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

*more spoilers*

[vaysh]

I love reading your reviews. :) So many interesting thoughts. I was very relieved, too, that Steve and Bucky were not cracking any "back at fighting the Germans" jokes. And I've read reviews that criticised the movie for having "too much dialogue" but I appreciated those scenes a lot, especially, as you say, the one where all the (present) Avengers discuss whether to sign the Accords or not.

As I am one of the people highly invested in Steve/Bucky ;), I am wondering what you thought about Steve agreeing to have Bucky back in Cryo. I didn't understand that at all.

Re: *more spoilers*

[selenak]

Doylist-wise, I thought it was there as an explanation as to why Bucky won't be in the next Avengers movie (I assume) and why Steve won't be looking for him, either (since he know exactly where Bucky is). On a Watsonian level? Bucky has just seen he can still be turned into a killing zombie by the right words, and he and Steve are both wanted men, so it's no tlike they can advertise for a deprogramming trustworthy psychiatrist online. And bottom line is: Bucky makes that choice, and after having had no choices about what he does since WWII, do youwant to take that away from him? My Watsonian explanation further is that Steve intends to find such a therapist as soon as possible but wants to be really sure it's not yet another villain in disguise, instead of trusting the next stranger, and will send her/him to Wakanda once he's thoroughly vetted that person, where T'Challa will then defrost Bucky.

Re: *more spoilers*

[vaysh]

I can see all the Doylist explanations (but why wouldn't Bucky be in the next Avengers movie?) but it is really a drastic solution. After two years of searching for his best friend, especially with Peggy gone, Steve just watches as Bucky makes such a decision to be gone again? And it would have been nice to see Bucky actually make this choice. We see him living in Bucharest, buying fruit, smiling to people. Apparently he could rent or squad that apartment without going on a killing spree. Who else is left who knows the (rather complicated) programming sequence? It makes no sense to me.

Re: *more spoilers*

[selenak]

Oh, Watsoninan-wise as a viewer I agree with you that it would make more sense to, you know, help Bucky adjust to life while looking for that therapist. But if I had to justify it for, say, fanfiction, this would be the reasoning I'd use in Steve's head

[jeriendhal]

I'm rather glad to have been spoiled about Rhodey's survival. His status as "Duplicate Iron Man" always paints a target on his chest IMO when he appears these days.

[selenak]

True, but survive he does, and the movie also makes it very clear that he's supporting the accords not because he's Tony's friend but because he believes they're the right measure to take. I.e. he gets to have his own agenda throughout.

[mitchy]

Re: why German forces - because of the task force that Sharon Carter is working for. They're the lead on bringing Bucky in (Natasha says it when talking to T'Challa) so they would probably use the troops they work the most closely with in Berlin. It must be a well established Task Force because Zemo understands that they're the ones who'll get Bucky giving him the opportunity to go in as the psychiatrist.

Great review :)

BTW, Evans is signed up for Infinity Wars so this isn't his last Marvel movie.

ETA: I meant to say that the young version of Tony Stark is actually RDJ - they did clever things with CGI to do it. Details here if you're interested:-

http://www.bustle.com/articles/158584-young-tony-stark-in-captain-america-civil-war-will-make-you-do-a-double-take

:D

[kernezelda]

Thanks for the link: I thought that must be CGI of some type, because the de-aging was RDJ-actual to me, from his early movies like Weird Science and Pick-Up Artist and Less Than Zero, much like CE in CA:TFA.

[ponygirl2000]

I think Steve's argument in the context of CA:WS makes sense (and only then) because the government agency that was overseeing him turned out to be completely infiltrated by Hydra. I thought they should have hit that point a bit harder. However, if Tony had his doubts it would have been good to see Steve have some of his own. Wanda for instance, should be in jail, not necessarily for Lagos but hey, remember when she caused the Hulk to destroy much of Johannesburg in AoS? Nobody seemed to remember to bring that up! Steve's inflexibility seems to be his big flaw, I hope the powers that be in the MCU see it as such and not some kind of moral uprightness.

However, I really liked the movie. It sold me on Spider-kid and T'Challa, and the fight scenes were excellent. It was great to see a villain who didn't want to take over the world or steal intergalactic jewels or some such. The whole movie felt like it was on a more human scale.

[selenak]

Wanda for instance, should be in jail, not necessarily for Lagos but hey, remember when she caused the Hulk to destroy much of Johannesburg in AoS? Nobody seemed to remember to bring that up!Quite, and that one was entirely on Wanda herself. I recently rewatched AoU, and it was really noteworthy, because it goes like this: Avengers track down Ultron in South Africa, the twins start with the distractions, Wanda takes out one Avenger after another via mindmessing (minus Tony because she already did this at the start of the movie) until she reaches Clint, who stops her via taser ("I've already done the whole mind control thing"). Pietro hurries Wanda away to safety. Wanda catches her breath. Pietro suggests to skeedaddle. (They'e done what they promised to Ultron.) Wanda says: "No. I want the big one!" and goes after Bruce. Until this point, Wanda mindmessing the Avengers harmed no one but the Avengers. But put a worst fear whammy on Bruce, next to city with a million people in it, is as bad as anything Zemo does in CW. He was

[kernezelda]

Excellent review! I enjoyed the film while watching, although I have no urge to see it again. 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. Regarding Zemo, here, have a link to an interesting theory: http://fahre.tumblr.com/post/143948742554/that-zemo-meta

[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

[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