Captain America: CIVIL WAR The Ultimate Review. -WARNING SPOILERS!
If you follow me on any social site then you should be aware how very thirsty I’ve been for Marvels new Captain America 3 or Civil War. The 13th cinematic installment of a wonderfully immersive shared universe across the now Disney owned Marvel studios.
Over the past few years these beloved and already well defined characters have had a huge big-screen evolution that has been... well incredibly executed and thus far greatly successful. For me, as both a heavy comic book collector/reader and a giant fan of all things film, this experience was already gonna be an epic win for me whether the movie turned out to be good or bad. Fortunately it was absolutely awesome and now after seeing it three and a half times I’m here to give my full review of all reviews, top to bottom treatment.
AGAIN WARNING SPOILERS>GO SEE THE MOVIE!
Let me begin with explaining the “three and a half times” that I’ve seen it. First was opening night on May 5th. My beautiful nerd queen and I saw it in IMAX 3D at the Opry Mills mall theatre in Nashville. Beautiful and jaw-dropping visually and for my first IMAX and 3D flick, I was not at all let down. Both of us were blown away with excitement and awe. Second time I saw it was that opening Sunday in 3D at the theatre in our hometown with me, four other buddies of mine and a four year old toddler fully costumed as Captain America himself. To say the least we were all equally geeked from beginning to end. Then the third time was at home by myself on the comfort of my laptop screen that following Monday night after downloading it from the godly internet. I immediately re-watched the Berlin airport fight sequence after I finished it and that is the stated half time I’ve seen it. All times held up and after sinking it all in now. It has taken its throne, not only as my favorite MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) movie. But also one of my top 3 favorite comic book movies of all time AND my number one favorite movie of 2016 (so far).
Before we break down the movie itself. I must admit that a lot of my excitement came from actually having read the Civil War comic books when they first came out. Now I loved the comics adaptation very dearly but the movie is honestly so god damn good it’s hard to pick which one I’d say I liked more...if I had to (haha). Now be known, the comic books and film in ways of events have absolutely NOTHING in common. The books obviously deals with their own characters and chain of events having had a canon of stuff years in the making. But with everything the MCU has cooked up in their movies to date, they utilized every bullet they had in the chamber to create something one of a kind and still strongly use the ideologies and themes represented in the Civil War comics to come up with their own adaptation to Marvel movie world. With a precise and powerful super punch if I may say so myself.
So YES I enjoy both versions very much for their own reasons. There are three things though from the comic books Civil War that were awesome moments I only wish I could’ve saw at the movies. I am well aware we never had a chance to see these show up in the Civil War movie but still would’ve loved to see them come to life the very same:
In the comics team Iron-Man cloned up a robotic version of Thor in case they needed any back up when it came down to colliding with team Cap. They eventually did and after a malfunction it incidentally killed Goliath.
This would have been awesome to see Hemsworth show up and strike down Giant-Man, maybe hurting him pretty critically and causing the fight to seize immediately to tell Thor he should’ve stayed out of it. LOL. We still got to see a larger than life member topple over with Scott Langs cool new super-size regulator. So satisfying.
Again in the comics. After team Iron-Man sets loose a couple Thunderbolts. A pair of these bastards beat the living shit out of Spider-Man in the sewers only to have The Punisher show up and retrieve a badly beaten Parker in his arms and taken to Team Cap for help.
How sweet would have been Jon Bernthals Punisher from Netflix Daredevil to show up carrying a bloodied up Tom Holland, yelling “GET ME A DAMN MEDIC!” - (my Shane from TWD voice)
Obviously a huge turning point from the book was when Spider-Man revealed himself to the world as Peter Parker. But just to be able to instead have the great introduction of Peter Parker and Spider-Man in this movie was still beyond breathtaking. I mean that seriously as a fan and owner of both Maguire and Garfields renditions, this guy Tom Holland was A1 and such a nice fresh breath and slap in the face as we now get to have a suited and booted Spider-Man amongst our cinema friendly Avengers as well. Extra satisfied.
NOW to dissect this thing quickly starting with its array of characters. Cap and Iron-Man have been through so much and it’s cool to see them two square off on the opposite sides that you’d expect them to choose having been made maybe three movies ago. However you fully grasp and understand why they choose what they choose and the emotion and trials they under go in this film really brings you into this conflict with them. Its hard to really pick a side and it leaves this whole foundation of super heroes utterly shattered. This comes with the outstanding performances of every actor and actress in this flick. So well done and portrayed that you tend to forget your not really watching a bunch of your favorite comic book characters actually running around battling on the big screen, but a bunch of passionate performers bringing this material to life right in front of our eyes. I hoped they would at least mention Thor and Banner and they did. Satisfied with that. But I did miss Sam L as Fury this time around. Black Widow returns with a prominent role in both sides. Hawkeye also returns with less of a prominent role. Both still very fun journeys. Scarlet Witch and Vision make their 2nd appearances and nicely bring to light how different and unknowingly powerful they both are. Being able to glimpse their quaint and intriguing interest in each other was also quite satisfying. Ant-Man who in my opinion steals the show was so amazing once again and I thought this time brought a lot of his potential to the formula. At least when it came down to the SMALL yet BIG cameo he had. Also Rhodey was well used and I hope he gets to fly again. Then there was Bucky. The infamous Winter Soldier who played a big part in this. I actually grew on this guy in this film. He was such a good menace in Cap 2 but getting to see his story develop more in this one quickly made him one of my favorites of the bunch. Falcon was another favorite who got to shine a lot more in this and also brought his A game the whole time. Some of my top fave moments were actually the Winter Soldier and Falcon combo scenes. Super enjoyable. Once again Spider-Man was speechlessly good. Which is an ironic compromise seeing as to how much he does get to speak in this and every time he does it’s pure golden. Finally. King T’challa aka Black Panther. WOW. What an awesome force and storyline that just drives right through the middle of this movie. In a good good way. His introduction was handled with strong confidence and turned out some of the best performance in this joint all thanks to Chadwick Boseman. Shit was just magical if you will, and getting to see a bit of his origin with his father and that last peek at Wakanda..nothing short of satisfaction.
That covers that. Now Marvel movies have had their fall in Villains, yes. But this one didn’t even need much and still I think they actually nailed it alright. Crossbones crushed it in the beginning, I thought he was super cool and straight out the comics and that whole scene was just right out the gate intensity. As for Zemo. His appearance was pretty soft compared to what I think a lot of people were expecting. But by the end of the film, his motivations and crazy manipulation plot all came together pretty clearly and in the midst of a shunned Lex Luthor, that’s all I could ask for when it came to that kind of antagonist plot.
The rest of the writing throughout was also so well done. The blend of Thriller, Comedy, Action and Sci-Fi all rolled together so nicely. You almost cant believe it’s just another super hero flick. But you absolutely do and they make the story so grounded and capturing that even with out the super heroes, it could still hold to be an awesome movie. Some of my favorite moments in this were the brief recruitment of Peter Parker, the Spider-Man vs. Falcon & Winter Soldier at the airport scene and of course the crazy cool chase scene between Winter Soldier, Black Panther and Captain America.
My final thoughts are right now I am so glad that Infinity War is in the hands of the Russo bros. They turned up for this movie and everything about it turned out so MARVELous. I can only assume with an even more explosive cast and larger story they will be able to piece it together across two movies that will legit retire the super hero movie genre as the godfather ultimate film of its kind. As for Civil War I thank them. The story was brilliantly written, the cast was 100, the production and visuals were outstanding as well. The entire direction and final product of this movie was far beyond what I could’ve hoped for and for that I give this shit 9.5 out of 10. For not only bringing together characters we’ve seen now for multiple movies AND characters we’ve only seen a couple times in these movies but also BRAND NEW characters we’re seeing for the first time ever in this MCU or even ever on the big screen. They wrapped it all up nicely with striking action sequences that feel straight out the pages of a comic book drizzled a nice dose of familiar humor and quips and then delivered it up with a thrilling and exciting story line carrying these heroes and this world forward and upward yet again.
By the end. Everything seems broken. War Machine, now crippled. Vision now mentally in turmoil after all this emotion. Black Widow going M.I.A. and Iron-Man left with all the mess. Then theres the Winter Soldier going back under cryogenic sleep. Hawkeye, Ant-Man, Scarlet Witch and Falcon all now escaped criminals in hiding? Then finally Captain America retiring and leaving his shield behind. Who knows whats to come next for these guys. Steve Rogers now hiding in Wakanda. Black Panther now king but at the price of his fathers death. Spider-Man now with an awesome custom new spidey suit and more ready than ever to stop some crime... okay, well I guess not all is bad.
Doctor Strange, Spider-Man: Homecoming & Black Panther
BOOM. Marvel over everything.
germansingergirl
vaporwave
2087
