MCU Retrospective, Part 14—"Captain America: Civil War"
In this weekly series, Film Yap writer Andrew Carr revisits each installment of the decade-long Marvel Cinematic Universe. Once a week, Andrew will review one film in the series, in the original release order, reevaluating his previously held opinion of the film and giving each film a new score out of 5 Yaps. All 18 films (plus Avengers: Infinity War, upon release) will be compiled into one definitive ranking. Each entry in the "MCU Retrospective" series will include a short review as well as a historical recap about the film's initial conception and release.
A new entry in this series will be posted every Sunday until the weekend prior to the release of Avengers: Infinity War on May 4.
Last week's entry in the series: Ant-Man
Complete list of all entries in the "MCU Retrospective" series!
History Time!
Now that we're getting into the last couple of years, you can expect this section to get shorter. It's getting harder and harder to set the historical context for these films, given how recently they came out. I may have to abandon the format when I get to the 2017 films. We'll see. For now, I'll try.
Captain America: Civil War, or rather "the third Captain America film," as it was known at the time, was announced shortly after the release of of The Winter Soldier in 2014. Later in the year, it was announced that Robert Downey, Jr. had signed on to play a sizable role in the film, and shortly thereafter, it was confirmed by Kevin Feige and The Winter Soldier directors Joe and Anthony Russo that Cap 3 would be subtitled Civil War, and that it would, at least in essence, attempt to adapt the 2006 comic book by Mark Millar, of the same name. The original story saw Captain America and Iron Man butting heads over the Superhero Registration Act, a government motion to create some sort of control over superheroes. The act came in the wake of a tragedy caused by some young heroes that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of schoolchildren. In the comic, Captain America defied the law, insisting that superheroes must operate on their own agenda, while Iron Man sided with the government. The conflict that ensued involved dozens and dozens of notable Marvel superheroes as they took sides behind Cap or Iron Man.
The film takes essentially the same premise: a superhero-related civilian tragedy convinces the world governments that some oversight is needed regarding vigilantes like the Avengers, in the form of the Sokovia Accords (named after the European city leveled by Ultron, a creation of Iron Man himself). Tony, out of guilt, stands with the Accords, while Cap maintains essentially the same stance he does in the comics.
Captain America: Civil War released to yet-again colossal box office numbers, coming in as the fourth highest-grossing superhero film at the time. Review aggregator Metacritic gave the film a 75/100, which places it toward the upper end of the MCU's critic scores. Fans, buy and large, loved the film, as it brought both serious, dramatic themes and plenty of action and fun, "superhero-y" stuff. The airport battle, which features all the Avengers (minus Thor and Hulk), plus newcomers Spider-Man and Black Panther, seems to be what the film is remembered for these days, which is fair enough—it's one of the MCU's most creative and entertaining "spectacle" fights.
The Review
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (2016)
There is quite honestly a ton to talk about with this movie. It may be Marvel's densest, most narratively complex entry to date, and certainly, that is reason to admire the film. Not only does is have the dual task of making good on arcs from both The Winter Soldier and Age of Ultron, but it also faces the challenge of creating a new conflict and sorting out how our heroes will overcome it when they're already fighting each other. It may be the most unique MCU film in terms of structure, mostly thanks to the need to juggle so many different elements.
For that reason, I do think Civil War is a marvel in its own right. The fact that it is able to function as both an exciting team-up film and a very grounded, personal journey for its main players, while using the internal conflict among the Avengers as its replacement for a traditional antagonist, is just downright impressive. On top of all that, it manages to be both fun, in all the ways one would expect a superhero blockbuster to be, and thoughtful about the nature of the heroes' role in each others' lives as well as on the world stage.
However, it is also because of this narrative complexity, and the sheer scope of the film, that Civil War is easy to pick apart. In retrospect, it's clear that the film suffers as a result of going in one too many directions and not committing fully enough to any one of them. On one hand, Civil War is, if by title alone, a Captain America film, and it holds the responsibility of tying up or furthering Cap's character arc established by previous films. It's on this front that Civil War perhaps shows its greatest failings. Case in point: Cap himself doesn't really have an arc in the film. He is somewhat further pushed into his convictions established over the course of The Winter Soldier, but there is no new epiphany or significant paradigm shift for the character. Cap goes from having a strong mistrust for the government to having a stronger mistrust for the government, and losing a friend along the way. This, I think, is the primary reason this movie shouldn't have been called a Captain America movie. Yes, it deals with some of the story issues established in Winter Soldier: Bucky is on the run and Cap wants to find and help him, the government is corrupt, etc. But it doesn't really resolve any of that. It moves those things along, certainly—Cap and Bucky have more time together to try and bring Bucky back to his normal self, and they're able to reflect a little bit on their shared history—but at the end of the film, their friendship is still damaged, as is Bucky, and Cap is no closer to figuring out what his purpose is (a question that has plagued him since Winter Soldier).
One could argue that the primary "arc" or the "thing that is changed" by the film is Cap's and Tony's relationship. And absolutely, they shift from personal friends and allies to idealogical opponents and eventually, at least on the physical plane, enemies. But perhaps that is a better arc explored in an Avengers film (as it was in Age of Ultron) rather than taking the focus away from Cap's personal journey in his own film. Maybe Civil War should have been Avengers: Civil War, continuing the arc of Cap's and Tony's relationship, while still leaving room for Cap to have his own journey afterward in a more self-contained third Captain America film.
Additionally, Civil War is, by the nature of its story, a film about the Avengers, and, as already stated, it works better on that front than as a Captain America film. However, once again, this angle is somewhat undermined by its unwillingness to commit. If the conflict is going to be Tony vs. Cap, and the story is going to side with Cap (which it does; you can stop pretending Tony is right just because you like him more), then the film should truly commit to Tony being the antagonist. I know, "Ew." But I don't mean that Tony has to be a villain. He's not evil in this film. He's operating on a relatively moral motive, however shortsighted, selfish, and misguided. Tony wants to do the right thing in this film. But he doesn't want to admit that he is the problem. And that is why he would make a good antagonist. To an extent, he does; he serves as the obstacle in front of Cap's goal; he represents the opposition to everything Cap believes about what the Avengers' place is in the world. But the film just can't let Tony be the bad guy. For some reason, Marvel needed a third party: Zemo. And while I don't hate Zemo like most people do—in fact, I think Daniel Bruhl lends a worthwhile performance, and the character is compelling, if only because of his subversive plan to make the Avengers defeat themselves—but, at the end of the day, he is unnecessary. He is simply in the film as a safety net in case audiences can't handle Tony being the bad guy. For all Tony's misguided guilt and shrugging off blame, you can always say, "But Zemo set them all against each other." And yeah, it is kind of cool to see a villain operate like that. But how much more interesting would it have been to see our longtime hero, the face of the MCU himself, be the guy on the wrong end of everything. It wouldn't be irreversible; the Avengers would still be able to make up, eventually, and we could still have our Infinity War. But if Tony caused all of the in-fighting and fracturing of the heroes all on his own, it would have felt that much more tragic. The way Civil War ends, it seems to easy for the band to get back together: Cap writes Tony a note saying, (and I paraphrase) "I'm sorry I hurt you; I'm here if you need me." For lack of a better term, it's cheap. It's not "Superman dying at the end of BvS and then being resurrected 5 minutes later in the final shot of the film" cheap, but it does lessen the blow of what should have been a rift-ripping event at the center of the MCU.
That said, personally, I think it's impressive that a Marvel team-up film dared to be so grounded and heavy that we could even be talking about how well it navigated its multilayered conflict. That's not an excuse for its mistakes; it definitely shows its unwillingness to make certain dramatic leaps. But even for all of its flaws, it's infinitely more emotionally compelling and thought-provoking than either Avengers film, or most of the MCU's solo films, for that matter. Additionally, almost every other aspect of the film is executed with stunning competence. The action is well-choreographed and hard-hitting, and gives us a few of the best fights in the franchise. The performances from our main players are top-notch; big props to RDJ, Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, and Chadwick Boseman for their work on this one. The cold and dreary aesthetic maintains the more somber tone of the film, without becoming excessively drab—the one unfortunate lapse would be during the airport battle, where the color grading becomes incredibly flat, exposing some flimsy VFX. Henry Jackman once again brings a bellowing and dramatic orchestral score (though unfortunately not as consistent or as good as his work on The Winter Soldier). The emotions run high, thanks not only to the actors but also to well-polished dialogue from Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
Civil War is, and probably always will be, an interesting film to revisit. That might be why it's the MCU film I've seen the most. It's not my favorite one, but there's certainly a lot to look at. It's an incredibly brilliant but simulatenously frustrating story that is hurt as much by its ambition as it is by its lack thereof. Even still, that attempt to create a more subverted, internal superhero film that's as epic and grandiose as any elevates Civil War above its inherent failings. Bolstered by expert scene choreography, dialogue, and acting, the film is both muscular and emotional, and the Russo brothers proved themselves as Marvel's main-event guys. It's unfortunate they were dealt such an overstuffed hand (can you imagine trying to make a Captain America film, an Avengers film, and semi-origins for two new characters, one of whom is your brand's most beloved character of all time, in one film?), but they balance the heavy load with impressive prowess. I can't wait to see what they do with the considerably-more-open-ended-but-still-waaaayy-bigger Avengers: Infinity War and the subsequent "Avengers 4."
Captain America: Civil War is not as good as I used to think it was, and not as good as fans seemed to think at the time, but it's much better than people give it credit for now (particularly now that we've reached the point where it's cool to hate it), and it's fantastic for a lot of reasons that people don't talk about anymore.
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The MCU Ranking!
Every week, I take each entry covered for that week and place it in an ongoing ranking, which will eventually include all 19 films.
Civil War used to be a top-3 MCU film for more. I must say, it has fallen a bit. That said, it's still a more impressive venture than either Avengers film, so for now, it makes top 5.