Reaction: Captain America Civil War Trailer

Image source

After leaving audiences begging for more at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel has finally released the trailer for one of the highly anticipated movies of 2016 on Jimmy Kimmel Live a few days ago.

In true Marvel fashion, the trailer for Captain America: Civil War treats viewers to well choreographed fight scenes, funny lines, explosions and iconic characters, including Black Panther, an important member of the Avengers in the comics and someone who has yet to star in his own movie, making his origins and role in future Marvel movies unknown.

Although it is a known fact that the Marvel Cinematic Universe isn't completely faithful with its adaptations of Marvel comic books, I'm a little disappointed with what I've seen in Civil War's trailer. Granted that the sight of multiple superheroes in one movie never ceases to please me, there are still a number of things that bothered me with our first look at the sequel to Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

For starters, it appears that the conflict in the movie revolves around Captain America protecting his friend Bucky Barnes, also known as the Winter soldier and played by actor Sebastian Stan, from the authorities. Considering that Civil War is a Captain America movie and not an Avengers movie, it makes sense to tie up all the loose ends concerning Bucky from The Winter Soldier. However, it kind of makes Cap a douche, which is totally the opposite of what he stands for. Because from what I saw in the trailer, it looks like Steve Rogers is willing to sacrifice the lives of innocent law enforcers, his other friends and his country in order to protect Bucky, who did commit crimes and broke laws even though he was brainwashed at the time. From what I know, Cap stood for justice and what is right, and what is right is he figures out another way to protect Bucky without risking the lives of other people. 

In addition, the reason for the Civil War in the comic books revolved around an incident that led to the creation of the Superhuman Registration Act, which requires the registration of any person based in the United States with super powers. The comic books focused on the effects of the bill on not one, not two, but almost every superhero in the Marvel universe, as well as their reactions to the said bill. Although the bill was mentioned in the trailer, it seems to me that Bucky is a much bigger deal than the Superhuman Registration Act, which kinda dumbs down the whole Civil War thing. If war is going to break out in the MCU, shouldn't it be largely influenced by something more than an assassin with a cybernetic arm?

By the way, have you seen the rest of the Avengers? Vision made his debut in Age of Ultron, we've been promised Spider-Man and Ant-Man was confirmed for the movie but none of them were in sight even though the biggest draw of Civil War was it was going to be a superhero fest. I'm fully aware that you can't fit all the characters from the comics into one movie, but it wouldn't hurt to show superheroes that are supposed to be in Civil War in its trailer, unless they've been reduced to minor roles and cameos. If that's the case, then this movie is going to be a major letdown since Spider Man played a huge role in the Civil War comic books.

On the bright side, the trailer doesn't tell the entire story. So far, Marvel has done a great job of creating original stories for the movie versions of its iconic characters, so it won't be surprising if Captain America: Civil War turns out to be a blockbuster hit. Whether it meets expectations or not remains to be seen, but come May 2016 I'll see the movie in the nearest cinema once it comes out because I'd rather judge it on the big screen alongside other Marvel fans.