Captain Avengers

Which side do you take in this star-studded cast? Before I answer that question, let's establish the ground rules. For those of you who read last week's review, I referenced this title using Batman v Superman. And for good reason. The political intrigue is very similar, and you can't really fault Civil War for coming out just a couple months later. Basically, after the opening action scene causes much destruction, the government wants to take over the wheel and pin some accountability and control over these meta humans. After montages of previous Avengers moments and some sob stories for personal reference, Tony Stark thinks for somebody besides himself and signs with the government. This is supposed to put a band-aid over the rift and still allow for safety; Steve Rogers disagrees. If they have to obey a superior officer to give the green light, it may be too late, he argues. And both have valid points and the rest of the superheroes take their sides.

That's the gist of it. And I mentioned the opening action sequence. Well, I kinda lied because first a flashback to how Bucky became the Winter Soldier was needed to create another divide in the heroes. I'm not sure if a simple flip-flop would work, you would probably need an additional scene before the transition, but to have a flashback and then an opening action scene is like you wanted to open the movie with one of them but needed both scenes and decided to simply put them back-to-back.

Now, the biggest flaw of the film is staring down all of us. Captain America: Civil War... Wait, so what point am I making? There's a dozen heroes or so in this film, but the title is still technically a Captain America movie. What this does is try balancing two aspects: a personal focus on Captain America, but also providing a broad stroke with all the Avengers. The result is slightly muddied and not as crisp as it should be. And the reason I may be being a little tough could be contributed to The Dark Knight Rises. I love that film; one aspect it couldn't control (although I thought Nolan handled it so well) was the fact that it had to follow The Dark Knight. Similarly, the previous installment The Winter Soldier is easily in my top 5 superhero films, possibly and probably top 3. It's smart, crisp, and full of terrific action. And Civil War hits most of the marks-- just not as many as the previous film and that's okay and understandable.

What the Captain America movies have always succeeded at the most in the hand-to-hand combat. This movie continues with those great fighting scenes. Before we get to the obvious showdown, I do still have stuff to complain about. With the Winter Soldier acting as a fugitive for large portions of the film, there's a couple chase scenes. And the movement of jumping from a building into a cartwheel to avoid impact doesn't look smooth; this continues when Black Panther is introduced and there's a big chase with cars in a tunnel. The movement isn't fluid-- this hearkens back to the sub-par CGI from the first Captain America movie.

Okay, okay, my heart isn't completely spattered with black ink spots. The showdown excels on every mark. This isn't nearly as dark and fatal as Batman v Superman, so the dialogue that ensues is full of pep and hilarity-- and yes, Spider-Man is one of the funniest along with Ant-Man. Of the newest additions to make their appearance, my favorite goes to Black Panther. His motivation is pretty typical, but I think he was handled really well and with an overall air of coolness and royalty. Additionally, Captain America's suit looks really good, and the way all the different superpowers clash is a blast to watch.

Behind the back-and-forth between our heroes, there's a story that keeps itself going, but again not to the same power and tenacity as Winter Soldier. And after the initial action, there was too much exposition afterward that lulled on. As I described the more light-hearted aspect of the fighting, I said that it helped that there wasn't really a fatality aspect involved. And this is absolutely true, but it also affects the climax briefly seen from the trailer. The grittiness of Dawn of Justice had more tension in wondering how far these characters might go, but with this film no matter how bloody a face might get, there wasn't really a concern that a major death would take place.

All in all, there's a couple scenes in the film that make the entire film more than worthy to watch. And it's a solid piece in its entirety, but there's still cracks in its framework that prevents it from being one of the best. It's been awhile since I've seen Age of Ultron, but if I were to compare it to that, I'd easily recommend this film more. It doesn't surpass Winter Soldier, but there's enough to hold its own-- and setup future installments for that matter.