Out of all the blockbuster movies I've seen in the last six months, only two movies hit all the right notes: Deadpool and this one. Whereas, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice left out a few parts to make the whole cohesive.
Frankly, I want to go see Civil War again to pick up all the things I know I missed.
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SPOILERS
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PROS
1) While even I've been making cracks about Civil War being Avengers 2.5, this is most definitely a sequel to Captain America: Winter Soldier. And this isn't so much a Steve Rogers story as a Bucky Barnes story. While the main story is roughly analogous to the comics mini-series Civil War, the addition of the U.N. hunting down Bucky gives the story more heft than the philosophical debate of safety versus freedom the comics got bogged down in.
2) General Ross, now Secretary of Defense Ross, is finally back, his first appearance since 2008's The Incredible Hulk. It's just a pity they couldn't use him more, but this thing clocks in at two and a half hours. (Bathroom break before claiming a seat and no liquids during are a definite must!)
3) The writers did the right thing by inserting T'Challa/Black Panther's origin story here. No need to waste time when the Black Panther movie comes out. A pity Marvel doesn't have film rights to the X-Men because I would love to see Storm guest-star in in his flick.
4) The Vision/Scarlet Witch romance is being left in though it hits a major bump here. Yay!
5) The consequences were a little more realistic for Cap's team than they were in the comics.
6) I absolutely LOVE how they inserted Redwing into the movie!
7) ALL the character arcs made sense. Usually someone gets left out, but all twelve super-heroes were accounted for.
CONS
1) This is my vanity speaking, but Marisa Tomei is my age. SHE IS TOO FUCKING YOUNG TO BE PLAYING AUNT MAY!!!
This is a definite 10 out of 10 stars! So go see it!
Saw Civil War last night, yay! :D
ReplyDeleteTotally agree, this movie rocks truckloads of socks. I wouldn't mind seeing it at the theater again, and I hardly ever do that.
I get what you're saying about how this is a Bucky Barnes movie, and therefore a direct sequel to Captain America 2, and therefore a Cap movie rather than an Avengers movie. Okay, that makes sense. But still, it's about all the Avengers too, and what happens to them as a team. I could use the same logic and say that Age of Ultron is about Tony Stark, about his actions and their consequences, and therefore that should've been Iron Man 4. [shrug] I think these are all just Marvel Movies when you get right down to it, especially the ones featuring multiple heroes. The subcategorizations are IMO more a movie-history hold-over than anything else, and it doesn't really matter what labels we stick on 'em.
I was sort of o_O when the youngish, hot woman was introduced as Aunt May, heh. But really, I don't mind. I grew up with Aunt May drawn to look like she was a 107-year-old twig with a stark white bun, but that was never realistic. She should've been teenage Peter's great-great-aunt, to be that old. [shrug] It's not canon, but a lot of things aren't. (Thank frack they changed Wanda's look -- people can worship Kirby all they want, but his character designs were supremely dorktastic. And I looooved AI-JARVIS, and still miss him horribly.) I can deal with a middle-aged Aunt May.
I'm just hoping they thaw Bucky out RSN, relative to movie-releases. He's a great character and I really don't want them to keep him in the Great Fridge of Wakanda for the next ten years. And I'm wondering who's going to rebuild his arm. [ponder] Most fanfic has Tony doing it, but that's a bit problematic right now [cough] so...? Wakanda could probably build him a great arm, so that could work. However they do it, I hope they do it soon. For the next Avengers movie would be good. :)
I agree with you that everything made sense. I can't think of any major plot holes, anything that should've been tied up that wasn't. The character arcs were good, seemed not to have any huge, ripping bites taken out of them, and fit the characters. Everyone was in character.
Oh, and Sony needs to just throw in the towel, admit that they suck at making Spiderman films, and leave it to Marvel's cinematic arm from now on. I loooved Spiderman in this movie. :D He was very much a teenager, and his fanboying all over Steve in the middle of fighting him was adorable, hee!
And that last fight at the airport was wonderfully fun -- lots of action and excitement, great stunts and effects, and while I was concerned about how OMG all these friends are trying to cream each other, at the same time there was a lot of humor and I laughed a lot. And somehow the humor didn't detract from my worrying about how this group is ever going to get back together. Pretty amazing on the part of the writers, that.
Angie