Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is taken through a whirlwind of action-packed adventures while trying to save his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) from the hero turned hunter Tony Stark (Robert Downy Jr.). This is an understatement as the plot goes through tremendous turns and explosions. Literally. Half an airport blows up because of Cap. Besides the destruction of Europe’s infrastructure, Anthony and Joe Russo combine their sibling brains once again and give us movie-goers and fans a great feast of comic book galore, great story telling, and a ton of action, while balancing over a dozen superheroes in the process. That’s not easy to do successfully.
From start to finish, I was entertained and geeking out watching this film. My wife, Stephanie, was with me and we had a bit of an disagreement on something outside the theater and that caused some tension between us. Iron Man and Captain America go through their own bickering and fight each other over a reason that seemed avoidable if they just sat down, talked, and listened to each other. Let me say this right now that “Civil War” halted my quarrel with my wife. So this film is a disguised therapist in that respect.
Comparing this to “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” I must admit that Marvel films are doing a better job with story telling and character development. In the end, Marvel is just producing better movies. Where “BvS” fell short was its lack of likable characters. Sure Cap and Iron Man have flaws, but they learn to let out their humor in the midst of the darkness. It makes them seem more human. That’s not an intended pun for Superman by any means. But it makes sense that “BvS” and the new DCU are trying too hard to make their films intentionally dark and grim. “BvS” makes the characters dark while the MCU makes the situation dark. This gives the characters control of how they embrace the suck.
Let me focus on all of the characters Marvel managed to cram into this thing. There’s a lot. You have Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Falcon, War Machine, Black Panther, The Winter Soldier, Vision, Scarlett Witch, Ant-Man, and Spider-Man! That is such a large cast of people in one film! Usually a film with this many characters would get diluted and confusing for the audience. “X-Men: The Last Stand” (2006) failed miserably in this by putting in characters for the sake of pleasing fans. “Civil War” didn’t do any of these. The story was written in a way that it was easy to follow, and every character in this film had a part to play. Once you watch this film and see the airport fight scene, you’ll think you were watching a harmonized orchestra with super heroes playing the instruments. Bravo Marvel! Bravo!
Chris Evans in “Captain America: Civil War”
MovieGo 