Captain America: Civil War, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, completes the trilogy of films that have chronicled the adventures of Steve Rogers aka Captain America. The Marvel Studios release features performances by Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johannson, Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Renner, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Chadwick Boseman, Martin Freeman, Daniel Brühl, and Tom Holland.
The Review:
Where do I begin? Civil War is one of those films that absolutely nails what it is trying to accomplish and sends audiences away amazed, thrilled, in awe, and wanting more of what they just saw. Joe and Anthony Russo have more than proven themselves worthy of basically taking over the MCU after Joss Whedon decided to step away. With Captain America: Winter Soldier, they elevated what a comic book movie could be and now have done it again with Civil War but in a completely different way. Winter Soldier was a really kick ass spy thriller wrapped in super hero underoos, the kind that fit perfectly and you never want to take them off. Civil War is a comic book movie in every way it possibly could be and does such a great job of reaching into the nine year old brain inside you and putting your imagination up on the screen in ways only the first Avengers film had previously able to do.
I know you're going to want me to compare Civil War to Batman vs Superman because pitting DC against Marvel is always entertaining. If you don't already know my thoughts about that other movie, you can check them out HERE. If I wanted to be diplomatic about the whole thing I might say how the two films are great examples of how comic book films can reach different ends of the spectrum and there is a place for contrasting tones and styles when it comes to adapting iconic characters we have all grown up idolizing and adoring. So yeah, there's that, but on the other hand, you also have to make a good movie that people will enjoy watching and that's where DC absolutely failed. Marvel however has managed to give everyone what they have been waiting to see and made a really fun, action packed, thrilling, intense, funny, and extremely watchable film that you will want to see over and over again.
Marvel after showing DC how to make a comic book movie.
There are way too many surprises, twists, and turns for me to go deep into the story although that in itself is a compliment to how well the movie was put together. As we are now used to seeing in Marvel films, there are a whole bunch of characters including some new ones we have never seen before like Black Panther, Spider-Man, and a few others. The other thing people have been talking about is who dies and who lives because this is Civil War we're talking about, right? Again, I'm not giving up anything here so go see the movie. One of the things I actually will say about the film is how, even with so many characters weaving in and out of the story, it is very well balanced and great care was taken by the writing team of Christoper Markus and Stephen McPheely to make sure no one was left out or short changed.
The Verdict:
A couple people have asked me where this film ranks among the other Marvel films and unfortunately this is yet another topic I am not going to go into to avoid giving any sort of expectation one way or another. Plus, I would need to give it some time before making that call so I couldn't even say if I wanted to. Since this is the "verdict" portion of my review, I do need to give you something a little more concrete so I will say that Captain America: Civil War is a fantastic movie that I thoroughly enjoyed from beginning to end. The two theaters I have seen it in (so far) were filled with so much joy when the credits began to roll, you couldn't help but just sit there and marvel (pun intended) at what just happened and my first thought was that I couldn't wait to see it again.
This is what it felt like in the theater during most of the movie.
Seriously, Marvel just dropped the mic with this movie while at the same time evolving their universe perfectly and setting things up for the rest of Phase Three which will include Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, The Avengers: Infinity War Part 1, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel, and The Avengers: Infinity War Part 2.
3D cameras were not used to make this movie so that means it was post converted by really smart people who handle that stuff on their computers. I saw it first in 2D and, when I had a chance to compare, it really didn't make that much of a difference. Also, 17 of the 147 minutes run time were filmed with IMAX cameras and it's basically one big action sequence in particular. Not enough for me to suggest going for the upgrade.
If you are in the Seattle area, check out my screen comparison guide HERE to see which format would be the best one to check out and where to see it at.
Instead of the usual trailer, I am including the "Road to Civil War" Supercut which was put together by some people who work for the MCU Exchange website. Please watch, the did a fantastic job of pulling from all the Marvel movies and TV series to show us how everything has been building up to this big moment in the MCU story.
Thank you for the New Day gif!
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