Captain America: Civil War

A long form review originally posted in 2016 It’s commonplace for me to need more than one viewing to really nail down my feelings on a movie, that’s particularly true of MCU, and even more so of this particular film. That all said, here is my initial reaction to _Captain America: Civil War_. As is often the case, it’s hard to write down too comprehensive a post about a film this early on while remaining totally spoiler-free, so for starters, I’ll just go ahead and ask the thing that was on my mind from about five minutes in to _Civil War_: I want to know how it is that two guys who have a filmography so firmly rooted in sitcoms of all things, manage to direct action this spectacularly? Honestly. It’s insane. _Winter Soldier_ is one of the strongest MCU films in my opinion, and just like that felt mostly like a follow up to both the prior _Captain America_ film and the prior _Avengers_ film, _Civil War_ feels the same, but for the sequels to said films (_Winter Soldier_ and _Age of Ultron_). That said, it might lean a little too far on to the side of _Avengers_-sequel, and a little too light on the _Cap_-sequel. If you had to pick a lead here, it would be Steve Rogers, no mistake, but this does feel like a film painted with a very broad brush of characterisation to be solely a “_Captain America_” movie. Considering the sheer scope of the piece, it’s amazing that the Russo brothers managed to get the ball rolling on _Civil War_ as well as they did. Even so, there are a couple of roles I felt could have been cut altogether without really impacting the story, and that time could perhaps have been used to serve some underrepresented puzzle pieces. Perhaps both the inclusion in places and lack of inclusion in others is because of plans for future MCU films (though certainly not all instances can use that excuse) but either way, if I’m hunting for flaws, that to some degree is one. I will say, that for all of _Civil War’s_ ups and downs (mostly ups), it is both a worthy entrant into Marvel’s franchise, and perhaps even more importantly, it actually even addresses some of the problems left in _Age of Ultron_. Of course the acting is all above board, the primary action set-piece is just dumbfoundingly fun, and the evolution of the mythology meshes with the universe at large. _Civil War_ may not be my favourite superhero movie, or even my favourite MCU movie (I mean it also might be, I think I need to give it at least another two watches to be sure) but it might just be the best comic book adaptation movie. By that, I don’t mean it accurately portrayed the events of the Marvel “Civil War” event from back 2006, because that’s not even close to true. What I mean is, there are so many instances that manage capture the spirit of what the comics are. And you almost feel like you are watching one unfold before you on the screen. A glorious, squillion dollar, two and a half hour comic book. Oh yeah. And the new superheroes introduced in _Civil War_? They’ve got me pretty bloody excited. 79% -_Gimly_