Movie Review: 'Captain America: Civil War'
By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio 1060
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- And now they fight each other.
That's about the size of the narrative in Captain America: Civil War, as the movie-screen superheroes who have emerged from Marvel Comics choose up sides and have at it.
Okay, it's not quite that simple. But that's the basic appeal of the twelfth Marvel movie, in which Chris Evans' Captain America, also known as Steve Rogers, faces off against Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man, and each of the Avengers chooses which side of the "family" he or she is to be on.
The rift stems from the decision of who should be in charge of the superheroes – the worlds' governments or the self-policing heroes themselves – and the former allies differ on whether political interference in the Avengers' activities is a good or a bad thing.
Part of the title character's motivation to resist stems from the fact that his best friend, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), was resuscitated by the Soviet Union as brainwashed assassin Winter Soldier and is now suspected of terrorism.
And feeding the conflict between divided factions agonizing over their moral responsibility is a mysterious operative played by Daniel Bruhl.
Along for the spandex ride once again are Don Cheadle's War Machine, Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye, Paul Rudd's Ant-Man, Anthony Mackie's Falcon, Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch, and Paul Bettany's Vision.
And there's room for two newcomers: Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther and Tom Holland's Spider-Man.
Captain America: Civil War follows Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). The first was a spirited, well-executed mix of science fiction fantasy, action, humor, nostalgia, and romance that featured the shield-wielding, World War II-era supersoldier, a former undersized underdog who has been transformed into a muscular masked marvel. It was straightforward, straight-laced, and exuberant fun.
In the follow-up, although the ingredients were the same, the resultant mixture was not: the Captain was no longer an underdog, the action looked too much like animation, and the first sequel turned out to be the winter soldier of our discontent.
Directors Joe and Anthony Russo – who also directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as well as Welcome to Collinwood and You, Me and Dupree – work from a Captain America: Civil War screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeeley that picks up where Captain America: The Soldier Winter and Avengers: Age of Ultron left off, with Steve Rogers leading his new team of Avengers – Are they heroes or vigilantes? Depends on your point of view -- as they continue to safeguard humanity.
The script takes us to London, Vienna, Berlin, Leipzig, Cleveland, Queens, and the fictional Sokovia.
But then, when yet another international incident involving the Avengers results in extensive collateral damage – and it's about time this obvious and inevitable superhero-flick theme is being self-consciously addressed – political pressure begins to build in the direction of engaging an organization to determine when the Avengers should be called on for help.
The United Nations, perhaps?
The ensuing disagreement about accountability thus splits the team even as they work together to protect the world from a new and dangerous villain.
The film, short on originality but long on flair, offers dizzying but smartly choreographed and executed action, solid characters, crisp dialogue, massive set pieces, routinely spectacular special effects, appropriate humor, a satisfying climax, and a busy narrative that justifies the lengthy running of nearly two-and-a-half hours.
But are there just too many superheroes on-screen at once? Is more actually less in this case? Are we just comic-book-superheroed out, victims of been-there-done-that fatigue?
None of the above, it turns out, because the Russos have found a way to pack in all these characters and all this action and yet somehow leave sufficient room for legitimate emotional resonance.
Nicely done.
So we'll protect humanity from 3-1/2 stars out of 4. As the best of the three Captain America flicks so far, and superior to the Avengers outings as well, the entertaining and surprisingly thoughtful Civil War is hereby named captain of the team.
