Captain America: Civil War (2016)

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Captain America: Civil War Movie Review

Captain America: Civil War is a 2016 superhero film that concludes the Captain America trilogy and is the thirteenth entry in the MCU. It is such a good film that is one of Marvel’s finest.

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“Our very strenth incites challenge.

Challenge incites conflict. And conflict… breeds catastrophe“

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The disagreement over international oversight of the Avengers splits the team into two fractions – one led by Rogers and the other by Stark. That is the plot of this movie and it is admittedly pretty good. Let’s talk about the story in two different areas as the two halves here differentiate a lot. The first half of the film is very political, almost too political. But even though I usually dislike the serious tone in these superhero films, I have to say that I liked it here as the politics is really well handled, in a sophisticated, but thankfully not pretentious manner. I liked that the film went global, even though some obvious nations were still vilified. But I really liked that global feel to it and I found the conflict at the center of the story to be really well explored and powerful.

The second half of the movie is quite the opposite as it suddenly shifts the tone from serious to very light and comedic and I absolutely loved that. Spider-Man himself brought some necessary humor into the picture, but the entire team brought some laughs. I loved the fact that, even though they fought, it was obvious that they are still friends so they didn’t fight seriously. The comic exchange was great there and those scenes were wonderfully energetic and just fun to watch.

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Let’s talk about the characters. Captain America: Civil War is stuffed with way too many characters and that is one of its obvious big problems. Yes, they fleshed most of them out pretty well for such a short time, but there are still too many of them and not everyone got their moment to shine. Captain America himself is somewhat disappointing here as, contrary to the title, this isn’t exactly his movie, but rather the third Avengers flick. But he still had his more emotional and dramatic scenes. Iron Man is really good, if not particularly humorous this time around. But the problem with their relationship is that it isn’t that well realized and a bigger emotional punch was definitely needed given the magnitude of the conflict.

Black Widow continues to annoy me with her overly cocky attitude and they again did not fix that. Bucky Barnes is once again emphasized a lot, but his character still remains somewhat empty and boring. Falcon is used much better this time around, but he is still not relevant in the bigger picture. Rhodey was good and the emotion was felt between him and Iron Man, but his tragedy still did not feel as heartbreaking because his character was underutilized. Hawkeye is okay, but like Falcon, not needed.  Black Panther is the addition to the team and I really liked him as he is obviously such a different character, both in appearance and in personality. His scenes were some of the best in this movie.

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Vision was quite good, but he didn’t get too many scenes. But Scarlet Witch continues to be one of my favorite members of the team as she is so relatable and so likable. As for Ant-Man, I have to say that I found his character to be very disappointing here. He is used in so few scenes that he is basically redundant and the decision to have this many characters in a movie hurt his character most. Sharon Carter is solid and I really liked the blooming relationship between her and Cap. And Helmut Zemo is typical villain character.

And as for Peter Parker himself, I have to admit that he is very good. It is early to say that he is the best incarnation of the character yet, but he is true to his original self as he is very energetic and quite funny. I particularly liked his interactions with the rest of the team, particularly Tony. And I loved how realistic it was from them to have him not rise to the challenge in the battle as he is too young and inexperienced. That was great, but what wasn’t great is that they failed to bring up the subject of whether or not it was okay to bring a minor to a battlefield. That was such a missed opportunity.

Captain America: Civil War has some amazing action sequences. Really, the action here is so well executed that I was riveted by it during some scenes. The camera angles were also really good and the only problem is that the movements were too fast sometimes. But it was so exhilarating to watch and this is easily one of the most entertaining MCU movies to date. And I really liked that most of the characters delivered in terms of the action.

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As I said before, the humor is great and there were some hilarious scenes here. The shift in tone is a bit jarring, but I overall liked its two tones here. The cinematography is good and the score is stupendous. Yes, we finally have a well scored Marvel movie which is so refreshing. The pacing, on the other hand, is problematic because the movie is just way too long and sometimes in the third act a bit too prolonged and quite frankly boring. The dialogue is quite solid and the film is overall well crafted. It lacks emotion, but it isn’t cold either. Overall, even though it has its problems, Civil War is definitely one of the better Marvel movies thus far and the best entry in the trilogy, beating ‘The Winter Soldier’ for me.

Captain America: Civil War is one of the better MCU films so far thanks to a really well crafted and sophisticated storyline, a great political first half and an entertaining and comedic second one, really good humor and absolutely terrific action sequences. It does lack a bigger emotional punch, it is way too long and it is stuffed with way too many characters, thus seriously reducing the impact of some of them, but most of the characters are memorable and well used here, the team dynamic is great and it is undoubtedly one of the most entertaining Marvel movies.

My Rating – 4

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