Captain America Civil War
Just got back from seeing this three hour long extravaganza. It is an excellent movie, slightly dark in its theme, but otherwise a sustained ensemble piece that is among the best Marvel movies to date. This was everything SUPERMAN V BATMAN DAWN OF JUSTICE wanted to be, but was not.
I daren’t say too much, for fear of spoiling any surprises, but I do want to say one or two things anyone who plans to watch it should know going in.
First, the comic book plot of the same name concerned a different issue. That had to do with gun registration or something equally puerile and pompous. This was much more reasonable, and more effort was made to make both sides of the issue seem reasonable. So, I went in expecting something dumb like the original comic was, and was rewarded by something smarter and more understandable.
Second, Scarlet Witch and Vision in the comic are an ‘item’. If you watch the scenes in this film where they are together, it helps to know that the slight vibe of mutual attraction you may detect is based on the canon.
Third, the guy they picked for Spiderman may actually be even better than Toby McGuire, hard as that is for me to admit.
Fourth, unless someone less coy than I am spoils things, you should see other old favorites from the Marvelverse show up with as much surprise and pleasure as I did. You may have already seen some of the roster on ads or previews, but I did not, so I was pleasantly surprised.
Fifth, please stay until all the credits roll, there is not one but two hidden scenes after the credits roll.
Special effects are top-notch. I cannot tell if the action sequences are as clean and easy-to-follow as they should have been, because I was seated in the front row at an angle, but I thought it looked good nonetheless.
Dialog sparkled.
The theme was that kind of sober comic-book ponderousness Stan Lee does so well.
Costumes looked good: there was especially a childhood favorite of mine whose costume I particularly liked, which I frankly thought would not turn out that well on the big screen: I thought wrong. It looked perfect.
All the actors turned in good performances, particular Robert Downy Junior and Chris Evans.
Any drawbacks? I have but one small complaint.
The premise of the film is that the United Nations, that fearless guardian of freedom throughout the globe, grows worried that the Avengers are too powerful to be employed without some sort of political control, particularly in nations where they have not been invited to go.
They want the Avengers to sign an accord placing them under the control of an international panel.
Some Avengers think it wise or necessarily, or the lesser of two evils: others think it would make the Avengers unable to operate effectively, and destroy the point of the team. The main motivator for this is the civilian causalities and collateral damage left in the wake of the previous Avenger’s battles in the previous movies.
While I thought it was perfectly realistic for civilians to blame themselves for civilian casualties and collateral damage, it is hardly realistic for either soldiers or government officers to do so, especially in circumstances where the alternative is (1) Loki invades the world (2) Ultron blows up the world (3) a bomb that goes off in midair and kills some people in a building otherwise would have gone off on the ground, and killed more people.
Maybe because I was raised in a military family, or maybe as a matter of logic, but when someone is hurt or killed during a war taking place in a crowded city, and the bad guys would have killed more people if not opposed, or the whole planet, blaming the rescuers and heroes for the deaths of innocents that the bad guys put in harm’s way seem merely silly to me, if not hypocritical.
Now, because this is the kind of moral quandary comics are supposed to have, with operatic and overblown soap-opera kind of guilt over things and angst that makes Marvel unlike DC, I can accept the premise for the sake of the story. But the writers were more cunning than that, because it was set up that what the heroes really want to fight about is personal problems afflicting their private lives, and long-buried exasperation with each other.
I do not think I have read any Marvel comic where an obligatory fight between the two heroes failed to be somehow contrived by whatever misunderstanding or mischance was needed. Marvel heroes always end up pounding on each other. It is a Stan Lee thing.
All in all, good job. The character were treated better than the source material. Worth seeing on the big screen. I hope to go again.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
