Captain America: Civil War Movie Review

Released: 28th April 2016 (UK)

Length: 147 Minutes

Certificate: 12A

Director(s): Anthony and Joe Russo

Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd and Tom Holland.

Kicking off the third phase of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe; Captain America: Civil War is the third and possibly final film centring on the leader of the Avengers.  Captain America has only gotten better with time and Civil War is the biggest and best of the three, ranking alongside the strongest films the company has put out.

About a year has passed since the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron and the team continues to fight towards making the world a safer place. After an explosive operation in Nigeria that claims the lives of several innocent civilians, questions arise over the team’s place in the world. It appears to be the final straw for the government who take the Avengers to task over the destruction they have caused. From here, two separate camps led by Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) are established, each with their own ideas and perspectives on what the group stands for. All the while however, external forces are taking advantage of the rift within the team, meaning to turn them against each other in retaliation for the havoc they caused. It’s a web of political intrigue and rising tensions that bounces between many different locations and juggles all of its characters with a gusto that stands alongside the previous Avenger films. Civil War also boasts some of the more unexpected twists in the franchise so far, taking the characters to darker places. The escalation posed here is intentional. Captain American’s third outing doesn’t flinch or buckle under the weight of all its material; instead it gives us one of the most thoughtful and important narratives in the series so far.

With a set of characters fully established, Civil War can focus on creating dramatic tension between them and the results are both palpable and understandable. You can grasp the motivations at play here and you understand where they’re all coming from. Despite having so many characters (It’s practically Avengers 2.5 with ten heroes in all), what really holds the film together is the relationships between the characters. Steve’s near unbreakable friendship with Bucky Barnes (aka The Winter Soldier) fuels much of his motivation to uncover the dark secrets of the program that created them both. He’s steadfast and loyal to his own moral code which stands at odds with the other Avengers. Iron Man on the other hand has become genuinely concerned about the team’s actions and believes that signing away their authority is the better thing to do. Stark himself feels more human than before, his charismatic ego almost entirely muted by a sense of guilt. The other characters all have their own individual tales which are lesser in scope but still equally engaging; Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) are particularly strong in the ways they play off each other with their powers. Civil War also brings a couple of new characters to the proceedings; I won’t spoil them here but the film does a fine job of both surprising you with their entrances and also giving plenty of backstory to make them worthy additions. What it all comes down to is that every character has their own motivations at play and they each contribute to the conflict in their own varying ways.

Captain America continues on from its predecessor with even more outstanding fight scenes that have drastically increased in scale. With some slick editing mixed with eye-popping special effects, audiences certainly won’t be disappointed by the action which never once becomes too over-bearing. Because of the coherent plot, the action feels much more immediate and captivating. The most impressive moment is of course the airport battle where the two teams square off; cutting between both the two sides as they swap between fighting different targets makes for one of the most intimate and tense fight scenes in the entire MCU. The film’s globetrotting narrative gives way to a greater variety of environments which in turn give off their own atmospheres. The Winter Soldier’s locales are especially foreboding, conveying the sinister experiments that were conducted on him to begin with.

With its detailed story, deep characters and standout presentation, Captain America Civil War is another superb addition to a wildly popular franchise; it’s easily the best superhero film of the year so far and seeing Marvel maintain their high standards thirteen films in is really encouraging. It deserves all the success it can muster.

Rating: 5/5 Stars