Captain America: Civil War
Published September 2, 2016
Film info
- Title Captain America: Civil War
- Directors Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
- Year 2016
- Run time 2hrs 27m
- Genres Adventure, Action, Science Fiction
- Tagline Divided we fall
Steve Rogers leads a newly formed team of Avengers in their efforts to safeguard humanity. But when an incident involving them results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability, headed by a governing body to direct the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers into two camps – one led by Steve Rogers and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference, and the other following Tony Stark’s surprising decision to support government oversight.
Live Blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:48 | It’s amazing how terrifying “Ready to comply,” can actually sound. |
| 5:27 | Epic garbage truck stunt and we’re only five minutes in. |
| 12:08 | “Your pal, your buddy, your Bucky.” |
| 14:58 | It’s freaky, making people look younger or older. Can’t believe anything you see. |
| 18:55 | Loving a repercussions movie. |
| 21:10 | I love Paul Bettany. Glad he has an actual body these days. |
| 34:41 | They really shouldn’t call each other by their first names, I can’t keep up. Who is Clint? |
| 36:11 | “Two people in a room can get more done than 100.” “Unless you are trying to move a piano.” |
| 46:51 | “I’m not going to kill anyone,” he says, before littering the stairwell with bodies. |
| 56:31 | Well that’s Tim from The Office doing a dodgy accent. |
| 58:58 | Pepper and Tony consciously uncoupled! |
| 1:01:53 | “Bird costume? Come on.” |
| 1:11:17 | I’m so TeamStark. Stop saving this guy’s life just because he’s your friend. |
| 1:18:55 | Dislike that Spider-Man is in this, but quite like the new boy. |
| 1:23:23 | Oh that’s Clint. Boo. |
| 1:33:24 | “I don’t know if you’ve been in a fight before, but there’s not usually this much talking.” |
| 1:42:54 | Star Wars shout out! |
| 1:52:38 | It’s taken a turn for the Bunkerific and also submarine awesome. |
| 1:59:20 | I couldn’t cope with being Iron Man, making that noise with every step. |
| 2:03:35 | Iron Man rage is one you really don’t want to get on the wrong side of. |
| 2:15:07 | Stan Lee! |
Thoughts
My feelings about this film are mostly not that positive, but here’s a breakdown of some of the main points - the good ones first:
- I love the concept - repercussions from superhero destruction have been a bugbear of mine for a while so it’s good to see that addressed, and that it causes its own problems as well.
- It’s nice to see a new group of Avengers getting to grips with each other. We’ve always said the moments where they are just sitting and bantering are the best, so it’s good to see that with some new faces. I don’t think there was enough of that here, but I suppose it’s not an Avengers film.
- Love, love, loved Spiderman. I wasn’t on board with him joining the crew at all, I don’t like to cross the streams, but actually Tom was so brilliant in the role, and it was great to see a youngster teamed up with Robert Downey like that.
For those reasons, it’s not going to score a 1 out of 5, but here are the negatives I felt about it which really do drag the score down:
- It’s getting to the point now that I’m struggling to follow the intricacies of the story. Some of the minor characters, have we seen them before, are they important, who are they? Turns out this is closely aligned to a specific comic book, so it’s aimed at people that have read that and doesn’t want to patronise them. That’s fine, but then it’s starting to alienate me, so that’s a disappointment.
- What was up with those fight scenes? There were some great ideas in there, but it made me dizzy watching them. I’m used to the jerky camera motions by now, but there were definitely some sped up moments in there too, which ruined some of the James Bond films for me. It seems unnecessary.
- It was long, and quite complicated in places. Who has signed the thing, who is on which side, what is up with the winter soldier, and who is Clint?
I dunno, maybe I was just in a bad mood because I know Mr C liked it more than I did, but I had such high hopes that it was just a disappointment throughout. I’m going to have to put the effort in and rewatch the other films to see if I can’t catch up with the pack again. How many films leave you with homework to be done??
Revisited - April 21
Yep, so initially I rated this a 2/5, and was considering it being even lower. On my second watch, with my trusty Marvel notebook to hand, and actually understanding and following who was on what side and why, it was so much better. The stakes actually made sense, and the civil war was much more important.
The only reason this isn’t a 5/5 movie, in fact, is that it’s clearly an Avengers film and it really annoys me that it’s not badged as that.
Rating: 4 / 5
