"Captain America: Civil War" Review

Directors Joe and Anthony Russo have a thankless job.

After their surprise success (both those words are severe understatements) with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, they were chosen to, after the departure of Avengers director Joss Whedon, to helm the third and fourth Avengers films: Infinity War - Part 1 and 2. Given these movies will not only bring back characters from Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, but also, most likely, add newcomers from Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Black Panther, the screen will be literally stuffed from edge to edge with comic book fandom, visual effects, and the most expensive and extensive cast in history.

No pressure.

Captain America: Civil War serves as the Russo Brothers' audition for Avengers: Infinity War - when faced with a potential 67 characters in the latter, a six-on-six fight seems doable. As an audition goes, Civil War is about as good as it gets, with fantastic performances from old friends and new, imaginative direction, thrilling action, and a thoughtful introduction on the difficulties facing law and crime in a globalized world.

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), known as Captain America, leads the New Avengers: Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Vision (Paul Bettany), and Falcon (Anthony Mackie). With the demise of SHIELD, they work on their own, stopping terrorist attack worldwide. However, as civilian casualties rise, the international community fears their unchecked power and creates the Sokovia Accords, a treaty that would give the United Nations oversight of the team, dispatching them only when absolutely necessary.

Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is for signing the agreement. After his creation of Ultron and the Iron Legion led to the attack on Sokovia, his guilt guides him to relinquish some power for the sake of protection.

Captain America, seeing first-hand how HYDRA infiltrated and corrupted SHIELD, opposes the agreement. If compromised, the United Nations could prevent the Avengers from intervening when truly necessary.

"The safest hands are still our own," Steve argues.

Tensions escalate when the bombing of the U.N. meeting in Vienna sees the Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) as the prime suspect. Tony and the government want to apprehend Barnes the "shoot first, ask later" way but Steve wants to try and find Bucky on his own.

To anyone watching this from afar, understanding it all would feel like solving a Rubik's cube, but Marvel's strength has always been its characters. Their directors and writers flesh out these heroes, constantly building on them. Age of Ultron recruits Scarlet Witch and Vision are given more screen time; new characters Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland) are given effective scenes to completely understand and appreciate their characters. You don't have to see a two-hour movie to know and like them, which makes juggling these characters doable, with surprising ease.

Due to this and the Accords, friends form alliances, teammates take opposing sides, and the strength of our heroes are tested.

You'd also think the 6-on-6 fight would be incomprehensible, but the Russos take the layered approach J.J. Abrams did with The Force Awakens, weaving hand-to-hand combat, aerial dogfights, and team combos with lots of open space, smooth camerawork, and smart editing. Everyone, from War Machine (Don Cheadle) to Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), gets their money shot, and look damn fine doing it.

The rest of the action unsuccessfully borrows from Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Legacy, Captain Phillips), with lots of shaky, handheld camera work. The beginning scene finds the New Avengers chasing a group of bad guys, and I could barely understand what was going on, who was where. Given that Winter Soldier gave us some of the clearest and sharpest action in a Marvel movie to date, I don't understand why the Russos went down this path.

I understand what causes Steve and Tony to disagree, but the escalation to a fistfight is hollow. Most of their rationale is based off of impatience and loose facts, and it's evident throughout the fights that no one is fighting because they believe in it, but because the plot requires it.

One of the last Captain America/Iron Man fights is prefaced with a piece of information that provides that legitimate emotional push, but by that point, we're two hours in, and it's too little, too late. There's no strong anchor to any plot, so it's unclear what the main storyline is. I found myself yawning often, waiting for the next fight I saw in the trailer.

But that's the curse of having many mouths to feed. To put a spin on an Abraham Lincoln quote, "You can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time." I like Civil War for the fights, the Easter eggs, and characters. You might like it for different reasons. That's the luxury of a wealth of content: there's something for everybody.

Captain America: Civil War isn't a home run, but a solid double. It gives the Russo Brothers and Marvel Studios a good foundation to branch out, experiment, and ready themselves for the Infinity War.

Thank you all for reading. I'm the Man Without a Plan, signing off.
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Current MCU Rankings

13) Iron Man 3

12) Iron Man 2

11) Thor: The Dark World

10) Ant-Man
9) The Incredible Hulk

8) Avengers: Age of Ultron

7) Thor

6) Captain America: Civil War

5) Captain America: The First Avenger

4) Captain America: The Winter Soldier

3) Iron Man

2) Guardians of the Galaxy

1) The Avengers

In lieu of a trailer, here's a review I did with HalfKocked Productions on the film. They're a fledgling hometown outfit, so click below and give them some love!