Captain America: Civil War Review

The Avengers go to war with each other in the second superhero showdown movie of the year. Captain America: Civil War sees Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) end up on opposing sides as a new villain manages to successfully turn the Avengers on each other.

Captain America: Civil War is the third film in the Captain America trilogy and sees Anthony and Joe Russo return as the directors, following their debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the directors of 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The Winter Soldier was immediately hailed by many fans as one of the best films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date.

I think Civil War surpasses The Winter Soldier and the Russo brothers did another outstanding jobs. While the movie is only loosely based on the comic series of the same name, it still has enough of the same material to feel like the Civil War story-line, has lots of great action and story, has a great focus on Captain America and shows that the brothers can balance using a lot of Avengers in one movie very well ahead of directing the upcoming two-part Avengers: Infinity War movie.

One of the greatest strengths of Captain America: Civil War is its character development. While billed as a Captain America film, not only does he get a lot of character development but every other Avenger gets their moment to shine and stand out amongst the others and every cast member put in strong performances. I’d easily say that this film has the best performances from Chris Evans (Captain America), Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) and Sebastian Stan (The Winter Soldier) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date.

As mentioned above though, every Avenger has their moment to shine including both old and new. We see Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) playing both sides in the conflict, The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) now established as Captain America’s right-hand man, War Machine (Don Cheadle) ends up partially paralysed after the fight at the airport, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) comes out of superhero retirement to help Captain America, The Vision (Paul Bettany) struggles with feeling human emotions, Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) struggles to cope with how strong her powers are and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) is recruited to assist Team Captain America and in doing so viewers are able to see him become Giant Man for the first time on screen.

The movie also had debuts for a couple of other Avengers. Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) played a vital role and his performance was one of the highlights of the movie. You’ll come out of Captain America: Civil War and be very excited for his solo film if you weren’t already. His story-line was excellent, from the death of his father King T’Chaka (John Kani) to his pursuit of The Winter Soldier and his eventual decision to not be vengeful was a strong choice. Spider-Man (Tom Holland) makes his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as well and, in my opinion, is already the best Spider-Man in a movie. Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, who played the character in Sony’s Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man films respectively, did great jobs in their own right but Tom Holland’s portrayal instantly felt like the portrayal we were always meant to have as fans, and seeing a new take on May Parker (Marisa Tomei) briefly was nice as well. Things are looking good for the Black Panther film and Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Other returning characters in the movie included Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) and Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt), who both had pivotal roles to play as well. Sharon got to partake in some action scenes (which she didn’t really get to do in The Winter Soldier) and was pivotal in helping Captain America. One of the highlights of the movie was her kissing scene with Captain America (though the highlight was just as much for the reaction of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier which was hilarious). One of the most emotional scenes in the movie is the funeral for Peggy Carter, Sharon’s aunt, who was Captain America’s love interest in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). Ross, who debuted in The Incredible Hulk (2008), played a big role in introducing the Sokovia Accords to the team and being the political side of the film. The Sokovia Accords plays a crucial role in splitting the Avengers apart which leads to them forming two teams: Team Captain America and Team Iron Man.

Captain America: Civil War had two major villains. Zemo (Daniel Brühl) is the main villain and, in my opinion, is one of the best villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date. The reason I think Zemo is one of the best is because he succeeds where numerous other Marvel villains have failed; tearing the Avengers apart. Yes, there have been more interesting looking villains (whereas Zemo’s just a guy) but for me that’s one of the strengths of the character. It’s revealed that Zemo lost his family in Sokovia because of the events seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron and he wants revenge on the Avengers for that. I really liked that he wasn’t another villain that tried to take out the Avengers through force. Instead, he cunningly manipulates events so that they will eventually turn on each other and this made him a memorable villain for me. It was disappointing that he didn’t wear his iconic suit from the comics, but given that he isn’t killed off it’s likely he will return and wear the suit in another movie.

The other villain was Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo), returning after his debut in The Winter Soldier, who finally got to wear his iconic Crossbones outfit from the comics. I only had a couple of complaints about Civil War and Rumlow’s limited screen-time and death was one of them. Frank Grillo is a terrific actor and I would have liked to have seen more of him (and the Crossbones suit) in Civil War. It’s especially disappointing if you knew how pivotal a character he is in the comics. That said, he does have a large impact on the events of the film so at least his death had meaning to it and he wasn’t killed off just for the sake of it.

Civil War had three big fight scenes that stood out to me and were all done excellently. The opening sequence where Captain America, The Falcon, Black Widow and Scarlet Witch are chasing Rumlow was great in the way it got the film rolling. The fight scene at the airport with all of the Avengers was incredible to watch and everyone got their moment to shine in the fight as well. The third fight scene with Captain America and The Winter Soldier fighting Iron Man was also perfect and leaves a massive impact on the viewers.

Not only does Civil War stand out on its own and set up upcoming films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it also ties back to the very beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (on top of recent instalments). We finally learn that The Winter Soldier was the person who killed Tony Stark (Iron Man)’s parents and this leads to the third fight scene described above. A lot of fans, myself included, had been predicting this for a long time but I think the reveal was handled so well that it was still very impactful in any case.

Aside from Brock Rumlow’s demise, my only other complaint was with the ending of the film. It wasn’t bad but it felt like the film ended very abruptly and simply, which felt strange given the complexity of everything that happened before the ending. Following the airport fight, all of Team Captain America excluding Cap and The Winter Soldier (The Falcon, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Ant-Man) had been taken to a prison called The Raft. The movie ends with Cap getting into The Raft and breaking his allies out. The aftermath also sees Zemo taken to the authorities and War Machine given leg braces that allow him to walk again.

There are two additional scenes that followed the end of the movie. The mid-credits scene sees Black Panther putting The Winter Soldier into a cryogenic sleep until someone is able to find a cure for his brainwashing and the post-credits scene sees Spider-Man testing a new gadget that he received from Tony.

In my opinion, Captain America: Civil War is one of the best movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date. The Russo brothers have brought us another excellent Captain America film that also manages to balance using a lot of Avengers superbly and gives every important character their moments to shine. The film also manages to perfectly establish every characters perspective on the Sokovia Accords and gives them their moment to shine in the fight scenes. The debuts of Spider-Man and Black Panther were great to see and it’s great to finally have both characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Zemo was an excellent villain and hopefully we’ll see him in another Marvel movie soon. Civil War also does a great job of tying the whole franchise together with the reveal of The Winter Soldier being the one who killed Tony’s parents. My only complaints were the death of Brock Rumlow and the abrupt ending, but other than those issues it was a near perfect film.

My rating: 9.5/10

By Ruari Williamson

*The opinions in this article are of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.