Captain America: Civil War (2016) Review
Hands down Marvel’s best film.
Captain America: Civil War (2016) is far too mature and profound to be labeled a mere “superhero movie.” Make no mistake about it, this is a damn great movie that happens to feature superheroes. I loved every minute of this film, and I cannot lavish enough praise on it and its creators. If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t hesitate; if you have, it’s probably about time for a return trip. This is Marvel’s crowning achievement, and my favorite movie this year.
The following review includes a number of spoilers below the break, so if you haven’t seen it, stop reading and go buy a ticket right now!
This film is rooted in the 2006–2007 Civil War arc from several of Marvel’s comic book series. There, a group of young superheroes, the New Warriors, engaged a group of supervillians as part of a reality television show. The subsequent battle resulted in the destruction of several blocks of a small town, including the obliteration of an elementary school and its inhabitants. In the wake of the calamity, Congress passed the Superhuman Registration Act, which mandated that all superheroes must either register with the government and act under its supervision, or hang up their capes for good.
As here, the central conceit of the comics’ Civil War was the battle between heroes in favor of superhero registration and those opposed to it. The pro-registration heroes in the comics were led by Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic (the absence of the latter is noticeable here), while Captain America helmed the anti-registration faction. During the escalating duel, Goliath was killed, dozens of heroes were injured and jailed, and the two sides went to greater and greater lengths to stop one another. Iron Man in particular reached a terrifying level of authoritarian lunacy, working to create a nightmarish prison to indefinitely house apprehended anti-registration heroes. In the end, Cap was forced to surrender on behalf of his side when he realized that Iron Man would never stop, no matter the civilian cost, and more innocents would suffer.
If I’m to be honest, the comics’ Civil War was a great idea marred by less-than-stellar execution. The core idea of superhero registration is a great vehicle for conflict and storytelling, but the comics didn’t build on it as well as I would have liked. The pro-registration side, including Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, and Hank Pym, went to extremes that were not consistent with their characters.¹ The anti-registration team never seemed to have much of a game plan other than to pretend that the Act hadn’t been passed until their hands were forced. The end result was that Iron Man became a calculating, voyeuristic, repressive autocrat, while Captain America appeared to be weak, dangerously naïve, and incapable of strategic thinking. Two great characters were boiled down to one-dimensional representations of their worst foibles. And the ending was, to say the least, unsatisfying, probably because the creators had written themselves into a place from which there was no escape. Killing Captain America was the only way out.
In bringing this story to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the creators of Captain America: Civil War have artfully dodged these potholes. Here, the titular civil war is a response to the destruction of Sokovia as shown in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). The final straw comes a year later, when Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch accidentally kills a number of humanitarian workers while redirecting a suicide bomber’s blast. People are outraged, and the United Nations passes the “Sokovia Accords” to near-universal acclaim by the nations of the world. The MCU’s heroes then face the familiar choice to register or retire. Iron Man, Black Widow, War Machine, and Vision come out pro-registration, while Captain America, Falcon, Hawkeye, and Scarlet Witch refuse to abide by the Accords.
Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. both do their characters justice in a way that the Civil War comics never managed. At the beginning of this movie, Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark / Iron Man is in a state of extended mourning for the victims of the Sokovia disaster. He is clearly tormented by the ghosts of his past and by his choices, which have now cost him his wife, Pepper Potts. Having lost her, Stark is now a man desperately clinging to the only thing left that gives his life any meaning: the Avengers. His guilt over the deaths brought on by his actions, and his need to keep the Avengers together, provide a compelling and believable basis for his pro-registration stance. Though he’s usually a freewheeling, insubordinate, rock star-type, Tony Stark has grown up in this film. He’s less the sarcastic teenager of earlier Iron Man movies and more a father trying to hold onto his family. Downey Jr. turns in a marvelous performance that is equal parts humor, grief, love, and anger.
Evans’ Steve Rogers / Captain America is, as in the comics, driven by the certainty that his individual morality should guide his actions, not the will of some government body. Cap also has a personal motive, the rescue of his friend, Sebastian Stan’s James “Bucky” Barnes / The Winter Soldier. As he did in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Evans adds a bit of flavor to the goody two-shoes, obedient G-Man that we usually picture in Captain America. At the same time, he never loses sight of the strong ethics and abiding respect for personal freedom that are at the center of Cap’s character. Cap does what he knows is right, no matter the cost, and he’s willing to die both for his friends and his principles.
The issues confronted by the heroes in this film are exceedingly relevant to our modern lives. Electronic surveillance, mass registration, terrorism and its collateral damage — we see these problems every day. While the MCU is anything but realistic, it offers a chilling hypothetical view into what the world could be if we were willing to sacrifice everything in the name of security. And since we don’t have real-life Iron Men and Captains America running around, here’s hoping we won’t go as far in the real world as S.H.I.E.L.D. did in theirs.
While watching the movie, I thought of a portion of Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. After reminding his audience of his similar speech four years earlier, at which time “all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war,” Lincoln remarked that:
Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.
Unlike the American Civil War, in Captain America: Civil War, I wasn’t sure which side was the aggressor and which the defender. In my mind, the fact that the film could reach that level of nuance is pretty amazing.
The writers here did a great job weaving in many threads from the existing MCU movies. Cap is fearful of government overreaching, probably brought on by HYDRA’s infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. in The Winter Soldier. Iron Man is still raw over the deaths of his parents (explored in, among others, Iron Man 2 (2010)). We see the return of a few recurring lesser heroes, like a personal favorite of mine, Anthony Mackie’s awesome Sam Wilson / Falcon. Even William Hurt’s Gen. Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, absent since The Incredible Hulk (2008), returns as overseer of the superhero registration program. As he was in The Incredible Hulk, Gen. Ross provides a capable pseudo-antagonist, a man convinced the ends justify some horrific means.
The rest of the supporting cast is also excellent. Daniel Brühl’s Helmut Zemo is appropriately creepy, reminiscient of his turn as an all-too-persistent Nazi in Inglourious Basterds (2009). I was over the moon to see Paul Rudd return as Scott Lang / Ant-Man, bringing more of the trademark humor we got in Ant-Man (2015). At one point during the film, instead of shrinking, Ant-Man grows to massive proportions. This strikes me as a bit of an homage to Goliath, the gargantuan hero who (as mentioned above) was killed in the Civil War comic. Even if it wasn’t a tribute, the Gulliver’s Travels vibe of seeing a giant Ant-Man tripped into crushing a Boeing 747 was pretty sweet.
Perhaps due to my affection for Batman’s nemesis and love interest, Selina Kyle / Catwoman, the Black Panther character never much interested me. I suppose I’ve only ever had room for one feline-based superhero in my life. That ends now. Chadwick Boseman is enthralling as T’Challa / Black Panther. He captivates in every scene in which he appears. His Black Panther is at once casually charming and yet icily resolved to vengeance. I can’t wait for his solo movie in 2018. (And don’t forget to hang around for this film’s mid-credits scene, set in Black Panther’s native Wakanda.)
By far, though, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker / Spider Man steals the show among the new characters. For the 30-40 minutes he’s on screen in this movie (including his brief post-credits scene), Holland does better than the last three Spider-Man movies put together. I’m elated that for his MCU debut, Marvel gave up on trying to recreate Spider-Man’s comics costume with practical effects. (There’s just no way to get his giant white eyes right in real life, especially when he squints or glares.) Instead, we get a pitch-perfect Spider-Man outfit through the magic of computer graphics.
Which wouldn’t mean a whole lot if Holland himself couldn’t back things up, but thankfully he’s up to the task. He is delightfully young², inquisitive, and verbose — every bit the Spider-Man of the comics. He is in awe of Iron Man and these characters, and not afraid to vocalize his hero worship. Indeed, during the set piece airport battle between the pro- and anti-registration heroes, the other combatants have to remind him that most fights don’t involve quite so much talking. There’s a great moment when, after duking it out, Spider-Man and Captain America realize they’re from the adjacent boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn and nod to one another respectfully.
My only gripe with the movie is that it starts slowly. There is a lot of momentum to build in a two-and-a-half hour movie, and directors Anthony & Joe Russo take their time. So while the chase through Lagos at the start is exciting, things slow down for awhile after it’s done. Ultimately, though, the last few acts of the film are worth the wait. And the “a-ha!” moment toward the end is a real doozy. While Iron Man, Captain America, and the Winter Soldier brawl, Zemo, who lost his family in Sokovia, delivers a haunting monologue to Black Panther explaining his plot. Rather than try to beat the Avengers in a straight-up fight, Zemo has spent the movie working to fracture them from within. The worst part is that at the end of the film, we don’t know if he has succeeded. Surely the fact that Captain America leaves his shield with a defeated Iron Man isn’t a good sign.
But then again, Marvel has a lot more movies to make, so they can’t wrap things up too neatly. It seems likely to me that we’re going to see two teams of Avengers from now on: Iron Man’s sanctioned Avengers, and Captain America’s under-the-radar Secret Avengers. That ought to make the next Avengers flick (which is actually going to be a two-parter) absolutely bananas.
Comparisons will inevitably be drawn between DC Comics’ recent Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and this film. After all, they’re both big-budget franchise crossovers, and both are meant to launch new waves of films. I’m sorry to have to say it, but Marvel has once again eaten DC’s lunch. Batman v. Superman was an atrocious, colossal dissapointment in and of itself. When put up against a film with the chops of Civil War, it’s little more than a $250 million joke. I’m just glad I have this film — and hopefully the upcoming Star Trek: Beyond — to wash the awful taste of Batman v. Superman out of my mouth. The two aren’t even in the same league, and if you haven’t yet made it to Batman v. Superman, skip it and see this instead.
Back in 2011, South Park did an episode called “You’re Getting Old” in which Stan realized that music targeted at children younger than him didn’t sound great. (In true South Park style, it literally sounded like people defecating.) Stan was later diagnosed as a “cynical asshole” by his doctor and told that he would basically hate everything for the rest of his life. I’ve reached a similar point with movies in the past few years. As big titles came and went, I experienced letdown after letdown after letdown (Batman v. Superman being only the latest example). I started to wonder if I too was becoming a cynical asshole, fated never to enjoy movies again. This film, though, restored my faith. Sorry recent movies, it turns out that it actually wasn’t me, it was you.
Put simply, Captain America: Civil War is nothing less than a genre-defining triumph. This is a film that action and superhero fans will remember fondly for years. Its grand scale, relevant and important themes, fantastic performances, witty humor, and amazing special effects set the highest of bars for future films. I don’t know how Marvel keeps surpassing itself with each of its films, but Civil War is its best work so far, and by a wide margin. Go see it once, then see it again, and then join me in counting down to Doctor Strange in November. If this film is any indication, the MCU’s Phase Three is going to be one hell of a trip. Strap in and enjoy the ride.
¹ They, for example, enslaved and mind-controlled a number of villains with nanites and then used them against the anti-registration side. How heroic.
² The Empire Strikes Back (1980) is a “really old movie”? Yikes!
