Captain America: Civil War review

The end of one series heralds the beginning of more to come.

As of this writing, I have been sitting in front of a blank page struggling with what to say about “Captain America: Civil War” for nearly an hour.

Not because my feelings regarding it are particularly complicated; far from it, despite a number of hiccups here and there, the film is, in short, a strong kick start for the summer movie season, easily a superior entry for the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one of my favorite films of the year thus far if not my absolute favorite and quite possibly a contender for one of the best goddamn superhero films ever freaking made.

Rather, my difficulty in putting to words just how superb it is stems from an active attempt to avoid something that now seems impossible if I’m to truly express how powerful and moving the experience that I have just undergone truly was; that being making debatably unfair comparisons to a certain similar failure of a superhero movie that is still in theaters at the time of this writing.

Though my hatred of “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” depicted in my month and a half old scathing review continues to know no bounds, I acknowledge that a repeated claim of “like Dawn of Justice, without the sucking” would be immature, obnoxious and just downright sloppy.

Nevertheless as I neared the halfway mark of this film, it nearly blew my mind just how inevitable the comparisons were, crossing the line from funny coincidence into downright eerie as I watched the Russo Brothers, returning from their stint on “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” pull off nearly point by point in 2½ hours what Zack Snyder seems to vainly believe he can make up for in a 3 hour “mature” cut and potential sequel content attempting to bail him out after the fact, there’s just no avoiding it, regardless of how much of a minimal I will strive to keep it towards.

With that having been said, yes, “Captain America: Civil War” is downright excellent.

Chris Evans returns to the titular role, coming into direct conflict with not only Tony Stark/Iron Man (reprised, of course, by Robert Downey Jr.) but the United Nations and the US Government when the political powers that be seek to seize control of the Avengers and reign them in after an international incident exacerbated by their presence in Africa leads to the deaths of foreign nationals which itself is the culmination of all of their unchecked adventures and the loss of property, capital, and civilian life coming out of each films increasingly over the top climactic set pieces.

While the Avengers are left to struggle with their war at home, military terrorist Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) plants the seeds to force the perceived gods that he holds a personal grudge against to destroy each other from the inside out.

Cap believes that opening the door to self serving bureaucracy as the commanding force behind beings of superhuman capabilities invites potential abuse and the prevention of benevolent intervention while Stark, still reeling from his hand in the events of “Age of Ultron” sees the need for their powerful gifts to be put in check.

Regardless of who wins the debate regarding where the line of acceptable government regulation is to be drawn, the stage is set for intense drama that works because of what the MCU and the Russo brothers have routinely demonstrated to be the core of the best of their movies; clarity in character.

While Joss Whedon is to be commended for the juggling act that he managed to pull off with so many larger than life personalities, the Russos have breathed life into each of these characters in ways both progressive to their onscreen chronology and are infinitely more human than ever before.

Watching the stalwart and steady Steve Rogers actually waver in the faith of his mission after being so firmly established as a man that always believes in what he is doing makes him more believable and sympathetic than ever, regardless of which side of the conflict you find yourself on.

That goes ditto for the rest of the cast members, be it Black Widow’s conflict of interest in protecting her friends coming at odds with her ideological differences with them, Scarlet Witch and The Vision’s efforts to reconcile with one another’s outsider status despite landing on opposite sides of the legislative proposal, even down to little details such as Ant-Man’s distrust of the Stark name and familiarity with fugitive status.

The real winners of the show however are Tom Holland and Downey. After suffering through nearly inhuman levels of reinforced smugness for years, Downey finally wraps the character around full circle as a frustrated man struggling to protect his friends and the world at large to satiate his own guilt, bringing a much needed vulnerability to the character making for his best performance in the role yet.

Meanwhile, Holland officially has the distinction of best live action Spider-Man to date, bringing forth a sincere and idealistic but contemporary and well meaning geek with a desire to do the right thing for reasons we all know too well. He’s dorky and awkward yet no less intelligent, energetic, snarky, powerful and above all else, relatable and endearing; in other words, the perfect Peter Parker to wash the bad taste of Andrew Garfield out of the audience’s mouth.

The impact that the conflict has on the characters and the unique perspectives that each of them brings to the table makes the film one of the most fascinating character studies that the superhero genre has seen in years. The philosophical questions of the government’s actions and the changing status of the world along with the place that the Avengers will have in it runs the very human characters through a gamut that can be shocking, painful, difficult, and fascinating to watch in the best ways possible.

The war part of the “Civil War” title is in full effect and does not offer anybody with a truly happy ending.

While some may take issue with the film’s exploration of its debating points without landing at a solid conclusion, I personally found it to be a powerful statement on real political issues that can’t be wrapped up in a bow to satisfy everyone.

Ultimately that’s the true power of “Captain America: Civil War.” Unlike “Dawn of Justice’s” faux speechifying about dichotomy of God and Man receiving lip service to end in a giant nonsensical city destroying light show with characters less defined than a Rorschach test directed by a man whose idea of “mature comic books” would be Batman getting gang raped in a prison, this film ultimately feels like a reward for all of the faith instilled in the shared universe by the audience.

That said, the film is not without its fair share of problems.

Despite having an excellent eye for action the Russos have made the odd decision to film a surprising amount of the movie up close with a shaky cam style that does unfortunately distract from the mostly stellar fight choreography that struggles to stay in frame.

Additionally, Henry Jackman reprises his role as musical composer from “The Winter Soldier” with a musical score that mostly gets the job done but lacks the strength and character of his work on the previous film, no doubt a result of the project's evolution into a more traditional superhero narrative as opposed to the political thriller overtones of its predecessor.

While the Heroes are “Civil War’s” biggest draw however, its unfortunate faults come in with members of its supporting cast. Though it’s nice to have William Hurt’s Thunderbolt Ross reprise his role to fully canonize the underrated “The Incredible Hulk” into the MCU, his role begins to become more garishly cartoonish and straw man in regards to the film’s politics the longer he hangs around.

Emily Van Camp’s presence as Sharon Carter proves to sadly go to waste, as what little purpose she serves doesn’t quite get the breathing room that it needed to truly amount to anything, culminating in an embarrassing romantic gesture that is mildly diffused by the film’s comedic timing and decent placement of meta-humor but comes down to feeling more odd and borderline gross than rewarding.

The biggest hit unfortunately goes to Bruhl’s Baron Zemo, who has the potential to be one of the best villains cinematically depicted by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, if only we got to really know what his deal was.

Bruhl delivers a striking performance, ending the climax of the film on a note more powerful and nearly shell shocking than I could have ever imagined but the sad truth about his role is that in the hands of a lesser actor, he would have been nothing more than a plot device. If any film were to benefit from a 3 hour director’s cut, it would be this one for the sole purpose of fleshing out a character with the potential to be a break out villain for future Avengers flicks.

Yet for each of these flaws, all I could focus on was the reality of what I watched; an MCU film born from the heart of the setting that has nearly none of the pitfalls but all of the strengths tenfold.

From the outstanding performances grappling with thoughtful material that has an organic lead in to excellent action set pieces framed with contexts that truly made each coming fight feel unpredictable in its outcome, “Captain America: Civil War” is a transcendent superhero movie the likes of which I haven’t seen since “The Dark Knight” almost 8 years ago.

Unlike “The Dark Knight” however, “Civil War” never cheats to get its point across. It is a grounded, gritty, politically charged and philosophically tinged thriller that just so happens to be set in a comic book universe and it makes no apologies for that, holding its head up high and showing that the silliness of the material in question can still lend itself to powerful storytelling and still be fun at the end of the day.

“Captain America: Civil War” is one of my favorite films this year and a new entry in the five best superhero movies ever made. There is nothing this film doesn’t have to offer anyone out for a good time at the theater.

9 Star Spangled Men out of 10