- Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller
Political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability when the actions of the Avengers lead to collateral damage. The new status quo deeply divides members of the team. Captain America (Chris Evans) believes superheroes should remain free to defend humanity without government interference. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) sharply disagrees and supports oversight. As the debate escalates into an all-out feud, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) must pick a side.
First off, Capt. America and Iron Man. That these two have had a borderline conflict since the very beginning of their collaboration is very well known, and here we see them up in arms over the manner in which they must function, now that Shield has collapsed and the Avengers have literally no one to answer to. A very compelling aspect of this movie is the way the different viewpoints of the Capt. and Iron Man are allayed to each other and to the viewer. Points made by both sides are potent and definitely need more debate and deliberation, which is precisely what the Avengers don't seem to have time for, considering that there are men out to seek glorious revenge(Read Zemo). On the one hand Iron Man is right in that it is unreasonable to think that the Avengers, as righteous as they might think they may be, have no one to answer to, and so it is their duty as a force committed to saving humanity, to sign the accord and make known their allegiance with the Governments. On the other hand, Capt. too is right in that by submitting to be monitored by the UN, the Avengers lose their ability to take on crucial operations due to their being ramshackled in the quintessential political propaganda and such; and thus the Avengers could end up being a mere tool in the promotion of said propaganda. Furthermore, the Captain's POV can be understood in that his having witnessed the failure of Shield has convinced him that the Avengers are most effective when in charge of their own matters.
So with this well fleshed out exploration of conflicting idealogies explored in what was a good, but not great first half, the movie knocks itself right out of the park in the latter. The second half has an exciting mix of comic exaggeration and dramatic exploration of themes and characters. The Airport fight scene is, while I concede hardly a practical realistic battle in that a group of "fashionably dressed" super-people happen to chance upon a conveniently deserted airport and fight each other while actually enjoying themselves while consistently smart-talking is well, possibly frown-inducing, yet one of the most exciting action sequences in CBMs, with hilarious exchanges between the many characters. The whole sequence breathes goofy gleeful cherry blossoming abandon, and is after all a coming together of all our favourite superheroes and their collaboration in riding on each others' abilities to execute great action sequences. Ant-man and Spiderman were simply great.
Post the Airport scene, the Capt-IronMan-Bucky showdown in Russia has surprising dramatic heft for a Marvel movie. The plot twist that it provides us adds for a searing intensity in the fight scene that follows, all with the character motivations, if not justifiable, definitely understandable.
All in all, Civil War was brilliant in that it combined all the elements of the summer blockbuster that we have come to expect, as well as providing us a fairly commendable foray into the political and emotional conflict that arises out of being a superhero. There is a lot of fun to be had here, but of course you're going to have to concede that it is after all a comic book movie. The Russo brothers have done a great job in adding whatever 'realism' is possible in a world with alien gods, green monsters, computer-humans, insect men and what not. From a filmmaking standpoint these kind of movies may not hold for much, but that's precisely the point, they exist not for technical prowess but for the, shall we conclude, glory of cinema.