by Ran Britt
For the second year in a row, two big movie franchises released films that told almost the same story. In 2015, Mission: Impossible's Rogue Nation and the unwatchable James Bond flick, Spectre, were both about the revelation that underground international intelligence organizations existed and were out to wreak havoc on the world. Each movie also featured British superspy/assassin and a villain behind a wall made of bullet-proof glass.
In 2016, two blockbusters told the story of superheroes involved in mass destruction and accidentally causing mass civilian casualties during their struggles against super-powered enemies, and the subsequent attempts at government oversight of said heroes. One of those films is Batman v. Superman and the other is this movie.
Civil War is a very loose adaptation of the 2006 comic book storyline of the same name. In the movie version, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.N. step in after the last straw in Avengers-related mayhem -- the Scarlet Witch's accidental killing of a bunch of bystanders during a mission to catch The Winter Soldier's Brock Rumlow. During a meeting between the team and the U.S. Secretary of Defense, some of the previous missions that ended in collateral damage come up, including: the NYC invasion; the heli-carrier crashes in D.C.; Iron Man's fight with the Hulk in Lagos; and the Sokovia battle. But aside from a grieving mom slapping the shit outta Tony Starks for accidentally killing her son, and Helmut Zemo's revenge mission, there's no real focus on the actual victims. Speaking of victims, it seems to me that the Scarlet Witch should've had a much harder time getting over her brother's death in The Age ofUltron -- her twin brother and only family, at that. But what do I know?
And, hey, Ant-Man's finally a part of the team. But, if he was gonna be included, why change the Ultron story so that Starks and Bruce Banner are his creators instead of Henry Pym? It's a fairly fundamental change, too. I gotta say, that puts a whole lotta dirt on Starks' resume. He was an international arms dealer and he devised a killer robot that nearly succeeded in destroying the planet? This guy's beginning to look like a threat to humanity. It's a lot.
It was also disappointing to see the Falcon in a much less realistic costume and the stupid drone is one of those things you leave in the comic book. Actually, it's too dumb for comics, too. Black Widow is still running around on combat missions having not bothered to tie her hair back, and this time around, despite the fact that she's superpower-free, she's not bothering to bring firearms along. Wtf. It's stuff like this that makes it a good idea for neither of them to have their own movie. And they were both so great in The Winter Soldier. As they say: "One step forward and two steps back." As good as it is, Civil War definitely registers a few spikes on the ridiculosity meter.
But it's still entertaining as shit and the good far outweighs the bad. The best things about Civil War are: Captain Rogers' finally-resumed hunt for the Winter Soldier; the Black Panther's and Zemo's respective quests for vengeance; and the brawl involving Iron Man, the Captain and Bucky. Incidentally, both Black Panther and Spider-Man get their amazing MCU introductions in Civil War. By the way, props to the Russo brothers (the movie's directors) for not putting Zemo in costume. It was also nice to see Rogers finally get some action -- even if it was only a kiss.
After his introduction in a war movie (The First Avenger) an even better spy thriller (The Winter Soldier) and a straight-up comic book showdown (Civil War) the leader of the Avengers has the best trilogy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Originally published 6/15/16
Related:
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