Geekery: The *Spoilerific* Civil War Review Post
The Russos have made another action packed, solid movie for Marvel – but it’s not perfect.
Captain America: Civil War took in $181.8 million on its opening weekend – making it the fifth best opening weekend ever. It’s been well received by audiences and critics alike. It’s a Marvel release… I’m not sure if we can expect anything else until there’s an open box office revolt against comic book movies.
It’s good. It’s not perfect. It’s not a cinematic masterpiece, but it’s certainly a solid addition to the MCU.
Let’s get the big nitpicks out of the way first, shall we?
Let’s call it what it really is: Avengers 2.5: The Infinity War Prequel. There has to be a bunch of linking made before making it to 2018. Phase two and three characters are going to need some face time with the non-comic-book-reading public so they know what’s going on in the first massive payoff of this whole thing: Infinity War. At times I found myself wondering if they were going to try to cram Silverclaw and/or Captain Britain in there. With everything going on a lot of character arcs were simply lost.
Too much stuff in 2.5 hours – they almost pulled it off. Almost.
I WAS LIED TO! As much as they touted that he was in the script from the beginning, and it wouldn’t feel forced into the plot… it felt really ham fisted. The whole apartment scene was a disaster, and should have been put in as a DVD extra. The CG was still not up to par with other more established characters – which makes me wonder if he was the last thing they did in post because the rights weren’t secure. I am disappoint.
The good stuff…
Even though I wasn’t impressed with the way he was jammed into the plot Tom Holland‘s take on the character was pitch perfect. The quips, the awe, the youthfulness, the athleticism – everything I was hoping for. I won’t go so far as to say he’s the best on screen Spider-Man ever, but he’s really close. The hookup with Tony and Peter is going to keep Robert Downey Jr. in the MCU for a bit, which isn’t a bad thing – the characters work off each other nicely. Homecoming has become much more interesting after seeing this.
Chadwick Boseman gave a great performance, the character was nicely developed – and his plot line made sense within the script! All of the right things clicked here, and they did a great job at selling a generally unknown character to a new audience. This particular arc was a favorite of director Anthony Russo’s:
“Black Panther’s arc is one of our favorite things about the movie: He’s driven so powerfully by vengeance and he gets to a point at the end of the film where he realizes what that drive has done and is doing to other people and he’s able to set it down and move forward. This idea that he would offer refuge to Cap, this guy he’s been fighting the whole movie, and Bucky, this guy who he’s been trying to kill the whole movie … is just a really cool arc for him to go through and it’s inspiring.”
Ryan Coogler takes over for the solo movie that’s due out in 2018. The project has a lot of potential.
I was very happy to see Black Window get to kick some ass. She feels more like herself in this movie than she did in Age of Ultron. She has humor, her own code, and can fend for herself. Rumors of a solo movie have moved from a rumble to a roar thanks to a recent interview Kevin Feige did with Deadline:
“We’ve announced the next nine movies, ten counting Civil War, through the end of 2019. Where we go beyond that are ongoing discussions that we’ll focus on in the next few years because we have a lot to do before then. Of the characters that you’ve just mentioned I would say certainly the one creatively and emotionally that we are most committing to doing is Black Widow. We think she’s an amazing character. We think Scarlett Johansson’s portrayal of her is amazing. She’s a lead Avenger and has amazing stories in her own right to tell that we think would be fun to turn into a standalone franchise.”
Quick and dirty list because it’s 2:30am and I’m trying to meet deadline:
– The airport fight scene felt a little dinky compared to the marketing, but it was fun. Giant Man. Giant Man was great.
– Are we going to get more Baron Zemo? I like Daniel Brühl, so I’m hoping yes.
– They handled the ending in a way I expected – you can’t have Cap being led off in handcuffs with an audience filled with kids. I don’t think they’re ready for that kind of thing, or what happens after. I’m good with the “there are no winners” choice.
There’s a lot more in there to talk about… so have it it.
What do you think of the movie?
