Captain America: Civil War movie revew

BEST NEW FEATURE
dir. by Joe and Anthony Russo
In 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron, the sheer scale of property damage was upped to unprecedented levels for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). At the time, it seemed like a shift away from the relative damage control that the original Avengers was retroactively praised for upon the release of 2013's Man of Steel, and worse, a dip into generic, pandering action movie tropes. Captain America: Civil War, the beginning of the third "phase" of the MCU, had not only the tough job of improving upon the widely-beloved Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but also the duty of restoring faith in this franchise after Age of Ultron proved so polarizing. While Civil War is unfortunately not as tight as The Winter Soldier, it provides a sprawling, introspective look at the Avengers and their place in the world that not only deepens the Marvel universe, but makes Age of Ultron better by extension, all while remaining gripping throughout.

After an Avengers operation in Lagos leads to major civilian casualties, the governments of the world decide that this superhuman organization cannot be allowed to continue without oversight, and the United Nations holds a meeting to vote on the Sokovia Accords, a document which would place the team under government control, named after the fictional country where the final battle of Age of Ultron took place. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), who left the team in Age of Ultron, votes in favour, haunted by a woman who earlier confronted him with her son's death. Meanwhile, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is concerned about this bureaucratic control preventing him from helping those who need it, and goes against the law to protect his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), who many believe attacked the United Nations building while the Accords were being signed.

That's a lot of plot summary, and that barely scratches the surface of the myriad character arcs and subplots which are included in Civil War. As with Age of Ultron and even Ant-Man before it, the film represents the MCU's shift away from self-contained stories and instead builds upon the world itself and those who live within it. Two new characters are introduced and various storylines are set up for future movies, but unlike Age of Ultron, they never feel superfluous. For a film of such colossal scope, it's impressive how fluid it remains from start to finish, and even if the tones or suplots don't necessarily mesh with each other, it's definitely not obvious. 

At the same time, if Civil War has any significant flaws, the scale is definitely a leading cause of them. With so many characters to keep track of and such a massive, all-encompassing narrative, some of the individually poignant character moments do get lost in the sprawl, and although the film does about as good a job as possible of being very personal to at least four different characters at once, the increasingly continuous nature of this series, combined with the sheer scale of Civil War in particular, has the inevitable result of slightly drowning individual character moments. At the same time, these surface impressively often, in part because every single performance is rock-solid and in part because of the film's smooth rhythm. 

Narratively, Captain America: Civil War often feels episodic, if not from its actual structure then from the ebb-and-flow of the 146 minute running time, which juggles several different characters in various locations with their own reactions to the Sokovia Accords and the destruction that caused them. Crucially, every single character arc and subplot in the film ties back into the ideological and ethical conflict at the film's core. While the film does have a nominal villain, he's not especially interesting as an individual, and is there more to fill a specific narrative role. Unlike the antagonists of other Marvel films, however, he mostly stays out of the way, making it easier for viewers to abstractly view his position as an extension of the film's themes. 

What's most essential to Civil War's narrative is that the ideological conflict is complex and difficult, and both sides have very good points. The best fight scenes in the film are grounded in a complex, nuanced reality which, rather than depicting the usual superhero good-vs-evil conflict, pits human beings with their own perspectives, emotions, and yes, flaws, against each other. This is the heaviest and most dramatically-inclined Marvel film yet, complicating its blockbuster escapism with complex themes and human drama. The spectacle of the action is as satisfying as ever, as by now Marvel has perfected the art of action set pieces and choreography, but each victory is less satisfying than the previous as the reasons for the fights become more complicated and more emotionally charged. This is a superhero where you wish the heroes would stop fighting. 

Many franchise hallmarks are still here. The characterization is still strong, the funny bits are some of the funniest yet, and the film still makes room for small interpersonal moments. What most sets Civil War apart, however, is that core ideological conflict. The MCU is a franchise which knows to change as it becomes more complex, deepening its themes and taking an introspective glance at its own genre. The appeal of superheroes is escapism, that someone more powerful than us can do something to stop those who do wrong and, maybe, make the world a better place. However, after eight years of its existence, the Marvel universe has shown us that these heroes are people too, and Civil War addresses the darker side of that. They may be earth's mightiest heroes, but they're not infalliable, and they're flawed just as the rest of us are, and as seen here, that has consequences. 

Compared to last year's Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War does a much better job of holding up its own weight, finding a strong dramatic conflict to centre its sprawling cast of characters, and boasting the confidence to take an introspective look at itself and to complicate its own ethos. It's a massive work of immense vision which, while far less tidy and tightly controlled than earlier films in the franchise, takes the necessary steps to evolve and accommodate the series's growing complexity. The growing scale of this universe may still topple it, but Civil War is able to push the series towards greater dramatic and thematic depth without compromising what makes these films fun in the first place, and that's undeniably impressive. 

8/10

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