'Captain America: Civil War' Review
The weeks leading up to the release of 'Civil War' seemed to be some of the longest ones I can remember. It felt like every day we were getting another tv spot or promotional piece. As the movie started being released in international markets and for critics, the positive reviews started pouring in and set the internet on fire.
My expectations for this film were so high that I would surely be in for a letdown.
My friends and I have been attending the Thursday night advanced screenings of super hero films since 2008's 'Iron Man', a tradition we uphold now with our fiances and significant others. We had purchased our tickets a few weeks in advance and were prepped for the Thursday night show.
But a funny thing happened on Monday, May 5th, as I received an e-mail from Collider, stating that I had been invited to attend a special screening of 'Civil War' in New York City (I live in the Philadelphia suburbs) and that the directors of the film, Joe & Anthony Russo, would also be there for a special Q&A session following the film.
I quickly started asking my friends to go, as my fiance wasn't able to get off work. In order to secure a spot, I had to RSVP myself and a guest and even then, seats were not guaranteed in the theatre. After a 90-minute train ride and a lot of anxious moments, my friend Pat and I arrived outside of the Loews Theater and waited in line for around an hour until we were allowed inside. Yes, we did get in!
Another hour of waiting inside followed. The editor-in-chief of Collider, Steve "Frosty" Weintraub (who worked his butt off making this whole event possible) greeted us all in the theatre and introduced the Russo Brothers. A few quick questions with them lead up to the start of the film. I'll get into my review here soon, I promise.
The Q&A session that followed the film was an INCREDIBLE experience. We got to see behind the curtains into the creative process of such a huge, blockbuster film. The Russo Brothers were super nice guys and answered many fan questions, signed autographs and took pictures. An amazing night all-around.
Getting back on track, our group was also set to see the film together the following night. Seeing the film again reinforced my positive feelings about it. Enough is enough, let's get into the spoilers!
*******************************SPOILER WARNING********************************************************************
If you're still reading up to this point, you MUST be ready to get into spoiler territory.
The film opens up to The Winter Soldier being unfrozen and mind-wiped in 1991. Russian military personnel recite a series of seemingly random words that initiate the mind control protocol inside Bucky's brain. Bucky is seen on a mission causing a car accident, but we don't know who the assassination target is.
Shifting to present day Lagos, Nigeria, our "new" Avengers team of Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, Cap and Falcon are scoping out a crowded area of the city, as they are hunting down Crossbones/Brock Rumlow. Crossbones has been at-large since the events of 'The Winter Soldier'. Wanda is being trained on how to be covert during missions, and the team discovers a truck that is headed for the Infectious Disease Center, in which the truck crashed the gate, allowing Crossbones and his minions inside. The team goes to work fighting the soldiers in some shaky-cam fight scenes (one of my only gripes about the film) and Crossbones is seen stealing a vial containing a biological weapon. He gives it to one of his cronies and they disperse, causing the Avengers to chase them through the city.
After tracking the man who has the vial, Natasha recovers it, but Cap is attacked by Crossbones. They do battle, and after Cap gets the upper hand, Rumlow, complete with bomb vest, blows himself up to kill Cap. Wanda contains the blast with her powers and tries to move it up and way from Rogers, but in doing so causes a building to take the brunt of it, killing many people including Wakandans. The news outlets are all over the story and are calling for action against the Avengers.
We also see a scene of a young Tony and his parents which turns out to be a virtual reality simulation that he is expoing at a conference at MIT. After his presentation, he encounters a woman who tells him that her son was killed during the events in Sokovia, prompting Tony's guilt.
At the Avengers complex, General Ross, now secretary of state, talks to the Avengers about the past events that have led up to the proposed Sokovia Accords. Voted on by many nations of the world and overseen by the UN, the accords will control The Avengers' activity. Stark, Rhodes, Vision, and Natasha are all on board, with Rogers and Sam against it. Cap is called away from the meeting from a text telling him that Peggy Carter had passed away. Steve, Sam and natasha attend her funeral in London, and a speech by her niece Sharon/Agent 13 reinforces Steve's stance on the accords.
During another scene, we are introduced a man named Helmut Zemo, who is seeking out records on The Winter Soldier.
At the signing of the Sokivia Accords, we are introduced to King T'Chaka and Prince T'Challa of Wakanda. T'Challa notices strange activity outside of the building and an explosion is set off, killing King T'Chaka and many others. Reports of a sighting of Winter Soldier prompt a manhunt for him. Because of Steve's history with Bucky, he also goes to look for him and finds him in Bucharest, where a team of soldiers is there to bring him in. Cap and Bucky fight their war out of the situation but are then pursued by Black Panther/T'Challa, out for revenge because he thinkgs Bucky killed his father. An intense chase scene sees War Machine arrive to bring Cap and Bucky into custody. Because he did not sign the accords, Cap is now a wanted man, splitting the Avengers in half.
Another scene shows Cap, Falcon and Bucky (now remembering who he is) try to figure out a plan of action, as Tony's team is pursuing them. Tony, now in Queens, shows up at the apartment of Peter Parker. YES, I SAID PETER PARKER! When Peter arrives home, he sees Stark in his living room talking with Aunt May. During a private conversation, Tony reveals he knows that he is Spider-Man and enlists his help, as they travel to Germany. Falcon had also enlisted the help of Scott Lang/Ant-Man. The two teams meet up at an airport and a battle begins. This fight scene is INCREDIBLE! We even get to see Ant-Man turn into Giant-Man. Hands down the best fight sequence I've ever seen in a super hero movie.
Before this fight, Cap discovers that Bucky is not responsible for the bombing, but that it was Zemo. He and Bucky then travel to Russia, where Zemo is hiding out. There were other Winter Soldier test subjects besides Bucky. Cap think Zemo will unleash them on the world, but that doesn't turn out to be the case. Zemo tells them that he lost his family in the Sokovia incident and is out for revenge. His plan was to divide the Avengers and have them destroy each other. When Tony shows up, things seem to be ok, but Zemo shows him footage of Bucky's assassination plan from the beginning of the film, where it's revealed that he in fact killed Tony's parents. An enraged Tony battles Cap and Bucky, with Bucky losing his bionic arm in the process. Cap, with the opportunity to kill Tony, destroys his arc reactor, ending the battle.
At the end of the film, Cap is shown rescuing his Avengers team from The Raft and writes a letter to Tony, which gets delivered comically by Stan Lee. The letter apologizes to Tony for withholding the news about his parents' murder, which he knew about. He tells Tony that if he ever needs him or his team that he'll be there. The Avengers are still split at the conclusion of the film, heading into 2018's 'Infinity War'. It will be interesting to see how they can come together to save the universe from Thanos.
The end-credit scenes: The first one showed an armless Bucky voluntarily going back into stasis until the HYDRA programming in his brain can safely be removed. T'Challa is hiding Bucky and Cap in Wakanda, as they have made peace. T'Challa knows that Bucky didn't actually kills his father. The seconds end-credit scene features Spider-Man bruised from his battle in Germany, with Aunt May talking to him about it. Peter discovers a new feature added to his web shooter, assuredly left by Tony, that displays the Spider-Man logo on the ceiling and looks to have some kind of interface options for communication purposes. A tagline stating that 'Spider-Man will Return' is also displayed, as he will get his own solo movie 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' next July.
At around two and a half hours, there was SO MUCH going on in this film that I just couldn't cover it all. Here's a list of events in the movie that I didn't touch on, and I'm sure I'm still forgetting some:
Scarlet Witch/Vision relationship
Hawkeye coming in to rescue Wanda
Cap/Agent 13 romance
No origin story for Peter
Slight background on Black Panther
No Hulk or Thor
No classic costume for Zemo
Classic 'Civil War' shot of Cap vs. Tony
Tony and Pepper breakup
Rhodes shot down by Vision, injured badly
No Thanos end-credit scene
To me, this is certainly the best Marvel movie to date, and is a strong consideration for the best super hero film to date. The action and fight scenes in the movie were phenomenal. The character interactions and dynamics were the main fuel for the engine. You really felt the weight of everything when you saw them battling each other. I was glad none of our heroes were killed, but War Machine is now seemingly permanently out of commission. The introductions to Black Panther and Spider-Man were handled perfectly. Chadwick and Tom Holland were perfect castings for their roles and I cannot wait to see their solo films. It'll be interesting to see how Marvel & Sony continue to work together regarding Spider-Man, as Sony controls the film rights to the character. At times the story was slowed down by politics and dialogue, but the action scenes far outweigh the lulls of the film.
My rating: 9.5 out of 10
*To check out the video I made of my NY experience at the premiere and Q&A, click here:
