Captain America: Civil War

Synopsis:  With the mounting cost of death and collateral damage as a result of The Avengers protecting the Earth, the US Secretary of State (William Hurt) tells the band of superheroes that, in response to worldwide political pressure, they will now be under the supervision and direction of a special United Nations committee. This doesn’t sit well with Captain America (Chris Evans) who believes that superheroes should remain free to defend humanity without government interference. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), however, sharply disagrees and supports the proposal. As the debate escalates into an all-out feud, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Vision (Paul Bettany) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) must decide whether they support one or the other.

Love it or loath it, it’s hard not to admire the scale of the Marvel universe with its ever-increasing number of interconnected films and television series. Sometimes it’s hard for us mere mortals to keep up with it all, especially when they throw so many superheroes into the mix with what purports to be the third Captain America film, that it feels like it could just as easily be another instalment of The Avengers series. Of course, the problem with a franchise of this scale is that it’s hard to sustain that number of interesting and compelling stories when they all have to wind up in the same place; with the requisite amount of large-scale fighting, spectacular destruction and, of course, the goodies overcoming the baddies.

This film addresses that issue by getting the goodies to fight each other, just like in this year’s other big superhero release, Batman V Superman: The Dawn of Justice, only with so many more superheroes in the big fight scenes, it’s way more spectacular (and way more destructive. That’s not to say that one is notably better or worse than the other. With a very similar storyline, it’s pretty much more of the same, .

The action is well staged and the effects are eye-popping but what this film lacks is the sharp, wise-cracking humour that has been a feature of so many of the previous films. Even Iron Man seems to have lost his sense of humour. Maybe it’s the staunch and serious nature of Captain America himself, or maybe it’s the absence of characters like The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsley) and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) who are always good for their fair share of quips. (I can’t help feeling, considering the clumsy way it’s explained, that their absence was more due to actor-unavailability than narrative imperatives).

The humour does come eventually, but not until well into the movie when even more superheroes are brought in for the big fight – Iron Man enlists Spiderman (Tom Holland) and Captain America drags in Antman (Paul Rudd) both of whom lighten up the mood with some much needed one-liners and funny antics. Holland, is particularly impressive as the new Spiderman. He really looks like a teenager and with Marisa Tomei playing Aunt May, we have the promise of a whole new take on the Spiderman part of the Marvel franchise (and if you stick around after the very long credits, that promise is made good).

In the end, though, the whole film is a bit by-the-numbers. The more human these superheroes become with their guilt complexes and their petty infighting, the less thrilling they seem.  There’s a baddie of sorts, in the guise of Zemo (Daniel Brühl) who has an axe to grind and gets involved in an underwritten sub-plot involving Cap’s old friend Bucky Barnes from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and yet another new superhero, Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) but they’re clearly not the main game. As one who quite likes a good super-hero movie, I wasn’t bored but I wasn’t overly excited. Still, I live in hope that with their internal squabbles behind them, the next superhero outing might be a bit more super and whole lot more heroic.

 

 

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