Anyone who has watched The Avengers knows Captain America, but this is not an Avenger movie. It’s a Captain America movie that follows the narrative laid down by the first two. First, there was Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) that took us back to 1940s, when sickly but strong-minded Steve Rogers was transformed into the world’s first super-soldier. He fought the rogue Nazi science division but lost his old friend Bucky.
The film had its moments, especially in the birth-of-the-myth portions, but was too conservative for its own good. Things got more exciting at the prospect of the star-spangled man waking up 70 years after being kept frozen into a modern world in the second film, Captain America: Winter Soldier (2013). It had better action, but felt incoherent and too long with the end revealing the mysterious, dangerous assassin to be Bucky (Sebastian Stan).
In Civil War , we see Captain trying to save his old friend -- whose memories have been erased -- from some of the other Avengers who are unforgiving of Bucky’s crimes.
But in spirit, Civil War feels closer to The Avengers (2012) – not Age of Ultron (2015). It is an all-star superhero ensemble that is anchored as much as to Ironman (funny, brilliant Robert Downey Jr) as it is to Captain America (Chris Evans playing clean-cut heroism perfectly). The standard of superhero movies has become so mediocre that we don’t really expect them to be masterpieces. What we look for are big moments, flamboyance and humour, enough to keep us entertained. Civil War does all those things right. It cracks an inside-joke and makes it work for even those who aren’t clued into things.
One of the pitfalls of the superhero genre, especially the less ‘serious’ Marvel, is that we are aware that these guys don’t have real external dangers, they will always emerge victorious in the end. Civil War does two things here. It forms the cracks from within. Captain America – the honest, heroic, old-fashioned straight-arrow, who was ironically conceived as a propaganda mascot of the American government, now wants The Avengers to take things in their own hands.
On the other hand, Tony Stark/Ironman – the cockiest (and egotistic) of all popular superheroes, the one likely to rebel against the government has become a bit of a realist. He wants to play it safe and work with the State – tired of accusations of loss of innocent lives as a result of their “irresponsible” vigilantism. The rest of The Avengers choose a side.
Secondly, it keeps the tone light, even when you expect it to be serious. This is best demonstrated in the movie’s centrepiece – the epic fight between the two teams that turns out to be one of the funniest action sequences I have seen.
Then there are the new recruits in the Avengers, whose debuts in the last hour ensure that it never gets boring. This brings us to that aspect of the present-day superhero movies that we don’t really talk much about because of how generic and artificial they all are: the action. Civil War shows how effective it could be when done well. Right from the opening sequence, there is a crunchy physicality to the action in the movie. Civil War makes us feel that the action that takes place are in realistic locations. We register the heavy clunk of the metal as Captain uses his shield to stop a bullet and when Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) punches a kick, we feel it in the bones. Incidentally, the final showdown has something big in common with what led the DC heroes in the Dawn of Justice collide into each other. Civil War is the lighter, funnier movie of the two. But unlike the former that made a mockery of its central conflict, Civil War moves us when it matters.
– Sankhayan Ghosh
Captain America: Civil War
Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Rudd, Tom Holland, Martin Freeman, John Slattery
Duration: 2 hours 26 minutes
Genre: Superhero
