Captain America Civil War

[Everlong]

Saw it today. Hadn't liked the last few marvel movies I'd seen, but I have to say, this may be a contender for the best of the franchise, right up there with Winter Soldier.

I'll write more later when I'm not on my phone but thought I'd see what others think.

[Daz]

Thought it was excellent. It's pretty much the antithesis of Batman vs. Superman.

It juggled a lot of characters, and a lot of storylines, and managed to have them all make sense and get their moment. Nothing felt particularly rushed or out of place and everything connected and had a payoff. The fact there were multiple films worth of story behind it gave everything a little more weight to it and we were able to invest. Everyone's motives made sense, worked in the continuity of the series and were relatable on both sides. It's a very complex issue and I thought they did a good job of conveying that without it becoming overbearing and detracting from the fact it's a film with superheroes that ultimately should be fun.

It provided a very good follow up to Avengers 2, set things up for multiple future films (Black Panther, Spider-Man, Avengers 3) and didn't sacrifice any of the story in doing so.

Also, I loved the fact the villain wasn't a super-powered menace.

[Everlong]

Also, I loved the fact the villain wasn't a super-powered menace.

This was one of the biggest strengths of the movie to me. The villain was just a guy, really, with powerful reasons for wanting to do the things he did. I loved the little nod to that he gave as well, saying "stronger men than me have tried to take down the avengers and failed." It was a nice break from all these overpowered superheroes that just end up being the same in the end. By being ordinary, this villain stood out from the pack.

I was worried about how they'd manage to introduce two major players in the same film in Black Panther and Spiderman, but I thought they handled both excellently.

There were a few lines that missed, which you'll get in Marvel movies (jesus christ, someone else start writing Hawkeye already), but for the most part I thought the humor landed really well and the serious moments actually felt genuine and not heavy-handed.

Hopefully it's a sign that the MCU is starting to sort of turn it around as it is building up in this third phase of movies, but that is still to be determined. For now, I'm just pleased that they were able to really deliver on what I always thought had the potential to be a very interesting storyline.

[Daz]

Also, I loved the fact the villain wasn't a super-powered menace.

This was one of the biggest strengths of the movie to me. The villain was just a guy, really, with powerful reasons for wanting to do the things he did. I loved the little nod to that he gave as well, saying "stronger men than me have tried to take down the avengers and failed." It was a nice break from all these overpowered superheroes that just end up being the same in the end. By being ordinary, this villain stood out from the pack.

I was worried about how they'd manage to introduce two major players in the same film in Black Panther and Spiderman, but I thought they handled both excellently.

There were a few lines that missed, which you'll get in Marvel movies (jesus christ, someone else start writing Hawkeye already), but for the most part I thought the humor landed really well and the serious moments actually felt genuine and not heavy-handed.

Hopefully it's a sign that the MCU is starting to sort of turn it around as it is building up in this third phase of movies, but that is still to be determined. For now, I'm just pleased that they were able to really deliver on what I always thought had the potential to be a very interesting storyline.

I think this was also the perfect companion film to Age of Ultron and Winter Soldier. Those three films really stand together and feed one into the other I think.

The fact they also touched on what happened in Iron Man 3 (which seemed to have existed entirely outside of the Marvel continuity to a degree) was nice.

The introduction of Spider-Man was probably one of the few things that didn't really fit into the overall arc of the story, but it was a nice detour to take because Spidey ends up being one of the funnest parts of the film. Also loved how Stark literally points out the fact Marisa Tomei is the most banagable of all the cinematic Aunt May's.

[Everlong]

^Dear god yes, Marisa Tomei is looking fine.

[Hanley!]

It's weird how some people have such a problem with Marisa Tomei as Aunt May. Yes, she's old enough to be the aunt of a teenager. She's 51. She looks great for 51, but she is 51. People were even bothered by Sally Field in the role. Do people understand what aunts are exactly? She was portrayed as weirdly old in the comics, but I really like that they aged her down a bit in the more recent films. It makes a lot more sense.

I'm probably going to see Civil War this weekend. We weren't too bothered about seeing it, but some friends want to go, so we'll tag along. Based on the reviews, I'm hoping for good things. In one way, I'm more interested than usual for this film because it looks to have more substance than most MCU films. But on the flip side, I'm worried that they'll deal with these more interesting issues in a shallow irritating way, and that something which should be a bit more serious in tone ends up with the same tone as something like Guardians of the Galaxy.

I guess I'll find out this weekend. Either way, I'm sure it'll be pretty good. Marvel is at least consistent when it comes to making fun popcorn flicks.

[Hanley!]

This actually ended up being one of my least favourite MCU films. Nowhere near as awful as Iron Man 2, but I prefer most of the other ones I've seen. There were some fun moments, mostly in that crazy airport fight scene in the middle. But it was so overlong and overstuffed. There was too much going on and almost nobody's character motivations made sense. It was too much fan service to me.

I can understand why people enjoyed it more than I did. Most people are probably happy enough ignoring the contrivances and weird character stuff because that's what the movie needs to do to set up those funny moments and crazy action set pieces. And this movie delivered on both of those. So I get why people were so excited by this. But I thought it was probably the least cohesive of their movies that I've seen, and had the most holes in it. Which is the sort of thing that does pull me out. And more importantly everyone was acting so illogically for the entire film that I couldn't really care about or relate to any of the characters. Which is probably more important than anything else for my enjoyment of a film.

Also, I guess I just thought a lot of the film was super boring. Until the airport scene I thought most of the action scenes of the film were a big nothing.

[KaiserGlider]

The airport sequence was fucking incredible. I think that may easily be one of my favorite movie scenes of all time.

Really enjoyed this. Right up there with the first Avengers. I have no idea how they were able to juggle so many characters and introduce new ones while still managing to give everyone a fair amount of significance. These directors are geniuses, I'm so glad they're doing the Infinity War movies too (when the number of characters literally goes to infinity)

Some other thoughts:

- Spiderman was fun, though I'm not a fan of how much they emphasized him being Iron Man's protege and how he's never been in a fight before. I would have preferred a more seasoned Spider-Man coming into contact with the Avengers for the first time. But the actor playing him was really good so I'm interested to see what they do with his solo movie.
- The Iron Man/Cap confrontation near the end was probably the most intense and emotional moment in the MCU so far. Kinda wish the movie ended after that so we really get a sense of the Avengers being fractured going into Infinity War, but whatever.
- The choreography of the action scenes was outstanding, but (and I noticed this in Age of Ultron too), it's a bit too fast-paced with too many cuts, sometimes it's hard to follow what's going on. Oddly, I didn't think the airport sequence had that problem.
- I'm surprised they cast an actor like Martin Freeman since he didn't do anything. But I think I read somewhere that he's involved in Black Panther.
- I think War Machine/Don Cheadle should have died, even if it would have been spoiled in the trailer.

[War Daddy]

Hail Hydra.

[KaiserGlider]

Hail Hydra.

Cut off one head, two more shall take its place.

[Matteo]

I haven't seen the previous two Captain America entires, although I watched this one with my girlfriend and did not like it. The action was largely sterile and unimaginative, and it's yet another action film that seems to instil this idea that terrorism is this omnipresent entity constantly in need for surveillance. I disliked the politics of the film, largely, and overall, found it rather bland. The airport sequence was fun, though.