With this latest installment in the ever-expanding Marvel Universe, Captain America: Civil War pulls out all the stops to deliver maximum box office punch. It also plays out a lot more like Avengers 3 than the latest chapter of the Captain America saga. It’s also a much stronger film than Avengers: Age of Ultron.
The film is filled with new characters to the big screen like Black Panther (Chadwick Bosema) as well as drawing in players from other films new to the MU like Ant-Man. Paul Rudd’s diminutive character is a great addition and provides some much needed humor to what is one of the more serious Marvel outings. Marvel’s acquiring of Spiderman from his Sony overlords is also a worthy and comic addition.
The plot has more than a few strangely placed potholes. These could have been easily filled with some small degree of exposition but going down the road of having the Avengers pay some degree of penance for past caviler endeavours is a clever plot device even if handled rather clunky at times.
The film’s long running time (147 minutes) races by and the fight scenes while overabundant are very well staged. Pitting Chris Evans’ Captain America against Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man in a war of wills provides the majority of the human interaction but there are a number of smaller subplots that also provide interest. It’s great getting all the gang back together again and in a vehicle that is more strongly written and played out than last time. Just a small critique though, let’s please have the crazy credits at the very end provide us new information (like in the past) other than just being an ad for future films.
Rob Hudson
www.marvel.com/captainamerica
