Captain America: Civil War review
Having read the crappy Civil War comics and seen a bunch of trailers and promo materials for the movie, I went into expecting the Accords to be the main driving mechanism for the plot. Turns out, oops, the Accords were mostly irrelevant. You could've left them out of the story and still have the plot play out mostly the same -- Zemo could've blown up the UN and framed Bucky during any old assembly, and things would've basically still worked out the same.
The Accords being irrelevant is actually a good thing, since it means we can basically ignore the fact that they don't really make any sense. How do they work? What's the procedure for enforcing them? What happens with countries that didn't sign up? Do they apply to all superheroes or just the Avengers? Who funds the Avengers if they're no longer a private organization? We don't know and it doesn't matter, because that's not what the movie is about, yay!
The issue of legal accountability for superheroes is interesting and comlicated and full of moral/ethical/legal/political pitfalls. Which, ironically, makes it unsuitable for a superhero movie (or a superhero comic, as Marvel aptly demonstrated). A movie that properly explores that question wouldn't be an action-filled summer blockbuster; it would be one of those talky Oscar-bait dramas where a bunch of middle-aged dudes in three-piece suits emote at each other in a conference room. Robert Downey Jr. could probably pull off a movie like that, but frankly, I don't think Chris Evans has the chops for it. Also, he's not middle-aged enough. Though he'd look pretty damn good in a three-piece suit...
Ahem. Anyway. Back on topic. Instead of a gripping drama about international law, we got a pretty solid superhero action flick, focused on the sort of themes that actually work in a superhero action flick: revenge, loyalty, personal responsibility, and the importance of not flying off the handle when traumatic shit happens. I liked how we got three different characters dealing with revenge in three different ways. Zemo plays out a convoluted long-term gambit, and he's willing to kill innocent bystanders to make it work. He has months after his family's death to think about what he's doing, but there's no sign that has any second thoughts or feels any guilt about what he's doing. T'Challa goes into Instant Revenge-Murder Mode when his father is killed, but it's all pure emotional lashing out. He doesn't make any grand plan, he just keeps chasing after Bucky. And he gets a couple of days to calm down, so by the time he finds out he's been chasing the wrong man, he's pulled himself together enough to realize that he doesn't want to murder the right one, either. Of course it helps that T'Challa, by all appearances, is an intelligent, decent and emotionally well-adjusted person. Sadly, the "emotionally well-adjusted part" puts him one up on all the Avengers.
Tony Stark is definitely not well-adjusted, and he also doesn't get any time to think. He gets to watch a video of his parents' brutal murder while the killer is standing right there. Like T'Challa, he goes straight to Revenge-Murder Mode, but unlike T'Challa, he doesn't get a cool-off period, because he's immediately locked into a fight with Steve and Bucky, and a hand-to-hand battle against two supersoldiers is not conducive to stopping and having a nice rational think about the moral culpability of brainwashed assassins. By the end of the movie, Tony clearly has thought about it, and is no longer interested in chasing after Bucky or Steve (as evidenced by him putting Ross on hold), but by then the damage has been done.
Steve is the only main character who's not out for revenge -- he's out to protect Bucky. Which is admirable in itself, seeing as how Bucky is innocent and all, but Steve, being Steve, goes about it in the most bullheaded way possible, and escalates every confrontation. Which frustrated the hell out of me because it's painfully obvious that Tony really, really, really doesn't want to be having this fight, and there are several point during the story where they might've found their way back to working together if Steve had made a concession, except that Steve doesn't make concessions. Sigh.
In terms of performances, RDJ totally stole the movie as Tony. Seriously, I could sit and watch this guy emote with his eyelashes all day. Chadwick Boseman was amazing as T'Challah; he doesn't get all that much screentime, but every time he was on, I was riveted. He also had great chemistry with every other cast member he interacted with. I'm pretty psyched for the Black Panther movie now, even though I was never much into the character in the comics. Chris Evans was solid enough as Steve, but I actually thought he'd done better in the previous two Cap movies. It didn't help that he kept his mask on in several of the most emotionally intense scenes, which hampered him, since his face isn't super expressive in the first place.
Black Widow was awesome and criminally underused as usual, and so was Rhodey. Sam had good banter. Spider-Man was super cute, but I have to seriously side-eye Tony for dragging in an underage newbie who had nothing to do with the conflict. Nobody else made much of an impression on me, and I think at this point I just have to resign myself to the fact that I'll never be interested in Bucky Barnes except as a McGuffin to provide angst for Steve. (This is by no means a criticism of Sebastian Stan, who has very nice shoulders. It's not you, Seb, it's me.)
I missed Maria Hill and Nick Fury. I suppose the movie was already overcrowded with characters, plus Fury is still presumed dead by most of the world, right? Still, it would've been nice to see them.
I wonder how Tony got out of Siberia. His suit was dead, and nobody knew he'd gone there. Did T'Challa give him a ride? That must've been awkward.
Now I guess we wait for Infinity Wars, and the inevitable scene of Tony giving Steve his shield back...
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