Cinematography:
Trent OpalochComposer:
Henry JackmanCast:
Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany (more)VOD (4)
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An explosive rift rocks the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the game-changing epic, Captain America: Civil War. When government pressure to rein in the Avengers drives a deep wedge between Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), best friends are turned into bitter enemies. Against a backdrop of divided loyalties, mysterious villains and new allies, the ultimate battle for the future of the Avengers and all humanity erupts in this spectacular adventure! (Disney / Buena Vista)
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Reviews (17)
I'll say right off the bat that I liked the second Captain America better, but fortunately the Russos carried a lot of things over from that into Civil War. The action is still just as gritty and full of clever moments, and there's plenty of room for the other heroes, both newcomers and those from the other films, to show off their abilities. When the action starts, fans of Cap, Iron Man, Ant-Man, Hawkeye and the newcomers will come into their own – Spidey and Black Pather are excellent. The problem, however, comes when the action stops. The Russos are still great at handling characters and defining their perspective on the whole situation in one sentence, making you understand why Black Widow doesn't go with Captain and why Scarlet Witch is on his side. But it's too much. There are simply too many heroes, so while the shorthand works, few get the space to impress. In the end, this is a film in which Tony Stark and Bucky are at the center of the action and the others are more or less extras. Everyone has a chance to make an impact, but if half of the supporting characters were cut out, it wouldn't matter at all. They don't hurt, they don't step over each other, but there's just no time to resolve the conflicts of these secondary characters in a way that makes one really care. On the other hand, even two sentences tossed off by Vision in a silly sweater are still more interesting than the ramblings of Batman and Superman discovering that their moms have the same name. The third Captain is good, but the thing we feared was a bit of a factor. The Marvel Universe has swelled so much that the even best filmmakers simply can't make a movie out of the pile of characters and motives in a way they all get adequate space in. And it's a bit of a shame. The solos suit this franchise better than the team-ups. On the other hand, if the team-ups look like Civil War, I'll always be happy to be there.
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So many themes and subplots that I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually three movies edited into one. Nonetheless, even such a flood of information and plot twists doesn't hurt and makes Captain America: Civil War a dense 147 minutes. I am feeling a dizzyingly blissful feeling that it will be Anthony Russo and Joe Russo who will be orbiting around Avengers: Infinity War. Because here, so many characters are gathered that even Avengers: Age of Ultron seems almost intimate. But I love Steve Rogers' stories precisely because they are... well, simply, about Steve Rogers. Promoting Iron Man's participation to the second main character is a perfect idea, because Robert Downey, Jr. has never given such an amazing performance before, but the detour to Spider-Man, though perfectly functional and enticing, is too obvious a backdoor restart to not disrupt the pace. Something like that would fit wonderfully into an Avengers film, theoretically even into an Iron Man film, but here I felt a slight disappointment that this particular excursion takes away space from more important things. Fortunately, the rest of the newcomers (Baron Zemo, Black Panther, or at last larger roles for Sharon) and familiar faces, led by the perfect Ant-Man, fit into the stories wonderfully, and the incorporation of Wanda or Hawkeye into the plot brings me immense joy. Based on the reviews, I feel like writing that this is Cap's weakest solo film, but considering how much fun I had and the fact that even at its greatest ease, it simply isn't a solo film, it's not necessary to do so. It just seems that this time it enters the genre boundaries perhaps a bit too broadly.
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Three long-term problems of the Marvel movies (if we do not count the uniform unisex kind of movies that Disney regularly produces) is the absence of proper respect for real respected bad guys with clear motivation, who do not only stare aggressively, depersonalized generic interchangeable CGI action and no consequences, impacts or personal sacrifices of the characters. It has always been the case that Marvel movies are better at squabble rather than at blockbuster action. The director brothers did try to change it in the Winter Soldier, and I must compliment them on trying to do the same in this movie too. They were successful in two cases (a scam in the form of the need for a bad guy, no matter how much potential this one has, and amazing action based on stunts) but terribly failed in one, because the unwillingness of Marvel movies to make main heroes any sacrifices has always been obvious but in this movie it is even more obvious in a silly way. In any case, this time the director's duo deserves more praise, because to handle so many characters in a way so that all their intentions are clear and understandable, that new players are properly introduced and do not act as useless as the fifth wheel, that the tension is tangible (unfortunately only in the final) and despite the escalation (although it is more required by the script than the movie itself) and the ambivalence of opinions of both parties, it kept the style of minor exaggeration and on top of all that, all the characters do their job and have enough space. Obviously, even much more experienced movie makers often fail in this department. On the contrary, they did not handle the footage well. It is not lengthy, but it has more sequences with very slow pace than would be appropriate. Other flaws include the epileptic camera in action scenes, and that the whole trifling dispute is more like a pub brawl of a few individuals than a war, let alone a civil war.
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Recent Marvel movies have usually ended up with five stars and from the sequel to the best Marvel movie ever comes a slight disappointment, here it will only be worth 4 stars. Honestly I wasn't too a film similar to The Avengers, (though the new Spider-Man made a very positive impression along with Ant-Man), I was much more comfortable with a dark espionage thriller in the vein of the second one. What's odd though is that Scarlett Witch is perhaps the strongest character in the film, stopping everyone, being everywhere on time, this felt trite in places when she was one of the weaker links in the Avengers. Hawkeye with Black Widow and Vision are useless. It's also strange that we wait almost an hour and forty minutes for the clash of the two main characters, and the film devotes a substantial portion to Bucky (they could avoided it!). As for the action, apart from the occasionally shaky camera work I'm relatively satisfied, there are plenty of good fights, but again no action scene has the kind of juice I'll remember in the future, which is a shame because the lack of goosebumps in films of this calibre is almost unforgivable. Surprisingly the humour doesn't work much either and I found myself getting bored a few times in the beginning, which thankfully improved later on. Satisfied yes, delighted unfortunately no. 75%.
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Marvel was almost a write-off after their sterile, same old superhero movies, Civil War is a hit and a significant step forward. It plays on a dark emotional chord within reason, opens up interesting questions of international security and laws, goes against itself, and introduces the viewer to new fighters in a very elegant and unobtrusive way. It's almost similarly entertaining to the first Avengers, it just took that tiny little half-step forward, because after all, in those four years we've seen at least five major comic book movies that were all still on the same page. There is of course the traditional stuff like riveting action – it has the clarity from the second, but even better – and the chemistry of the main characters, and even though it's still as simple and without digressions, it's very entertaining because you just don't see that many parametrically interesting and diverse characters on screen. However, by far the only most interesting and emotionally truly fleshed out character remains Bucky, the Winter Soldier.
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