Was I the only one who didn't really like Civil War?
I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it, either.
SPOILERS, OBVS.
I had big hopes ( and fears) going into Civil War, because Captain America: Winter Soldier is my favorite movie in decades. CA: WS is one of the most perfect movies I've ever seen. I'm a person who admires and values works of art/entertainment that excel in many, or all, categories. Some people just like character, some like fight scenes, some are into actors, some are into the writing. I like all these things, and for me, the shows and movies I really devote myself to are the ones that have it all.
CA:WS was such a movie. The writing was incredible. The acting was great. The characters were great. The way they all fit together and interacted was great--it seemed clear no character was shoehorned into the movie who didn't belong there. The effects were unparalleled. The fight scenes were wonderfully creative, unexpected, and engaging (and emotional! No fights just for the sake of fighting).
Civil War was worlds better than Age of Ultron ... but it didn't even try to hide that it was really just a sequel to Age of Ultron, with all the same problems Marvel has begun forcing onto all their movies: an excess of characters (more superheroes introduced with every movie, usually with all of five minutes devoted to their backstory, presumably with the idea that if audiences respond to the character, they can make another trilogy devoted to that character, lest we ever forget Marvel is a business that wants to make money, and any art that comes out of that it incidental), storylines, tie-ins, setups for future movies, etc.
I can imagine that if someone said to me, "Write whatever movie you want! Just make sure you introduce these three new characters, include these eight old ones--be sure to mention stuff from their movies--and try to make it seem natural!--oh, and we're planning these three movies and you need to foreshadow these five things for them--also, stick to the canon; we don't want to piss off too many fanboys ..." the prospect of writing such a script would no longer much resemble what's known as the process of "writing." It really amounts to putting together a series of interrelated commercials. Kudos to the writers and directors of Civil War for making those interrelated commercials pretty entertaining, but the old days, of Marvel making actual superhero movies about superheroes, self-contained and reflecting the vision of the writer and director who made it, are plainly long over. Remember the days when some little Easter egg dropped in one Marvel movie came clear in the next one, and you went, "Wow, cool! They planned ahead for this!" Now each movie is nothing but a field of Easter eggs; they seem to do nothing but plan ahead, leaving nothing for the present.
Despite seeing the terrible Age of Ultron and reading director Joss Whedon describing some of these hoops Marvel made him jump through, knowing Marvel's been headed this direction for some time, and hearing that Civil War would introduce new characters and basically be Age of Ultron all over again with most of the Avengers, rather than simply a Captain America movie, my only hope of Civil War's achieving the greatness of CA: WS was that it had the same writers and the same directors.
Indeed, I do see their mark on this film. This was not a movie I walked out of feeling like I'd wasted two and a half hours of my life (that honor goes to Man of Steel). Ant-Man (despite his TERRIBLE origin movie) was a lot of fun (I've always adored Paul Rudd), as was Spider-Man. Both actors brought very welcome life and energy to this movie, as did a lot of smaller parts for whom Marvel movies are a new, exciting opportunity, including Martin Freeman (for once not rolling his eyes through the role) and Daniel Bruhl, who played the bad guy.
Yet this fire and excitement was in short supply. Mostly it felt like directors and actors were just getting the job done. I understand that these people--especially the actors--have spent years of their lives now playing this character and they're kind of locked in at this point. Maybe all these creative types would rather go work on something else. Whatever the reason for it, this paint-by-numbers approach to filmmaking was to me glaringly inferior to the broad, original strokes of CA: WS.
Every moment of CA: WS felt like the directors were trying to reinvent the medium. Even potentially boring scenes like the World Council were shot to subtly demonstrate the holographic technology that makes all the council members able to come together in the same room from different parts of the world. There's a long exchange of dialogue where Fury sets up for Cap his reasoning for Project Insight that's merely them descending in an elevator, talking about how Fury's granddad operated an elevator. Several above-ground floors pass by in the background, eventually giving way to the massive underground hangar that houses the three Project Insight helicarriers. Setting aside the lighting and CG requirements to film it, it was a brilliant way to stack a lot of information into a single, simple scene: it establishes the size of the Triskelion building, the location of the hangar, the scope of the project, it subtly sets a sinister tone for the project as bright daylight turns to pitch darkness. Fury's story may seem long (many action movies would eschew devoting so much time to something so personal and lacking in any actual action--Fury and Cap barely move for the entire scene), but it gives us Fury backstory and establishes in the space of those few minutes why Fury supports the project, why Cap opposes it, what exactly it is, how it works, what it looks like, what it's capable of. It clearly defines both characters and their positions in this movie. It even sets up the conflict to come between Cap and SHIELD, AND presages a wonderful future scene that takes place in the same elevator. Simply brilliant.
Speaking of that future elevator scene, there's a fantastic establishing shot as it begins. It lasts maybe four seconds, of Cap waiting for the elevator, looking out the glass wall, then stepping onto the (also all-glass) elevator. It's shot from quite a distance, and must have utilized at least some CG. So much time, work, and money expended on a simple establishing shot? Yet in addition to what it provides to the story and the scene (he's on the very top floor, which becomes important when he has to escape the elevator), better still, it's a visual metaphor for Cap himself: at odds with the establishment but standing tall, alone, engulfed in a glass cage, dwarfed by the organization the building represents. When all these suits have collected and spent their money from lesser Marvel movies, scenes like these might last beyond a small human lifetime in the consciousness of humanity, because they're art.
(I could not find a single image of this shot anywhere on the web, alas. So have this instead from directly after, also good:)
By comparison, Civil War's establishing shots were mainly, for instance, helicoptor shots over a snowy landscape, or of famous cities. Rather than tying all the locations together and making each meaningful (CA: WS takes place entirely in D.C. and environs), Civil War jumps pointlessly from world city to world city, apparently only for the sake of being able to put a new city name up in distractingly giant letters on the screen ("look at us globe-hopping!"). I can't think of a single scene in Civil War that expressed so much on so many levels at once like Fury and Cap talking in the elevator.
Then there are the action scenes. I can enjoy an action movie, but fight scenes generally bore me. Not the fight scenes in CA: WS. I relish every moment of those, because again, so much is going on. Character development, new information about each of the characters and their weaknesses and capabilities as well as the technology at their disposal (which often comes into play again later), how the bad guys operate and think, as well as massively important revelations, all take place during fight scenes.
For example, at the beginning of the above excellent highway fight scene, the sequence of events is as follows: thump on the roof of the car Cap, Black Widow, Sam, and bad guy Sitwell are in. Window breaks, Sitwell is thrown in front of a semi. (So much for him.) Whoever it is tries to shoot them through the roof. Cap thinks to stop the car, throwing the Winter Soldier off the roof. Gorgeous moment where he flies through the air, finds his feet, and slows his slide with metal fingers gouged into the asphalt. (This all takes place over the course of fifteen seconds--this movie wastes no time, packing as much value into each second as possible.) When he's back on the roof of the car, the Winter Soldier cleverly and simply yanks their steering wheel out of its socket, sending their car out of control. We've learned the Winter Soldier is quick, ruthless, pragmatic, graceful, and essentially unstoppable.
By comparison, Civil War's fight scenes mainly consisted of a bunch of punching and kicking. I'm particularly calling to mind the final "dramatic" fight scene with Iron Man fighting Cap and Bucky, which you can see about as much as you need to see of it in trailers--because nothing happens. They punch, they kick, they hit. You learn nothing, there's nothing original or clever about the moves they use. Eventually Bucky tries to smash Iron Man's metal mask and then tear out the suit's power source, but that's about as much "action" as really happens, although it feels like the scene will never end. Even stuff like the credits and music were far superior in CA: WS.
I almost can't reach you all the way over there, Bucky.
Again, this is not to say Civil War isn't an enjoyable way to spend a couple hours. At least there's lots of Bucky, and though Sebastian Stan turns in an incredible performance in all of his movies, even he seemed a bit muted here. Especially egregious is the fact that though the events of the movie ostensibly transpire all as a consequence of Cap's great love for his best friend, during the few precious moments they have alone together, they're never closer than two feet apart, and they have no meaningful words to speak. Cap has basically ruined his life to try to save Bucky, and the most emotional sentiment uttered on the subject between them is Bucky's "I'm not sure I'm worth all this." Nothing from either of them to the tune of "I love you/you're my friend/with ya 'til the end of the line/etc." I know from interviews that the filmmakers were keenly aware of the fanfic, which usually ships Steve and Bucky together, and I felt that very much bled into the hands-off attitude in the film to Steve and Bucky's relationship, to which I can only say, please, please, creators, you mustn't allow fanfic to alter your vision. Shippers will ship and nothing will stop it. Don't let it make you afraid to put real emotion in your movie.
To sum up: Civil War was a pretty enjoyable movie, but it was no CA: Winter Soldier.
SPOILERS, OBVS.
I had big hopes ( and fears) going into Civil War, because Captain America: Winter Soldier is my favorite movie in decades. CA: WS is one of the most perfect movies I've ever seen. I'm a person who admires and values works of art/entertainment that excel in many, or all, categories. Some people just like character, some like fight scenes, some are into actors, some are into the writing. I like all these things, and for me, the shows and movies I really devote myself to are the ones that have it all.
CA:WS was such a movie. The writing was incredible. The acting was great. The characters were great. The way they all fit together and interacted was great--it seemed clear no character was shoehorned into the movie who didn't belong there. The effects were unparalleled. The fight scenes were wonderfully creative, unexpected, and engaging (and emotional! No fights just for the sake of fighting).
Civil War was worlds better than Age of Ultron ... but it didn't even try to hide that it was really just a sequel to Age of Ultron, with all the same problems Marvel has begun forcing onto all their movies: an excess of characters (more superheroes introduced with every movie, usually with all of five minutes devoted to their backstory, presumably with the idea that if audiences respond to the character, they can make another trilogy devoted to that character, lest we ever forget Marvel is a business that wants to make money, and any art that comes out of that it incidental), storylines, tie-ins, setups for future movies, etc.
I can imagine that if someone said to me, "Write whatever movie you want! Just make sure you introduce these three new characters, include these eight old ones--be sure to mention stuff from their movies--and try to make it seem natural!--oh, and we're planning these three movies and you need to foreshadow these five things for them--also, stick to the canon; we don't want to piss off too many fanboys ..." the prospect of writing such a script would no longer much resemble what's known as the process of "writing." It really amounts to putting together a series of interrelated commercials. Kudos to the writers and directors of Civil War for making those interrelated commercials pretty entertaining, but the old days, of Marvel making actual superhero movies about superheroes, self-contained and reflecting the vision of the writer and director who made it, are plainly long over. Remember the days when some little Easter egg dropped in one Marvel movie came clear in the next one, and you went, "Wow, cool! They planned ahead for this!" Now each movie is nothing but a field of Easter eggs; they seem to do nothing but plan ahead, leaving nothing for the present.
Despite seeing the terrible Age of Ultron and reading director Joss Whedon describing some of these hoops Marvel made him jump through, knowing Marvel's been headed this direction for some time, and hearing that Civil War would introduce new characters and basically be Age of Ultron all over again with most of the Avengers, rather than simply a Captain America movie, my only hope of Civil War's achieving the greatness of CA: WS was that it had the same writers and the same directors.
Indeed, I do see their mark on this film. This was not a movie I walked out of feeling like I'd wasted two and a half hours of my life (that honor goes to Man of Steel). Ant-Man (despite his TERRIBLE origin movie) was a lot of fun (I've always adored Paul Rudd), as was Spider-Man. Both actors brought very welcome life and energy to this movie, as did a lot of smaller parts for whom Marvel movies are a new, exciting opportunity, including Martin Freeman (for once not rolling his eyes through the role) and Daniel Bruhl, who played the bad guy.
Yet this fire and excitement was in short supply. Mostly it felt like directors and actors were just getting the job done. I understand that these people--especially the actors--have spent years of their lives now playing this character and they're kind of locked in at this point. Maybe all these creative types would rather go work on something else. Whatever the reason for it, this paint-by-numbers approach to filmmaking was to me glaringly inferior to the broad, original strokes of CA: WS.
Every moment of CA: WS felt like the directors were trying to reinvent the medium. Even potentially boring scenes like the World Council were shot to subtly demonstrate the holographic technology that makes all the council members able to come together in the same room from different parts of the world. There's a long exchange of dialogue where Fury sets up for Cap his reasoning for Project Insight that's merely them descending in an elevator, talking about how Fury's granddad operated an elevator. Several above-ground floors pass by in the background, eventually giving way to the massive underground hangar that houses the three Project Insight helicarriers. Setting aside the lighting and CG requirements to film it, it was a brilliant way to stack a lot of information into a single, simple scene: it establishes the size of the Triskelion building, the location of the hangar, the scope of the project, it subtly sets a sinister tone for the project as bright daylight turns to pitch darkness. Fury's story may seem long (many action movies would eschew devoting so much time to something so personal and lacking in any actual action--Fury and Cap barely move for the entire scene), but it gives us Fury backstory and establishes in the space of those few minutes why Fury supports the project, why Cap opposes it, what exactly it is, how it works, what it looks like, what it's capable of. It clearly defines both characters and their positions in this movie. It even sets up the conflict to come between Cap and SHIELD, AND presages a wonderful future scene that takes place in the same elevator. Simply brilliant.
Speaking of that future elevator scene, there's a fantastic establishing shot as it begins. It lasts maybe four seconds, of Cap waiting for the elevator, looking out the glass wall, then stepping onto the (also all-glass) elevator. It's shot from quite a distance, and must have utilized at least some CG. So much time, work, and money expended on a simple establishing shot? Yet in addition to what it provides to the story and the scene (he's on the very top floor, which becomes important when he has to escape the elevator), better still, it's a visual metaphor for Cap himself: at odds with the establishment but standing tall, alone, engulfed in a glass cage, dwarfed by the organization the building represents. When all these suits have collected and spent their money from lesser Marvel movies, scenes like these might last beyond a small human lifetime in the consciousness of humanity, because they're art.
(I could not find a single image of this shot anywhere on the web, alas. So have this instead from directly after, also good:)
By comparison, Civil War's establishing shots were mainly, for instance, helicoptor shots over a snowy landscape, or of famous cities. Rather than tying all the locations together and making each meaningful (CA: WS takes place entirely in D.C. and environs), Civil War jumps pointlessly from world city to world city, apparently only for the sake of being able to put a new city name up in distractingly giant letters on the screen ("look at us globe-hopping!"). I can't think of a single scene in Civil War that expressed so much on so many levels at once like Fury and Cap talking in the elevator.
Then there are the action scenes. I can enjoy an action movie, but fight scenes generally bore me. Not the fight scenes in CA: WS. I relish every moment of those, because again, so much is going on. Character development, new information about each of the characters and their weaknesses and capabilities as well as the technology at their disposal (which often comes into play again later), how the bad guys operate and think, as well as massively important revelations, all take place during fight scenes.
Click to viewFor example, at the beginning of the above excellent highway fight scene, the sequence of events is as follows: thump on the roof of the car Cap, Black Widow, Sam, and bad guy Sitwell are in. Window breaks, Sitwell is thrown in front of a semi. (So much for him.) Whoever it is tries to shoot them through the roof. Cap thinks to stop the car, throwing the Winter Soldier off the roof. Gorgeous moment where he flies through the air, finds his feet, and slows his slide with metal fingers gouged into the asphalt. (This all takes place over the course of fifteen seconds--this movie wastes no time, packing as much value into each second as possible.) When he's back on the roof of the car, the Winter Soldier cleverly and simply yanks their steering wheel out of its socket, sending their car out of control. We've learned the Winter Soldier is quick, ruthless, pragmatic, graceful, and essentially unstoppable.
By comparison, Civil War's fight scenes mainly consisted of a bunch of punching and kicking. I'm particularly calling to mind the final "dramatic" fight scene with Iron Man fighting Cap and Bucky, which you can see about as much as you need to see of it in trailers--because nothing happens. They punch, they kick, they hit. You learn nothing, there's nothing original or clever about the moves they use. Eventually Bucky tries to smash Iron Man's metal mask and then tear out the suit's power source, but that's about as much "action" as really happens, although it feels like the scene will never end. Even stuff like the credits and music were far superior in CA: WS.
I almost can't reach you all the way over there, Bucky.
Again, this is not to say Civil War isn't an enjoyable way to spend a couple hours. At least there's lots of Bucky, and though Sebastian Stan turns in an incredible performance in all of his movies, even he seemed a bit muted here. Especially egregious is the fact that though the events of the movie ostensibly transpire all as a consequence of Cap's great love for his best friend, during the few precious moments they have alone together, they're never closer than two feet apart, and they have no meaningful words to speak. Cap has basically ruined his life to try to save Bucky, and the most emotional sentiment uttered on the subject between them is Bucky's "I'm not sure I'm worth all this." Nothing from either of them to the tune of "I love you/you're my friend/with ya 'til the end of the line/etc." I know from interviews that the filmmakers were keenly aware of the fanfic, which usually ships Steve and Bucky together, and I felt that very much bled into the hands-off attitude in the film to Steve and Bucky's relationship, to which I can only say, please, please, creators, you mustn't allow fanfic to alter your vision. Shippers will ship and nothing will stop it. Don't let it make you afraid to put real emotion in your movie.
To sum up: Civil War was a pretty enjoyable movie, but it was no CA: Winter Soldier.