Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson

Synopsis:
When the Avengers cause an international incident, the world's government push for them to be placed under UN oversight, but not all of the team agrees.

Impressions:
I don't claim to know a lot about the Civil War storyline from the comics, but from what I do know, it sounds painfully stupid. This is more of an in-name-only treatment, which isn't really a bad thing. They do a decent job of showing the merits and demerits of each side. I'm solidly on Team Cap myself. One of my main disappointments is that no one called out the pro-reg side on their bullcrap. There's a thing called collateral damage and compared to the damage that could've been caused by inaction, people should be solidly in the Avengers' corner. The one who's most culpable is friggin' Tony, who happens to be the one gleefully donning the jackboots. Even if we weren't in a world where HYDRA has infiltrated everything, the governments of the world are wildly corrupt and the UN is even more corrupt than the sum of its parts. Not exactly the people I want to be calling the shots when and where the Avengers act. I guess Tony's feeling guilty, but he should because Avengers 2 was all his fault. (Yes, yes, I can cut him a little slack because of what the wormhole did to his brain, but setting off a course that nearly led to humanity's extinction pushes my capacity to forgive.) I'm going to clip off my rant about the premise here because I could go on quite a while

It makes perfect sense to have Thunderbolt Ross as the representative of the US government pushing the pro-reg side and it's neat that they brought him back rather than pretend the Hulk movies never happened. Chadwick Boseman really impressed as Black Panther (probably the truest hero we have in the film; and I say that despite being squarely in Cap's corner) and while I was skeptical about the new Spider-Man, this movie made me a believer. (However, his involvement is further proof of what a jackass Tony is.) Also, it was cute seeing the Vision try to be more domestic. The big showcase is the battle royale at the end of the second act and it duly impresses. In some of the other action sequences, I found the camerawork a bit dizzying, but your mileage may vary.

I won't deny this movie will be a bit of a hot potato that sets the Internet alight, but without a doubt, it ought to be seen. The filmmakers themselves joke about this being more of an "Avengers 2.5", which may disappoint people who want these solo outings to be more centered on their title characters. The star-spangled man with a plan avails himself well here, in my view at least. Give this one a watch.

Rating:
Watch It

Note: I complain a lot about Tony. You may get the idea that I hate Iron Man. Actually, the fact that he's such a flawed character really appeals to me. I don't take his side, but the things he does aren't entirely without justification. He's an egomaniac who causes at least as many problems as he solves, but without him, the MCU would be a whole lot less interesting.