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I promised my friend my reaction, so here it is.
Captain America: Civil War is a well-designed standalone movie that ties up loose ends nicely. A little too nicely. As if it were a well wrapped present that you open up to find a spoon in it and then you put it in a drawer with your other spoons and then forget about it. Something completely utilitarian, even though it's finely made.
Basically Captain America: Civil War is a wall in Marvel's house. Even though it's a well-built wall, and holds up the structure well, it's still a wall.
Spoilers will explain exactly why.
For a Captain America movie, we got enough Captain America and also too little. The movie starts and ends with Captain America. The rest of the movie, he was sharing a fair bit of screen time and fight time with the other heroes. He's not really the pivot on which the movie turns, or even the one with the greatest emotional journey.
The emotional journey actually seems to go to Iron Man, who is shaken down from his high horse and decides to own up to his reckless ways as a superhero, just in time to take the opposite side from Steve Rogers, who has learnt that the government doesn't always know best from Captain America 2. Instead, Steve argues that people do best when they're allowed to make decisions on their own.
That would be fine if he proceeded to do that himself. Unfortunately, he then has to give way to the other Avengers to show their support for him. While I won't say no to more Falcon and Bucky and Black Widow and a lot of other characters, I still think this movie would have been better off as an Avengers movie that does right by its ensemble.
Yet though the movie does right by its characters, it is far too tidy. Wanda gets an arc when she doesn't get rid of a villain fast enough under Steve's lead, which ends when she gets an appropriately stirring pep talk from Clint. However, the key word is ends - I don't really care about her character now that she's over her angst, and even her cute scenes with Vision weren't doing enough to pique me. Falcon too gets an arc where he accidentally causes collateral damage, but apologies quickly enough. Even Black Widow, who gets a good long arc and an appropriate heel face turn, leaves the story once she's achieved her purpose and I'm not at all curious what she's been up to after that.
Even the "new" characters suffer from this syndrome. T'challa is badass, but we leave him happily ruling his kingdom. Sharon Carter plays the plot device, and gets an out of the blue kiss initiated by Steve for her trouble, when it really should have been Sharon initiating the kiss (and Steve could have enjoyed it, he's not dead). Spiderman was most out of the blue for me: we get a naïve version (!) with a hot Aunt May (!!) that's more psyched by the superheroes he meets during his fights and his doodads. Not necessarily the Spiderman I want to revisit (though my friend and I thought about how to make his movie work with his current characterisation).
Even Bucky Barnes, who is the character the other characters fight over, gets to do surprisingly little in a movie about him. He briefly runs away from Steve, only to fall in once it's made clear he can't survive on his own. He's then squared away neatly by choosing to go into cryo-stasis, but because it's his own choice I have no qualms about letting him Sleeping Beauty the rest of the Marvel universe away.
And even though Steve left Tony that phone (strike)for a booty call(strike) as a hook for them to hash out their differences in another movie, I honestly don't care.
So that is why Civil War is a wall. Even if it holds up the roof really well, even if it's hiding a shit ton of wires and loose ends (*cough* Avengers 2 *cough*), even if its design would make any architect bite their pen in half, it's still a wall. I don't really think much of it, and I'm probably going to forget/ignore that it's there.
Watch the movie just to marvel at how well it's crafted, then put it away and forget about it. If there's a good adaption of Civil War, this is it, but don't expect to leave wanting more.
Captain America: Civil War is a well-designed standalone movie that ties up loose ends nicely. A little too nicely. As if it were a well wrapped present that you open up to find a spoon in it and then you put it in a drawer with your other spoons and then forget about it. Something completely utilitarian, even though it's finely made.
Basically Captain America: Civil War is a wall in Marvel's house. Even though it's a well-built wall, and holds up the structure well, it's still a wall.
Spoilers will explain exactly why.
For a Captain America movie, we got enough Captain America and also too little. The movie starts and ends with Captain America. The rest of the movie, he was sharing a fair bit of screen time and fight time with the other heroes. He's not really the pivot on which the movie turns, or even the one with the greatest emotional journey.
The emotional journey actually seems to go to Iron Man, who is shaken down from his high horse and decides to own up to his reckless ways as a superhero, just in time to take the opposite side from Steve Rogers, who has learnt that the government doesn't always know best from Captain America 2. Instead, Steve argues that people do best when they're allowed to make decisions on their own.
That would be fine if he proceeded to do that himself. Unfortunately, he then has to give way to the other Avengers to show their support for him. While I won't say no to more Falcon and Bucky and Black Widow and a lot of other characters, I still think this movie would have been better off as an Avengers movie that does right by its ensemble.
Yet though the movie does right by its characters, it is far too tidy. Wanda gets an arc when she doesn't get rid of a villain fast enough under Steve's lead, which ends when she gets an appropriately stirring pep talk from Clint. However, the key word is ends - I don't really care about her character now that she's over her angst, and even her cute scenes with Vision weren't doing enough to pique me. Falcon too gets an arc where he accidentally causes collateral damage, but apologies quickly enough. Even Black Widow, who gets a good long arc and an appropriate heel face turn, leaves the story once she's achieved her purpose and I'm not at all curious what she's been up to after that.
Even the "new" characters suffer from this syndrome. T'challa is badass, but we leave him happily ruling his kingdom. Sharon Carter plays the plot device, and gets an out of the blue kiss initiated by Steve for her trouble, when it really should have been Sharon initiating the kiss (and Steve could have enjoyed it, he's not dead). Spiderman was most out of the blue for me: we get a naïve version (!) with a hot Aunt May (!!) that's more psyched by the superheroes he meets during his fights and his doodads. Not necessarily the Spiderman I want to revisit (though my friend and I thought about how to make his movie work with his current characterisation).
Even Bucky Barnes, who is the character the other characters fight over, gets to do surprisingly little in a movie about him. He briefly runs away from Steve, only to fall in once it's made clear he can't survive on his own. He's then squared away neatly by choosing to go into cryo-stasis, but because it's his own choice I have no qualms about letting him Sleeping Beauty the rest of the Marvel universe away.
And even though Steve left Tony that phone (strike)for a booty call(strike) as a hook for them to hash out their differences in another movie, I honestly don't care.
So that is why Civil War is a wall. Even if it holds up the roof really well, even if it's hiding a shit ton of wires and loose ends (*cough* Avengers 2 *cough*), even if its design would make any architect bite their pen in half, it's still a wall. I don't really think much of it, and I'm probably going to forget/ignore that it's there.
Watch the movie just to marvel at how well it's crafted, then put it away and forget about it. If there's a good adaption of Civil War, this is it, but don't expect to leave wanting more.
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