Anthony's Film Review - Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Marvel Studios puts a real spin on the superhero movie, mixing it with a moral and philosophical dilemma...

By now, you know that superhero movies from Marvel Studios are all part of the same fictional universe, known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). With that in mind, consider this. One single MCU movie already has a lot of destructive action. Heck, you can pick out just one action scene from one MCU movie and you can find a ton of explosions, physical damage, and some casualties here and there. So if you have a bunch of superhero action movies within the MCU, it would mean that many individuals inhabiting that imaginary universe would witness or be subject to some mass destruction stemming from various superheroes and supervillains duking it out. If this keeps going on long enough, a lot of people won't be happy about it. Makes you wonder if these superheroes are really out-of-control vigilantes doing more harm than good.

That is the philosophical question that is raised early on in Captain America: Civil War. There is an effort by multiple heroes, including Steve Rogers a.k.a. Captain America (Chris Evans), Sam Wilson a.k.a. The Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), to foil a terrorist attack. However, it ends on a tragic note when a bunch of innocent people are killed accidentally. This is enough for the United Nations to get involved. They issue the Slovakia Accords, which require the Avengers to become a group operating under the supervision of the UN. Members of the Avengers are divided over this. Some see the importance of responsibility for innocent lives, while others see greater benefit in having no oversight.

It's definitely something to think about. It's also hard to ignore when subsequent action scenes, stemming from responses to terrorist attacks, continue to wreak havoc and destruction, the high cost of fighting to stop supervillains. All of this leads to a pivotal scene where the heroes are divided into two factions, each with different perspectives about the ethics of everyone's actions and about where the real threat really lies. Their rift reaches a breaking point, leading to a real extravaganza of an action sequence with the heroes battling each other. What's interesting is how it goes on long enough that everyone, meaning the audience and the characters, forget about what the fighting is all about. Seems like a very subtle lesson about the pointlessness of fighting.

I have to say. The title of the movie is somewhat misleading, though I mean this in a pleasant way. It is true that Captain America is in this movie and is, at least to a certain extent, the one presented as the prominent character. But the reality is that this is one of those ensemble MCU movies, featuring a large cast of MCU characters from previous movies. You might as well call this movie Avengers: Civil War because it sounds more accurate. Anyway, if you love this type of MCU movie, you'll definitely enjoy Captain America: Civil War. By the way, this movie also introduces two new characters who would have their own MCU movies shortly after this one: T'Challa a.k.a. Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Peter Parker a.k.a. Spider-Man (Tom Holland).

The MCU movies are entertaining because they provide formulaic action within the context of a story that is unique and new with each film. In this one, the unique element is the theme of internal group conflict. The result is that much of the film centers on fellow heroes as antagonists rather than the villains who are the real antagonists. In fact, I was rather surprised how the climax of the movie is more about conflict between heroes rather than the efforts to capture the terrorist responsible for the attacks earlier in the story. Though it's more low-key than the type of climax I expect in an MCU movie, it still works.

Captain America: Civil War is one of those movies that could potentially be a huge step up from previous movies, based on the premise. In the end, it's still as good as the first Captain America movie from Marvel Studios, The First Avenger, though not as much as the second, The Winter Soldier. On my scale of 1 to 10, this movie feels like an 8 for sure. It's another example of how Marvel Studios gives us what we enjoy while not boring us to death with only material that we've seen before. In addition, this movie is the first of Phase Three of the MCU, and it nicely sets the tone for the next couple of MCU movies lined up.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Captain America: Civil War, visit the Internet Movie Database.