CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR has lots going on, but it manages to balance story and character development to provide an entertaining and satisfying sequel to previous Marvel movies such as CAPTIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER and AVENGERS; AGE OF ULTRON.  It is also a love letter to longtime comic book fans who know their Marvel comics history and characters.  This movie also sets the stage for events to be resolved in the AVENGERS: THE INFINITY WAR movies and introduce The Black Panther (before his own solo movie) and the new rebooted Spider-Man (before the SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING movie coming soon from Sony/ Columbia Pictures).   Spider-Man has some great lines, you get to see Ant-Man be Giant Man (along with an AT-AT reference from THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK), a little romance for Steve Rogers, chemistry between Vision and Wanda, Tony Stark feeling guilty, and Steve Roger debating with Tony Stark on why superheroes shouldn’t be regulated. 

 

The newest CAPTAIN AMERICA movie could also be seen as an AVENGER 2.5 movie in addition to the latest CAPTAIN AMERICA sequel.  It has some great ethical debates along with some great action sequences (despite too much shaky camera use which may be hard on some eyes watching this movie on the big screen), and remembering the history of what happened in previous marvel movies (IRON MAN 3, CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER, and AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON).  It also seems they want to make Aunt May more attractive with each reboot of the Spider-Man character (with Marisa Tomei playing Aunt May this time). CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR works because the script is able to build on the history of the various characters and give each of them their own moments while movies like BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE just crams too much plot without developing from a series of previous movies (with the exception of MAN OF STEEL) and serve as a big info dump.   The movie should be called something else since CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR is just more of a gimmick title and just a diversion from what the movie is actually about.   It is a movie that continues CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER while also addressing the fallout from AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON.  The hero characters are written very well while the villains again get the shaft (this seems to be a constant problem with many of the Marvel movies).  The post credit scenes are great (with one being an epilogue while the other is just a fun bit with Peter Parker).  Now I wish Marvel would make a BLACK WIDOW movie sooner than later (even though Scarlet Johnasson has a very busy schedule, but a BLACK WIDOW movie sounds more exciting than the planned CPATIN MARVEL movie).  

 

Do I hope Marvel makes another CAPTAIN AMERICA movie with Chris Evans?  Absolutely since there are so many comic book storylines they could draw from.  Do I feel there needs to be another IRON MAN movie?  Not really since I have heard the ego of Robert Downey Jr. basically had Tony Stark ending up in the CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR in the first place (Kevin Feige basically telling the scriptwriters to adapt the Civil War storyline from Marvel Comics).  A good script did make the movie work wonders, but I am curious what the third CAPTAIN AMERICA movie would be like without including Iron Man and a slew of Avengers.  Here’s hoping the next CAPTAIN AMERICA movie will be a standalone affair without having to forward the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole.

 

This review is ©5-12-2016 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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