Spoiler-Free Review | CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

Read our non-spoiler review of CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR!

Ahhh the time has come for another Marvel movie! Any other film series would have long ago failed and even though there have been some rough patches– *cough* Thor *cough*– Marvel still manages to create engaging and thought-provoking films. In this review of Captain America: Civil War, I will attempt not to sound philosophical, however, for this movie that might be a bit hard. You have been warned!

The film follows the heroes we know and love as they become split between the morals and beliefs of Steve Rogers aka Captain America (Chris Evans) and Tony Stark aka Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) On one side of the argument, we have Stark who is advocating for the Avengers to sign accords which have been drawn up by the UN so that the Avengers will be controlled. These accords mean that the Avengers will be given assignments by a board appointed by the UN which will regulate and control them. Rogers, however, feels that this goes against his morals as he might be asked to do assignments he doesn’t agree with. Perhaps because he lived and fought during WWII, he has issues with being led by anyone other than himself. The reason for the creation of the accords is because of what happened in New York and Sarajevo. The Avengers are getting too strong and they are being blamed for all the deaths which have happened. Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) is also being hunted down yet Rogers believes that he can save his friend.

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What I loved about this film were the questions it raised about revenge and standing up for what you believe in. This film is definitely angled towards Rogers’ side because it is a Captain America film and not an Avengers film. This is not to say that Stark’s motives and beliefs are not fully explored. At the end of the film, I understood both of their points of view and I agreed with both of them. That what makes films like this so interesting to watch. They are not simple shoot-um-ups. If you want to, you can really dissect them afterward. Reviews on Winter Soldier talked about how the film was interesting because of how critical it was of the American government’s surveillance of its citizens. I can imagine that reviews for this film will also be going beyond the notion that it is a superhero film. Movies are not created in a void. They reflect the current events of the society in which they are made. This film definitely has those deeper nuances on top of being an amazing superhero film.

I went to see the film on opening night in Australia and afterward my mum, who I saw the film with, said how old, tired, and haggard Stark looked. You don’t really get a sense of it in the trailers but definitely in the film, it looks like Downey Jr has got up and started filming without going to makeup or even having a shave. Stark is the most noticeably tired, however, all of the Avengers, apart from Spider-Man (Tom Holland), look older and tired. What is so great about these films it that the characters do not carry on from film to film with nothing sticking to them. The events of the previous Avengers film are what create the conflict in this one. These characters evolve and it is this that makes the stakes feel so much higher. These are not blocks of marble fighting each other but real friends who have to make an impossible choice. They react to events and each other in a realistic way and we wish that they could just hug it out but just like in real life that’s not how it works.

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I was worried when I saw the trailers that with the addition of Spider-Man, Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) that it wouldn’t work because it would be too many new people and the movie wouldn’t have time to fully explore the characters. Spider-Man and Ant Man are definitely the comic relief, as well as Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). We already have an Ant-Man movie so this time around we don’t really go into his character too much. Spider-Man does have a little introduction and his character is amazing. He is like that one hyperactive child who hangs with the big kids. Black Panther….. What to say! He is the true hero of this movie. I am not even kidding. All jokes aside, this guy is awesome! This role is definitely the standout for me and I am so excited to see the Black Panther movie in 2018.

This film is about  a civil war. A civil war is the most devastating war there can be because it turns family against family, friend against friend. This film is probably the most heartbreaking since Captain America: The First Avenger. It doesn’t shy away from showing the heartbreak of friends fighting and I hope that when you come out of this film you will be just as shocked as I was. The Avengers will never be the same.

 

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Captain America: Civil War hits theaters on May 6, 2016.