This week, we went off to see Captain America: Civil War, with high hopes, after all, we thought The Winter Soldier, the previous Captain America entry, was one of Marvel’s better films. Adding further evidence, critics and audiences alike were heaping praise on it, with rave reviews and massive box office records.
If honest though we think we may have superhero fatigue! We were not wowed by this! Yes, it’s great entertainment, its storyline was intriguing too, no big villain, but themselves fighting against each other.
With popular characters joining the film, it felt maybe more like an Avengers film than a Captain America film. We think that this could be the problem, with so many characters, it seemed to be all so rushed, going from one CGI heavy fight sequence to another.
This film did not help with the fact that you had a feeling that if it hadn’t been done before or you had already seen most of the best sequences, in the numerous trailers that were released.
It would have been great to enter the film and see Spider-Man as a surprise but no, every trailer going centred on him.
This film also was a bit like those low budget creature features such as Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus, the posters promised huge battles between Team Iron Man & Team Captain America, but apart from a large sequence in an airport, a highlight of the film, we followed Captain and Iron Man, with the decisions they felt they have to make.
The film follows Captain America (Chris Evans) desperately trying to protect and prove the innocence of his good friend, the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) who has been framed for the killing of innocents, by the mysterious Zemo (Daniel Bruhl)
Things have however come to a big decision for the Avengers, with the amount of damage they have caused in their battles and the unnecessary loss of civilian lives.
Secretary of state (William Hurt) and most of the world, want the Avengers managed, so the losses can be maintained.
Having been approached by a mother (Alfre Woodard) of one of the human casualties caused by the Avengers, Tony Stark aka Iron Man (Robert Downey Jnr) agrees but our Captain doesn’t.
Another major terrorist incident occurs, with Bucky, the Winter Soldier, identified as the leader, Stark assigns a team to bring him in.
When Stark’s team, which includes Black Widow (Scarlett Johnasson); War Machine (Don Cheadle); Vison (Paul Bettany) and newcomers Spider-Man (Tom Holland) & T’Challa, now the Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) looking for revenge, having lost his father in the terrorist incident.
Of course, Captain, will do all he can to protect and prove Bucky’s innocence so he signs up a team to stop Stark and Co until he can do so. On his team are Falcon (Anthony Mackie); Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olson); out of retirement, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) & the Ant-Man (Paul Rudd).
So the film goes from battle to battle, until Captain and Iron Man face off, in what Zemo expects to be a battle to the death.
Of course, the evidence that Bucky was not the cause of the terrorist incidents is found, but another revelation is found involving Stark’s parents, which means the two team leaders still don’t quite have a happy ending together.
Lots of big action sequences happen within the 2hr 27 minutes, the longest Marvel film to date, and you will be entertained.
Butt for us, we had felt we had seen it all before, some changes to Ant-Man, made us think Ant-Man 2 could be interesting, and of the new guys, we were more interested in the Black Panther character than Spider-Man, he’s had 5 different films already, do we need a 3rd one?
The arrival of Ant-Man and Hawkeye also gave the film some much-needed humour, up until then it all felt far too serious, and not as light as other Marvel outings.
As we said, reviews and fans alike have said this is the best Marvel film yet, we still feel that is a title held by Guardians of the Galaxy, and no question if you like these superhero films you will enjoy it, but for us, this wasn’t the best Marvel film, in fact it wasn’t even the best Captain America film, we preferred Winter Soldier!
What did you think of Civil War? What is your favourite comic book film? Which character would you like to get a spin off next, Black Panther; Black Widow or Spider-Man? We would love to hear from you here at Barking Mad About Films.
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