FILMS… Captain America: Civil War (2016)

#2010s #AllPosts

 

Team Cap vs Team Iron Man…

 

A new UN policy causes a divide between the Marvel superheroes.

 

Team Iron Man

Team Captain America

Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War – Trailer 2, Marvel Entertainment and photos © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

 

The latest of the Marvel offerings is Captain America: Civil War (2016) telling of the rift between Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jnr) and leads to conflict among the Avengers.

The film starts with a flashback to 1991 in Siberia, with the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) repeating several Russian words spoken to him. These are uttered by a HYDRA representative reading from a mysterious red book. Following this, the Winter Soldier mounts a motorbike and then after pursuing a car causes it to crash. The Winter Soldier obtains some intravenous bags with a mysterious blue serum. These are then given to a Hydra employee.

We then return to the present day where Captain America, Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) are in Nigeria. The trio is pursuing a ringleader and his followers. In some fast-paced scenes, they hunt down and fight the bad guys counting them down Deadpool (2016) style in their bid to obtain a biological weapon.

You can almost feel the blows as the sound effects are so realistic and the fight action is so intense here it makes you nauseous. Camera angles follow the intrepid foursome so closely you could be getting piggyback from Captain America.

It ends with Scarlet Witch destroying a building in her bid to kill off the head bad guy as is now the norm with superheroes. But does that make them antiheroes after all Deadpool never hurt anyone in his pursuit of the bad guys?

Meanwhile, Tony Stark (Iron Man, Robert Downey Jnr) is giving a speech to a hall full of University kids. He’s showing off his latest technology where you can return to an earlier you and time and change things. He shows a moment with his mother and father, in a hologram-type flashback where his father Howard (the always excellent silver fox John Slattery) says goodbye to him before he heads to the airport. The hologram of a CGI younger-looking Downey Jnr reminded me so much of the younger actor that I loved in Chances Are (1989).

Anyway, after the speech, he confesses that he is on a break from his relationship with Gwynnie Pepper Potts. These superhero girlfriends seem not to hang around too long apart from Captain America who’s been around since way before every other girlfriend in the superhero universe and despite the fact she’s that old, Cap is still loyal to her. Aw. As he leaves Stark is confronted by a woman who tells of how the Avengers indirectly killed her son in Sokovia.

The mysteriously accented Zemo (Daniel Brühl) is then seen torturing an upside-down man over a sink quizzing him about the events of 1991.  The man doesn’t disclose what happened, but after he is drowned. a book similar to the one read in the flashback is found by Zemo and taken. We then attend a meeting where the Avengers – as mentioned so far – all meet up along with Vision (Paul Bettany) and some others. Stark brings the Secretary of State with him to the meeting.

The Secretary of State is played by William Hurt and not Sam Shepard as Darlin Husband and I both thought as he entered the meeting. He shows – for the benefit of newbies and to refresh superhero aficionados’ memories – various Avengers news stories where they have killed the innocent whilst saving the world. He states the United Nations is bringing in new measures to monitor superheroes, and there will be imprisonment if the Avengers continue to work outside of these guidelines.

This leads to a rift between Cap (Captain America) and Stark and the remaining Avengers take to the two opposing sides. Surprisingly, Stark sides with him due to his guilt over Ultron and Captain America challenges this after a message from the grave confirming he is doing the right thing, which causes the Avengers to take sides.

So there I leave you until I write a spoiler version or you see the movie. However, I can tell you that although the longest Marvel Movie it feels like the shortest, as the storyline is so intense and riveting and the ending ties up the film nicely. I advise you not to arrive late, go to the toilet or eat popcorn as every scene is important in a little way towards the gobsmacking conclusions.

Also, this is as much a personal journey for Tony Stark as it is for Captain America. Downey Jnr tugs the heartstrings to a T. As even more Avengers return, we get nice wee reintroductions to them as characters and their recent storylines with in-jokes for die-hard superhero fans. As they return you will be shocked as once good friends often apologise before they fight each other verbally or physically.

It was lovely seeing Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and my favourite superhero Antman (Paul Rudd) for their short but effective appearances bringing in the humour this movie needed. Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman)- who I’d only met via my stepdude’s Lego console game – and his origins story is told briefly without labouring it out. There is some surprising romance, which is more shocking but leads to some humour and the reaction to this shows that superheroes are just normal men (in costume). And a few wee cameos.

Spiderman (Tom Holland) returns with his Aunt May and both were a treat, with Spiderman almost like a PG Deadpool with pop culture and a few little PC Deadpool references shared for a younger audience. Aunt May – Marisa Tomei – was equally a delight as she met and flirted with Tony Stark to almost predatory cougar proportions.

The chemistry between Tomei’s Aunt May and Stark was so apparent, that I’m hoping this will lead to a new romance for the recently single Iron Man for the upcoming Spiderman movie. I for one would love this, as then Spidy can concentrate on saving the world without the hindrance of his girlfriend Jane.

I felt this character was spoiled by the writers of Spiderman 3 (2007) (or the Spiderman, The Kirsten Dunst Musical as we call it in this household). Not only does she seem the sort of lady who would love and approve of his Iron Man costumes, but Iron Man also looks like he’d heal from the Peppered criticisms from his recent uncoupling.

 

Weeper Rating: 0 /10

Handsqueeze Rating:            /10

Hulk Rating: ‎      ‎/10

 

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The Now and Then (Then and Now) Blogathon 2017

This post was added to the Then and Now blogathon. This was my joint blogathon with Thoughts All Sorts in the NOW category.

Other reviews with this cast include,

• Robert Downey Jnr in Only You, Less Than Zero and more.
• Jeremy Renner features in Arrival.
• William Hurt in Broadcast News, AI Artificial Intelligence and more.
• Paul Rudd in Antman and The Fundamentals of Caring.
• Scarlett Johansson stars in Match Point, Lost in Translation and more.
• Daniel Bruhl stars in Good Bye Lenin.  
• Chris Evans stars in Knives Out.
• Sebastian Stan in The Martian and Pam & Tommy.

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