Captain America: Civil War (2016)

[Dr Kain]

[Dai]

Civil War is the movie that Batman v Superman should have been: conflicts with real emotional weight, and lots of great action. There are actually several similarities between the movies, but things that became marked weaknesses in the plot of BvS work better in Civil War because the writer does a good job of drawing the audience's attention away from the narrative seams, and duct tapes it all together into a more cohesive whole.

[mr.negativity]

[Dr Kain]

Some of my favorite bits of dialog, which only those who have seen the movie will understand the context they were used with:

"Hey guys, have you ever seen this old movie called The Empire Strikes Back?"

"I know who you are, you're great."

"If any of you have a hidden power or ability, now would be the time to reveal it."

"I hate you!"

"I thought that was supposed to be a water truck..."

"I thought I told you to get a getaway car."

"I don't know, I didn't carbon date him."

"Does your shield do anything to not defy the law of physics?"

[klen7]

I was the only one in the theater laughing out loud (especially the water truck, and Spiderman/Antman quips in general)... The only scene that got an audible laugh from the crowd was when

[Dr Kain]

[Rodanex]

I really enjoyed it, one of Marvel's best.

I'd say my only complaint was . That being said, I'm really excited for a solo Spider-Man movie.

[Dr Kain]

[klen7]

^ Marisa Tomei is in her 50s... Which would put her a little over the average age for a 16 year old's aunt.

The one thing that impressed me was how deftly all the characters and plots were handled... It makes me feel like Infinity War is in good hands with the Russos.

[Rodanex]

That was my reaction too. I couldn't believe how well everything worked, considering how many characters were in this movie.

[RaptorG]

[O.Supreme]

Well, this was fitting, after a very hectic week both at work, and at home , I finally got to see this on Sunday Evening with the wife, and a couple of friends. A chance to turn my brain off for 2+ hours and enjoy the fantasy, and it was amazingly fun! Intense, and yet still having enough levity not to make it too depressing. The only nitpick I had was, every setting change having the location splashed across the whole flippin' screen in 8000 pt font! Remember the good old days when you could do that in tiny letters in a single corner so as not to detract from the story? I now half expect, if Rogue One has a crawl sequence, for it to be narrated *shudders*.

[GFan]

Yeah this knocked it WAY out of the park for me. Everything just clicked. Easily in my top-3 favorite superhero movies. Color me excited for BLACK PANTHER!!!

Did anyone here see BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN? It wasn't very good...

[Henry88]

$780,068,509
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=marvel2016.htm
in under a week

[jellydonut25]

[DannyBeane]

Saw the movie a second time and for the second time it was ruined by the audience. I think I'm done watching Marvel films in theaters because the audiences keep getting worse. People taking pictures during the film WITH THE FLASH ON, texting, taking phone calls, bring 3 year old kids that SNORE through the movie. The movie was fine. I loved it. Antman, Spiderman, and Black Panther were all great, I'm still just pissed about the audiences.

[jellydonut25]

I saw it today. It's good. Spoilers below. Kinda.

The Cap/Bucky stuff is stellar and I kinda wish they could have figured out a way to get a movie just all about that, because everything else kinda varies in quality, from good, but underdeveloped (Black Panther. I wanted more of him, because he actually feels different than the rest of these characters), good but clearly shoehorned in (Spider-Man. It's good stuff, and probably the best Spider-Man ever on-screen, but it's also very obviously just thrown in there last-second), to kinda not so good (Scarlett Witch's whole "everyone is scared of me" hangups seem...half-assed or something, and the Sokovia Accords don't seem to come to a logical or satisfactory conclusion to me; they're just a plot device to kick off the rift and tie things together but they're also left just sorta dangling out there at the end of the movie).

[Dr Kain]

[The Shadow]

Taking cell phones out to check something on the screen during the movie is distracting enough. It's incredible that someone would be so self-centered as to take a picture in the middle of the movie. With all the carefulness theaters go through to keep people from recording movies, I'm surprised that the picture taker wasn't given an refund and asked to leave; not that it would make up for a ruined movie viewing experience.

I also lament that most people refuse to do at least a little looking into cameras nowadays. Cell phones take decent pictures at best, even the latest ones; though obviously it's incredibly handy to have a decent compact camera in one's pocket all the time. But trying to take a picture in a dark theater, of the screen, with the (useless at that range) flash on no less? That's got to be one muddy looking picture.

[Henry88]

$1,053,490,153
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=marvel2016.htm

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

I finally saw it Friday night and I enjoyed the movie it was great. Not my favorite MCU movie but still great. My local theater was dead though there was only like 10 people including myself so it'll probably get pulled soon.

[Benjamin Haines]

I recently rewatched Captain America: Civil War on Netflix. I liked the movie in the theater but I was a little disappointed because I thought it wasn't quite as good as Captain America: The Winter Soldier. That is my favorite MCU entry to date and I guess I was hoping that directors Joe and Anthony Russo would improve on their initial installment in the same way that Bryan Singer did with X2, Guillermo Del Toro did with Hellboy II, and Christopher Nolan did with The Dark Knight. By that measure I was disappointed because, as good as Civil War is, it's a bit more flawed than The Winter Soldier.

I think Avengers: Age of Ultron is more ambitious than The Avengers, for better and for worse, meaning that it hits higher highs but also lower lows in the process of telling a vastly more expansive story with more characters. I think Civil War had a similar result in comparison to The Winter Soldier and that really is the standard by which it comes up the shortest. Taken on its own, Civil War is a terrifically well done action movie, one of the better MCU entries and definitely on the higher end for the comic book film genre.

The movie doesn't play like Avengers 2.5 at all. The role of the Avengers in the story is along the same lines as the role of SHIELD in The Winter Soldier. It's the team of which Cap is a member at the story's outset; they take down villains together until unexpected circumstances drive a wedge between Cap's side and the rest of the team. The plot does follow those same broad strokes as The Winter Soldier, but whereas that movie used the premise as a backdrop for a good/evil conflict (Team Cap good, HYDRA evil), Civil War deftly turns it into a conflict among heroes by having the Avengers be the fractured team in question.

I'm really impressed with how skillfully the Russos and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely managed to juggle the various characters and subplots of the story. The motivations that drive Cap and Stark are multi-layered and skillfully articulated. The entire premise for this MCU take on Civil War works brilliantly because it takes advantage of all the world-building that's been done up to this point. It's crazy to think that this movie opened just eight years after the original Iron Man. The MCU has really come a long way since then.

I think the biggest flaw in Civil War is that, with so many characters and subplots, a couple of them aren't integrated into the proceedings very organically, specifically Spider-Man and Hawkeye. I understand why Spider-Man feels shoehorned in (because he was, as soon as they worked out the rights and cast Tom Holland) but it just feels jarring to have his first appearance in the story and thus the entire MCU occur past the halfway mark in this nearly 2.5-hour movie. The scene where Stark recruits Parker is amusing to be sure but it literally feels like the movie has exited off the highway to pick up Spider-Man at a rest stop. Then the very next scene returns us to the Scarlet Witch & Vision subplot at Avengers HQ and suddenly Hawkeye arrives. His appearance this late in the film really does feel perfunctory, like it's time for the action to ramp up in the second act and he's just popping up to fill out the ranks because he's a pre-established character.

Oddly enough, even though Ant-Man shows up later in the story than both of those characters, I think his role works as is. Between his "audition" with the Falcon in the previous film and his admiration of Captain America, it works as comic relief for Cap's team to collect him in a van when they're in a bind and have him just be on their team from that point. I do think the film would have benefited from introducing Spider-Man and Hawkeye earlier on, even if it was just one fleeting scene apiece to lay the groundwork for their later appearances. Show Stark in one of the early scenes at Avengers HQ or in Berlin watching that YouTube video of Spider-Man on his smartphone, so there's at least some foundation for when he shows that video to Parker later. Likewise, when Black Widow and Cap are talking about the Accords in London, she mentions that Hawkeye insists he's retired. I think it would have helped if they had a prior scene of Nat discussing this with Clint over the phone via video chat just like they did at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, so that Hawkeye's appearance would have felt more natural later on.

That really is my biggest complaint with Captain America: Civil War and why I don't find it to be quite as good as The Winter Soldier. It juggles more characters than its predecessor and mostly does a great job at it but does end up a bit more flawed as a result. Unfortunately, that does make me a little worried about Avengers: Infinity War. If this creative team really does produce better work with fewer characters and a (relatively) smaller-scale story, then that may not bode well for a movie that will presumably have even more characters and a more intricate story. I don't think they'll make a bad film but I'm already checking my expectations and not expecting it to be as good as The Winter Soldier or even Civil War.

[Dr Kain]

To be fair, Infinity War is two parts and they really don't need to develop any of the characters that will have been introduced by that point, just anyone new they might bring in, which shouldn't be much, and Thanos.

Civil War still had to develop the story of Cap and Bucky while also bringing in some new characters like Black Panther and Spider-Man.