all the heroes, which is strange, because you would think when good guys are driven to the point of fighting each other, that the humor would be kept to a minimum. Now I do not like many Marvel movies, but one that I actually love is The Avengers. The Avengers' use of humor works excellently, mainly because the plot is fairly silly, as aliens are trying to take over the world. That plot is not as heavy as twelve good guys fighting over government involvement in their work.
I mentioned the use of humor during the big fight scene between the heroes as a negative, but I have to admit, that scene was pretty fantastic. Seeing the heroes teaming up in unique ways, fighting each other was pretty cool. The choreography was excellent throughout the movie. I did feel like Paul Rudd stood out in this scene, and not in a good way. I love Paul Rudd as a comedic actor, but the majority of the actors in this movie are dramatic actors. Rudd's style and delivery clashed with the other actors'. Not to mention, I just don't like his character and I feel like he was thrown into this movie just so he could be there to make the sides even-numbered and then have no impact in anything later on.
There is also not a good explanation as to why Hulk and Thor are absent from this fight. They are a major part of this team that is tearing themselves apart, but they do not show up or seem to care about what is happening to our heroes or why.
Two big positives in this movie are Black Panther and Spider-Man. Both characters are interesting and their fighting styles are exciting and fresh. Seeing a sassy Spidey on screen for the first time in a while was really exciting, as Sam Raimi's Spider-Man was the first superhero movie I had ever seen, and I feel like this movie did a great job of revitalizing this character who was just destroyed only a few years ago. However, I wish they would have explained how "no one knew" Peter Parker was Spider-Man, but Tony Stark knew. It just seemed to be very coincidental.
And now, for my biggest complaint of the entire movie....the ending. For two hours, we have seen our heroes fighting each other over a disagreement of government involvement, as well as over the allegiance of the Winter Soldier, whom Cap trusts, but Iron Man does not. There is also a villain, who frames Winter Soldier only to lead us to our conclusion. The man shows Iron Man, Captain America, and Winter Soldier a tape of Winter Soldier killing Tony Stark's parents, whose death was a major motivation to Stark in this movie, despite this fact being absent from the previous five movies in which he starred. The fact that this video exists at all is just silly. Winter Soldier clearly knew the camera was there, as he shot it. So why didn't he shoot the camera and then kill the Starks?
Because of this video, Cap, Winter Soldier, and Iron Man have a big showdown, which ends with Captain America defeating Iron Man. They leave, and in the next scene Stark is shown at home, helping his partner, who was crippled in the big fight. Stark receives a package with a note, where Captain America apologizes for holding the information about his parents' death from him and gives him an old cellphone saying he is there for him whenever he needs him. Stark smiles, as he receives a call from the government official saying there has been a break-in at the prison where Cap's team was being held. Stark jokingly puts him on hold, and that is the end of that.
Batman vs. Superman got a lot of flack for the resolution to its conflict, and I agree, it was horrible. This resolution to Captain America and Iron Man's fight is just as bad. Tony just got his butt kicked by a guy who is defending his parents' killer, and instantly forgives him because of a note he sends saying he's sorry. This whole conflict, the inclusion of the government, the villain trying to turn them against each other and succeeding, ends with an apology note, like it was a scuffle between two third graders on the playground. Do we learn if the government will end up having control over our heroes' actions, which is literally the entire reason for the conflict? Uh, no. Seems like Tony Stark does not care about that dead guy from Serkovia anymore. Or his dead parents. He got an apology, all is good.
GET TO THE POINT:
While the big fight scene between heroes was fun to watch, and the massive load of characters is handled with grace, the movie ends up having no plot implications. No one dies, no one really even gets hurt, and the government is not really going to get involved after all because Stark can put them on hold. So we just watch a movie where nothing really happens, just so they can all get along in the future movies.
Rating:
2 out of 5 sorry notes (yes, the same rating as Batman vs. Superman)
THE REVIEW IS ABOUT TO BEGIN. REMEMBER THERE ARE MAJOR SPOILERS.
SPOILERS, GUYS. OK, HERE WE GO.
I was really debating with myself over the last 17 hours since I saw this movie whether to review it or not. One of the reasons was because I knew I would have trouble conveying my opinion without the use of spoilers (remember, there are spoilers in this review, I mentioned that before, right?). However, one of the main reasons is because I figured no one would want to read my unpopular opinion. However, I thought that if I wanted to be a credible critic, I should write about my opinion whether or not any or everyone will agree with me. So, here it goes....Captain America: Civil War is full of plot holes and I did not enjoy myself while watching it.I would like to preface this review with the fact that I read Mark Millar's Civil War comic prior to seeing the movie, so I have some knowledge as to the source material, though the movie really does not connect with the comic much at all.
The story follows Captain America and his crew, who once again are saving the lives of the innocent, but not without a few accidents along the way. One of these accidents, which happened in Serkovia during the events of The Avengers: Age of Ultron, was brought to the attention of Tony Stark, as a woman's son was killed by the chaos that was caused during the fighting. Because of this, Tony teams up with the government to put rules on the vigilantes to help keep their collateral damage to a minimum. This is actually similar to the way the government became involved in the comic as well. Some of the heroes, including Stark and Black Widow, agree that these sanctions are necessary in helping them with their mission to save as many lives as possible. The others, led by Captain America, feel like these actions will prevent them from getting a lot of their ground work done. These motivations are clear, and are the driving force of the entire two and a half hour long story, which makes it all the more frustrating that there is no real conclusion to this disagreement.
Now, there is clearly much more to the story than this, but if you are reading this, odds are you have already seen the movie and don't need me to break it down for you. One of the bright spots of the film was how they were able to take these many plot points, from Winter Soldier's framing to the introduction of Black Panther and Spider-Man and actually weave them into the universe with fluidity. There is a lot going on here, but not once was it hard to follow or unclear. It was just unresolved.
One of the reasons I am not a big fan of Marvel films is because of their attempted use of humor, which I usually do not find funny, that is often featured during unusual and inappropriate circumstances. And boy, is there a big one here. In the first scene, Black Widow and Falcon team up to take down two baddies, one of whom is holding a biochemical weapon, that if dropped, would kill everyone in the area. Falcon takes out one man while Widow takes out the other, as she just barely catches the weapon before it hits the ground. That's right, they and tons of civilians were literally an inch from death. The first thing Falcon says after the catch is a joke. For a movie that is trying to become a bit more gritty than some Marvel predecessors, a joke at this time does not fit. There are also many jokes crammed into the big fight between all the heroes, which is strange, because you would think when good guys are driven to the point of fighting each other, that the humor would be kept to a minimum. Now I do not like many Marvel movies, but one that I actually love is The Avengers. The Avengers' use of humor works excellently, mainly because the plot is fairly silly, as aliens are trying to take over the world. That plot is not as heavy as twelve good guys fighting over government involvement in their work.
I mentioned the use of humor during the big fight scene between the heroes as a negative, but I have to admit, that scene was pretty fantastic. Seeing the heroes teaming up in unique ways, fighting each other was pretty cool. The choreography was excellent throughout the movie. I did feel like Paul Rudd stood out in this scene, and not in a good way. I love Paul Rudd as a comedic actor, but the majority of the actors in this movie are dramatic actors. Rudd's style and delivery clashed with the other actors'. Not to mention, I just don't like his character and I feel like he was thrown into this movie just so he could be there to make the sides even-numbered and then have no impact in anything later on.
There is also not a good explanation as to why Hulk and Thor are absent from this fight. They are a major part of this team that is tearing themselves apart, but they do not show up or seem to care about what is happening to our heroes or why.
Two big positives in this movie are Black Panther and Spider-Man. Both characters are interesting and their fighting styles are exciting and fresh. Seeing a sassy Spidey on screen for the first time in a while was really exciting, as Sam Raimi's Spider-Man was the first superhero movie I had ever seen, and I feel like this movie did a great job of revitalizing this character who was just destroyed only a few years ago. However, I wish they would have explained how "no one knew" Peter Parker was Spider-Man, but Tony Stark knew. It just seemed to be very coincidental.
And now, for my biggest complaint of the entire movie....the ending. For two hours, we have seen our heroes fighting each other over a disagreement of government involvement, as well as over the allegiance of the Winter Soldier, whom Cap trusts, but Iron Man does not. There is also a villain, who frames Winter Soldier only to lead us to our conclusion. The man shows Iron Man, Captain America, and Winter Soldier a tape of Winter Soldier killing Tony Stark's parents, whose death was a major motivation to Stark in this movie, despite this fact being absent from the previous five movies in which he starred. The fact that this video exists at all is just silly. Winter Soldier clearly knew the camera was there, as he shot it. So why didn't he shoot the camera and then kill the Starks?
Because of this video, Cap, Winter Soldier, and Iron Man have a big showdown, which ends with Captain America defeating Iron Man. They leave, and in the next scene Stark is shown at home, helping his partner, who was crippled in the big fight. Stark receives a package with a note, where Captain America apologizes for holding the information about his parents' death from him and gives him an old cellphone saying he is there for him whenever he needs him. Stark smiles, as he receives a call from the government official saying there has been a break-in at the prison where Cap's team was being held. Stark jokingly puts him on hold, and that is the end of that.
Batman vs. Superman got a lot of flack for the resolution to its conflict, and I agree, it was horrible. This resolution to Captain America and Iron Man's fight is just as bad. Tony just got his butt kicked by a guy who is defending his parents' killer, and instantly forgives him because of a note he sends saying he's sorry. This whole conflict, the inclusion of the government, the villain trying to turn them against each other and succeeding, ends with an apology note, like it was a scuffle between two third graders on the playground. Do we learn if the government will end up having control over our heroes' actions, which is literally the entire reason for the conflict? Uh, no. Seems like Tony Stark does not care about that dead guy from Serkovia anymore. Or his dead parents. He got an apology, all is good.
GET TO THE POINT:
While the big fight scene between heroes was fun to watch, and the massive load of characters is handled with grace, the movie ends up having no plot implications. No one dies, no one really even gets hurt, and the government is not really going to get involved after all because Stark can put them on hold. So we just watch a movie where nothing really happens, just so they can all get along in the future movies.
Rating:
2 out of 5 sorry notes (yes, the same rating as Batman vs. Superman)
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