BACKGROUND:
I grew up a DC fan. Ever since I was a little kid, I grew up watching the JL animated series, the Static Shock series, and the Teen Titans series. I loved everything DC. Still do. The only marvel hero I ever resonated with, was Spider Man. I loved the Sam Raimi films. I remember popping the Spider Man 2.1 Cut into the VCR every day. In fact, Spider Man 3 was the very first comic book movie I ever saw in theaters. Anyway, in 2011, the New 52 started. Thats what got me into comics. 2011 was also the same year that Captain America: The First Avenger came out. Was never a big fan of Cap. Didn't know too much about him. Only knew Chris Evan's as Johnny Storm. Anyway, came out of the movie satisfied. I loved the good ol' superheroics that this film presented. It was a genuine good hearted film, about a hero that you really couldn't hate. Anyway, the film accomplished many things for me. It got me into marvel comics. It got me interested into the MCU( especially since it was the first MCU film I ever saw). And it got me interested into Captain America himself. Fast Forward to 2016. I loved Deadpool. I loved Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice. That's all you need to know
THE GOOD:
PERFORMANCES AND CHARACTERS: The one complaint I always had about the MCU, was that none of the characters ever resonated with me. They were always quipy heroes who never went through any character development. That all changed when The Russo's brothers came. TWS was the most personal and emotional MCU film I ever saw. The film made me deeply care for Captain America, and for the first time, Black Widow. Going into this film, I was only invested in these two characters, but coming out, I had a new appreciation for these characters. I went in Team Cap, but came out Team Iron Man. While Chris Evans did an amazing job as Captain America, I couldn't help but think this was Iron Man's movie. RDJ gave one of the best cbm performances I've ever seen. His rendition of Tony Stark this around was the most bleakest and serious. He wasn't your usual witty Iron Man. With the events that have happened, how can he be? This serious Iron Man was something that I expected from Iron Man 3 and AOU, but I never got it. One of my favorite moments from him was when he blasts Sam away when he apologizes for what happened to Rhodey. It was truly heartbreaking. Sebastian Stan gave such a layered performance as Bucky Barnes this time around. He was able transition from aggressiveness, to sadness so naturally. He could go from taking down any opposing force between his escape, to reminiscing with Steve about a nice red-headed girl from back in the day. Elizabeth Olsen is back around this time as Wanda Maximoff, and is more beautiful than ever. Her performance is just so good. She brings this sort of naivety and will to do good to the role. You can feel her pain when her powers are out of control. Her recklessness in Nigeria is the final nail in the coffin for the government to finally present the Sokovia Accords. When she takes control of the Vision and pushes him down, I don't know how many floors, broke my heart. Especially since she started developing a relationship with him. Speaking of Vision: Paul Bettany is back as the philosophical speaking android, and he is as powerful as ever. This time around, the Vision is more settled down, from dressing up in sweaters to finding the right ingredients to cook a meal. He is much more aggressive this time around also. And he's very brooding this time. There is this scene where he's hovering up and down in his cape in a dim room. Anthony Mackie is back as Steve's number one guy, Sam Wilson. Mackie gives another charismatic performance as the Falcon. And for a guy who we've only seen interact with Cap and Black Widow before this film, his interactions with everybody else felt natural and authentic. It seemed real that he's been working with people for a long time, even though we never got to see on screen before Civil War. Jeremy Renner is back as Clint Barton, fresh out of retirement. His return actually got one of the biggest pops of the night from my audience. He gives a sort of grumpy, big brother type performance when it came to his interactions with Scarlet Witch, and it suited him well. Natasha, the Black Widow, is back as the heart of the movie. Its surprising, I know. The Russo's, in my opinion, are the only one's who have gotten me to care for Natasha. They made her vulnerable in TWS, and because of that, we were able to relate to her. Here this time, she's sort of the mediator of both teams. She tries her best to ease the situation before it comes into blows, but at the end, she's forced to choose a side. And she choose's Caps. Yep, Black Widow is the double agent. Sort of predictable, but at the same time, it was the only thing that made sense. Even though she's always been a government spy, she's never allowed it to cloud her judgement and ability to do the right thing. And in that moment in the airport scene, she saw that Cap was trying to do the right thing. Paul Rudd is back as Scott Lang. This was my first impression of him since I still haven't seen Ant-Man( don't kill me!). He was laugh-out loud funny. He was completely Cap's biggest fan, and would've done anything for him. I'm not gonna lie, his motivation is the most shoddy. I know he has no problem being outside the law since he is a former criminal, but its still not enough. Although I did love him pretending to be Tony's conscious. As expected, the Black Panther and Spider-man completely stole the show. Chadwick Boseman brought a much welcome form of self respect and royalty( as he is king). He also brought a rage-filled intensity to all of his fight scenes. The moment that I knew I was going to love BP, was when he tells Black Widow she shouldn't bother finding Bucky. He'll kill him himself. Why I loved Maguire and Garfield's renditions of Spidey, Tom Holland stole the cake. He is Spider-Man. From his awkard interaction with Tony as Peter Parker, to his sense of wonder when fighting alongside Tony's team, he is Spider-Man ripped straight from the comics. My favorite moment is the interaction he has with Steve, where they both exchange where they grew up in NY. And now to the villain. Going in, I was expecting to hate Helmut Zemo. I heard very divisive things about him, plus I've always been underwhelmed by MCU villains. I actually ended up really liking him. His motivations were clear, and he was as sinister as you can get. He wasn't another villain hellbent on world domination. He just wanted to destroy the Avengers from within. He was one of the most personal villains we've ever gotten. Having his family die during the Sokovia incident brought a sense of veangence in this film that we haven't seen from any sort of villain quest in the MCU.
STORY: I have to applaud the writers. They were able to come up with an intricate and intense story, that seemingly involved almost every marvel hero. It wasn't your typical alien invasion type film. It wasn't simple either. People have this notion that simple is always better. That's just lazy. You can write an intricate and well plotted story with an ensemble cast. Justice comes with a cost. Innocent People die and building's topple. Accountability is a heavily discussed issue in the film. Should our heroes wait for the seal of approval by the government to intervene a threatening situation? Or should they undermine their authority and do whatever it takes to end the hostile situation? Tony Stark, a man who first started out distrusting the government, has now come to accept their new legislative law, as he's seen what reckless power can do, including his own. He seeks redemption in his own way, and by appeasing to the masses and the UN, he believes that will do. Remember, Tony just wants to protect everyone. And signing the Sokovia Accords will help the public feel safe, he believes that. Steve Rogers, a man who started out as a soldier for the government, has now come to distrust them and their laws. After the events of TWS, can you blame him? The only people he trusts are his friends and comrades, and their ability to do the right thing when needed. Obviously, that is not always the case. Plus. Steve has always fought for the little guy. He's not the type of hero who stand back and wait for some beauracratic suit to give him the thumbs up. I mean, if he was, surely Bucky and the rest of the 400 men that were captured by the Red Skull back in TFA, would be dead, right? Steve has always had a sense of duty to do the right thing, and for most of the time, his judgement has always right. But throw in Bucky Barnes to the mix, and Steve's judgement becomes grayer and grayer. The one thing that I love about this film is that every character has his motivation. And, excluding Ant-Man, they make sense. By the time the teams are formed, you don't question why they are sorted like that. It feels natural that T'Challa would side with Iron Man, as he wants revenge for his father's death. Scarlet Witch would definitely side with Cap because she doesn't want to put in check by anyone, especially by Tony, a man she has a history of distrusting. It feels organic. I love that the tension was building up for the first half, and than it culminated into blows during the second half. This first started out as a political story, but it ended on one of friendship and family.
TONE: The tone for this movie is unlike any other MCU film. Yes, it has a serious tone like the first Iron Man, and TWS, but it also has a sense of bleakness to it. It's darker than other marvel films. It's the first MCU film that deals with the actions of our heroes and wether they should be held accountable. The film goes places I never thought an MCU film would go. I mean, I never thought that I would see an MCU villain try to blow his brains out after proclaiming that his plan won. And yet, the film is still butloads of fun. The lightheartedness of the movie never feels out place. There are less quips and jokes in the movie compared to past MCU films, but the ones that are there, never feel put in just for the audience to laugh. They aren't shoved in the distract people from a dire situation that is currently happening. I mean, the entire 16 minute airport fight scene is full jokes and happy superheroics because it needs to be. It makes sense. But when shit is about to go down, shit goes down. I mean, the entire fight between Iron Man and Cap in the end, is just an entire emotional roller coaster. Its chock full of intensity and emotion, and it needs to be for the audience to feel invested. I mean, not a single quip is spoken by Iron Man throughout the entire fight. No, the movie wants you to feel the pain that is being shown. It wants you to feel the emotion that these two former comrades are going through. The betrayal that Tony feels when he learns the Cap knew that Bucky killed his parents. Steve using the weapon that Howard Stark built to protect the man that killed him, while fighting Howard's son. Its like a [frick]ed up family reunion.
ACTION: Oh my god, the action! First of all, this movie contained one of the best Black Widow fight scenes since Iron Man 2. The hand to hand combat between her and Crossbone's men in Nigeria was simply amazing. The chase scene between Cap, Bucky and and Black Panther showcased, simply, the best choreography the film had to offer. Actually, any time Black Panther was involved, the choreography was kicked up a notch. I truly hope that they bring back the same choreographers for the BP solo flick. I mean, I put him up there with Batfleck's choreography in BvS. And oh my god, the airport scene. 16 minutes of comic book heaven. It was a huge splash page come to life. From Cap versus Spidey, to Black Panther versus Hawkeye under GIANT-MAN( yes, that happens). To Spidey taking down Giant Man like he was an AT- Walker. Simply amazing.Words can't describe it. Now, the fight between Tony and Steve. Truly heartbreak. There weren't crazy dives and huge stuntwork, but just two former comrades going at it, trying to destroy one another. Each punch connected, each kick, you could feel the hit. The thing that I loved about all these fight's, is that each one had motivation to it. No fight was unneccessary or just there for spectacle. Each one had a meaning. Because of that, I never felt exhausted. I mean, the entire 3rd act of AOU was jus tiring and boring. But here, even after 16 minutes of pure goodness, I wanted more.
THE BAD:
CAPTAIN AMERICA: Look, don't kill me. I enjoyed Chris Evan's performance. But at times, this felt more like an Iron Man film. I mean, RDJ really overshadowed Evans. His performance was just all around gut wrenching, while Evan's performance was just ehh. I mean, he was very reactionary, in my opinion. He wasn't as aggressive or commanding as he was in TWS. He had great emotional moments, don't get me wrong. But I don't know. He had more to do, but it wasn't as memorable as Tony's scenes.
ITS NOT A CAP TRILOGY: Everyone on this site is proclaiming this to be the greatest cbm trilogy of all time. But its not. It's simply not. The events of what happened in TWS are merely shoutouts or nudges. Yes, it involves Bucky. But the movie deals more with what happened in Sokovia than Hydra inflitrating Shield. I mean, we don't even get to see what the rest of the Avengers thought about formely working for Hydra without even knowing. I mean, the entire ideological battle between Cap and Iron Man, is because of what happened in the second Avengers film. Im sorry, but this is the third film of the Avengers. This really should have been Marvel's Civil War.
WAR MACHINE: Don Cheadle was just there in my opinion. He wasn't memorable, nor exciting. He had some funny lines, but that's it.
EVERETT ROSS: While Martin Freeman is always great, he simply didn't need to be here. I mean, have Secretary Ross do what Everett Ross did, and it simply wouldn't have made a difference. He didn't really need to be there.
SHODDY CAMERA WORK: While the film had one of the best cinematography of any MCU film( although thats not really saying much), there was some really shoddy camera work during some of the hand to hand combat. It was, at times, hard to follow. Like when Bucky was fighting the soldiers inside his home.
THE SCORE: I can't remember a single score from the movie. I really can't. It was non-existent, in my opinion. I loved the score for BvS, because it was powerful and it moved me, but really, Henry Jackman dissapointed me.
CAP AND SHARON: This came out of nowhere. I know in the comics, they've been a thing for a while. But the kiss between them came from nothing. It's especially weird since this was also the first time that he found out that she was related to Peggy. Thats just disgusting.
NO CAP SPEECH: This is one is purely nitpicking, but I don't remember a memorable speech by Cap. I loved the one that he gave in TWS, but I couldn't find one here. The letter he gives to Tony is inspirational, but its a letter.
SHODDY CGI: There was some really janky cgi. When Cap pushes Black Panther away when he was on top of Bucky, the cgi for BP looks undone. In fact, as much as I loved BP, he had the most cgi out of everyone. And was Spidey mostly cgi? I feel like Tom Holland was only in the suit for a short amount of time.
SO WAS I: Nope. I never believed that Tony and Steve were friends. Comrades, sure. But friends? Every single movie they've been in together has almost ended with them coming to blows. And it finally happened. That line didn't hit me in the first trailer, and it didn't here.
CROSSBONES: Remember when Frank Grillo was hyping his role for the movie? Yeah, nope. He dies. He was just terrible. Im actually dissapointed, because I was hoping in the future, we would get Crossbone's and Sin teaming up together, possibly to revive the Red Skull. But seriously, he was just garbage.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This was my favorite MCU film. It's in my top 5, for sure. It was memorable, the action was intense while also being fun. The story was well-plotted, and it had, in my opinion, the best RDJ performance as Iron-Man. And it had the best interterpration of Spidey in my opinion. Tom Holland is going places. The villain, for the first time in the MCU since Loki, was actually memorable. I know, it surprised me too. This film was able to balance seriousness with fun superheroics, and it was one of the best theater experiences I ever had. The Russo's rock, man!
8.7/10