Captain America: Civil War

This review may contain spoilers!

This film is probably one of the more thought provoking films Marvel has done and I'd say it certainly does the Marvel characters the most justice. I would give Captain America: Civil War an 8.5/10.

This film knows how to hook it's audience, this is one of the longest Marvel movies thus far and it was masterfully paced. From the great opening scene against Crossbones at the start of the film, to the introduction of Bucky, to the mounting conflict between Cap and Iron Man that resulted in a brilliant end to this film. What this film did really well was give each character in this film a moderate amount of focus, you come to enjoy how each individual impacts this story. The cinematography for this film was mindblowing; there was great framing for dialogue scenes but immense epic shots for the big battle sequences. The score for this film was very powerful and worked so well with the scenes in this film; the scores for the Marvel films are some of the best that we get out of blockbusters. The special effects in this film looked great, everything was very detailed and looked quite realistic. The fight choreography was one of the best parts of the film, frankly the fighting in this film is the best of any Marvel film to date.

Chris Evans, who played Captain America, really embodies the moral leader that Cap is in these films; he performs this incredible resolve really well. Robert Downey Jr, who played Iron Man, really showed Stark spiralling out of control quite well in this film; I loved the blind rage we got from Stark when he found out Bucky killed his parents. Scarlett Johannson, who played Black Widow, has some great chemistry with the rest of the cast in this film; I really enjoyed seeing her engage with her friends and attempt to support them. Sebastian Stan, who played Bucky Barnes, really showed the pain and guilt his character was carrying around well in this film; I liked the chemistry between him and Evans which only grew as the film went on. Anthony Mackie, who played Falcon, had such a strong presence in this film; he's a fiercely loyal role and I've always found Mackie to be quite entertaining with his line delivery. Jeremy Renner, who played Hawkeye, has gotten better and better the more films he's appeared in; I liked the scene in the prison where he confront Stark about the morality of imprisoning the Avengers. Chadwick Boseman, who played Black Panther, has a fairly good introduction into the Marvel universe; I appreciated how Boseman portrayed the blind determination his role had to kill Bucky. Paul Bettany, who played Vision, was quite charming in this film; I enjoyed the chemistry between Bettany and Olsen and I liked how he was trying to understand himself better as a living being. Elizabeth Olsen, who played Scarlet Witch, was one of my least favourite parts of Age of Ultron as some of you will know but in this film Olsen has completely changed my mind; as a character Scarlet Witch is still trying to gain control of her powers and find herself a bit so it was brilliant seeing her character development in this film. Tom Holland, who played Spider-Man, might not be the best Spider-Man performance that we've had but he does a pretty incredible job; Holland nails the quick dialogue and funny qualities of the role. Frank Grillo, who played Crossbones, really kicked the film off in a big way; I liked seeing his raw hatred for Cap as well as his incredible menacing presence. William Hurt, who played Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross, was quite a stern government figure in this film; He really rallied well against Cap and was an interesting role.

However the best performance came from Paul Rudd, who played Ant-Man. It's really hard to pick a favourite role in a film like this, there are so many stand out performances but for me personally Rudd was the best. I loved how he worked within Cap's Avengers; he was immediately a very energetic and comedic role. Rudd was having fun in this film and ramped the film back up to 110% when he was introduced. I loved seeing him become Giant Man and I look forward to his future performances within the MCU.

After the great start of this film there is a major drop in energy, Stark is doing a TED talk and goes through a few emotional problems relating to his character; these moments around Stark's character aren't particularly interesting and they even feel a little awkward. When the Sokovian Accords come into play and Black Panther is introduced the energy still doesn't pick up, it takes Bucky being introduced for the film to find it's fast energy again. I also thought that Zemo as an antagonist was a weak example of a main villain; he's a pretty patchwork villain that only really exists to be a conduit for conflict to be created in the plot. My only other real complaint is quite minor, the giant setting title transitions were a bit jarring, when they appeared onscreen I was pulled right out of the film.

Don Cheadle, who played War Machine, is a role that I normally love but who was so bland in this film; Cheadle wasn't funny nor did he have much of a voice in the stuff that matters when it came to the film's plot. Emily VanCamp, who played Sharon Carter, was the token love interest of the film; it was bad enough that she was an unnecessary romance subplot but worse than that was that her romance with Cap took away from the death of Peggy Carter in the film. Daniel Bruhl, who played Zemo, was quite a boring antagonist in this film; he lacked screen presence and I feel like the story could have been a lot more interesting if they made him more engaging or if they had removed him all together. Martin Freeman, who played Everett K. Ross, was completely unnecessary in this film; instead of casting Freeman they should have just given Hurt more screen time. Marisa Tomei, who played May Parker, was poorly written and porrly cast; I've never seen someone so completely out of character in all the Marvel movies. John Kani, who played King T'Chaka, didn't have much screen presence in this film; because his role was never really well explored his death didn't feel that major. John Slattery and Hope Davis, who played Howard Stark and Maria Stark respectively, weren't very interesting cameos in this film; Davis particularly did a bad job of making an impression. Alfre Woodard, who played Miriam, gave quite an awkward portrayal of grief in this film; her scene with Downey was strange and seemed to come out of nowhere. Gene Farber, who played Karpov, never had much impact upon the film; It's a shame because he could have made Bucky's backstory really engaging if he'd left more of a mark.