Movie Review: Captain America: Civil War

Source: Marvel Facebook Page

NERDGASMIC. AWESOME. INCREDIBLE.

These are just some of the words that I can use to describe Captain America: Civil War after seeing it yesterday at Trinoma.

Based on Marvel's Civil War comic book storyline, Captain America: Civil War revolves around the creation of a law that requires individuals with special abilities (or tech in Falcon's and Iron Man's case) to work under the supervision of a governing body and how it divides the Avengers based on the opinion of each member towards the said law.

As with most movies that take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: Civil War makes a lot of references to previous Marvel flicks especially Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Although seeing the aforementioned movies are not pre-requisites to enjoying CA: CW, having done so will help the viewer get a better grasp of the film's conflicts.

Although based on the Civil War comics, CA: CW separates itself from its source material by using a different jumping-off point for the law that divides the Avengers. Some hardcore comic book fans might be bothered by this matter, but as someone who has read the CW comics and has some idea with the licensing and budgetary issues that Marvel has to deal with just to get this movie done, I think the jumping-off point for CA: CW was pretty clever.

Outside of comic book extremists, most movie goers would it find hard to say anything bad about CA: CW because it has everything you could ask for from a superhero movie: well-choreographed fights scenes, eye-pleasing visual effects, humor and lots of superheroes, perhaps the most in one film at the moment.

With its all-star cast, CA: CW gave us characters worth talking about for weeks. As usual, Robert Downey Jr. was a natural as Tony Stark/Iron Man and Chris Evans once again delivered as the morally upright Steve Rogers/Captain America. It is really hard to tell if all the Avengers got a fair share of the limelight, but as far as I can tell, each received the adequate screen time that their respective roles called for.

What caught me off guard were the performances of Paul Rudd and Tom Holland, Ant-Man and Spider-Man respectively, as they delivered witty and funny dialogues that had me laughing out loud along with other movie goers. I really do not remember Ant-Man being all that talkative in the comics but Rudd somehow makes it work. As for Holland, he captured the youthful exuberance and chatty nature of the Peter Parker from the comics, something we have not seen from Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield. If Holland's performance is any indication, we can expect Marvel's Spider-Man to be another blockbuster.

In summary, Captain America: Civil War may not be a perfect superhero movie but it comes pretty close to being one. Aside from the visual spectacle, well-written script and the praise-worthy performances of its cast, the film tries to give a lesson on accountability, which is what superhero flicks are supposed to do. For those have not seen this movie yet, I encourage you to do so. I promise you that you will have one heck of a good time, plus you get to sit in an air-conditioned room for more than two hours and that is a great way to beat the summer heat.

Rating: 4.8 out of 5

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.