Captain America: Civil War (Film Review)

[selenak]

Living in Europe and in a country where this was partially shot totally pays off (again): I've just watched Civil War, movieverse edition.

Generally speaking: the Russos did a great job serving their huge ensemble. Should this have been called Avengers III rather than Captain America? Probably. Not because Steve doesn't get enough screen time,

Comments

[selenak]

That is an interesting theory, but thematically Zemo works better for me if he really did what he did for revenge, with zero ambition to take over the world, wipe out humanity or steal The One Ring powerful jewelry or some such. It fits far better with the "where is the borderline between villain and hero?" question, too, because, as I said to ponygirl2000 as such, as of now, there isn't much moral difference between Zemo and Wanda Maximoff (in Age of Ultron, not CW) safe her drawing the line when Ultron wanted to kill everyone - otherwise their methods and willingness to kill innocents to get the Avengers to self destruct are on a level, and their motive is identical, too.

While the film clearly had the big emotional arc between Steve and Bucky, I felt the most heart-wrenched for Tony; to me, he carried the emotional weight of the film with the guilt of what happened in Sokovia, the student's mother, his acknowledgement that he didn't want to stop being a superhero, and then dealing with Cap's intransigence and all the mess that followed the framing of Bucky.

So much agreed. While rationally I could see where Steve was coming from (Hydra infiltrated SHIELD having made him distrustful of organisations, and of course the loyalty to Bucky once Bucky became an issue), emotionally I found him hard to sympathize with, because there was no conflict in him. He made up his mind early on about the Accords, and never needed to make up his mind re: Bucky in the first place. Whereas Tony remained conflicted throughout the movie and was the one trying to reach out (until the end of course). Another thing: to me, Steve's tactics throughout were practically an advertisment of the Accords. He had an argument about being the only one who could bring in Bucky alive, granted. But Zemo? Zemo, as far as anyone knows (whether or the theory you linked is true), is not superpowered. He's a highly trained black ops official. There is absolutely no need for Steve to be the one to capture him. If Steve distrusts US authorities because of Ross and SHIELD, fine, there are dozens of other agencys world wide, many of whom have a vested interest in catching the guy who bombed a UN meeting. But Steve doesn't even consider alerting any of them, and dismisses the idea of telling Tony as much as "I think Bucky is framed" until the Leipzig Airport battle is almost done.

(Speaking of the Leipzig airport battle: note that because Tony and friends are actually working with the local authorities, as per the accords, they were able to evacuate the airport in time. Which didn't stop property damage, but made sure there were no casualities among innocent bystanders.)

Even an "organisations could all be corrupt" conviction based on recent experiences doesn't excuse the breathtaking arrogance of all of this, because Steve essentially says that NO ONE, safe himself, is trustworthy. In the whole wide world. When Tony displays that type of arrogance (at the start of Iron Man 2, say), it's flagged as such, and he knows he's being arrogant, but Steve still believes he's morally righteous, which strikes me as incredibly dangerous. I also see this as a big difference to Steve in Winter Soldier, because there he didn't simply demand people should trust him (and no one else). He informed all the SHIELD employees what was at stake and let them make a choice (and later of course had all the intel, not just Hydra but SHIELD, be released so the world could make a choice). Here, he's basically telling the whole world they can't be trusted. Only he can.

[kernezelda]

Agreed re: Zemo; I thought he worked quite well without any hidden motivation/backing. That scene with him and T'Challa was a small, but potent moment, and the several times that he listened to that last, agonizing voicemail wove a cohesive thread through all of his actions.

What you say about Steve here crystallizes perfectly the kind of nebulous dislike and disapproval I've felt. Given Steve's immediate past with SHIELD/Hydra, and with General Ross now being Secretary of State (ye gods, no!), I wouldn't trust any single organization for oversight, but a UN committee answering to many different countries, would seem worthwhile. And there are many, many, as you say, organizations and units specially trained to deal with human crimes and terrorism.

I think one reason I didn't feel as connected to CW as to WS is that there isn't a clear-cut enemy in CW: everyone's actions are based on what they believe is right, and for the greater good (except for Steve's personal quest to get Bucky alive), so there's no outright hero to root for and support. In WS, Hydra was the enemy, and Hydra could be cleanly hated and destroyed.

Restoring the trust of and allaying fear in the general populace after things that you, as heroes, have done, is much harder than defeating a bad guy, the end.