Captain America: Civil War is a legit sequel to both Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron… without feeling unequal to either. It’s a continuation of the Winter Soldier story that has been seamlessly welded onto the full Avengers world and the repercussions of their last few movies.
This movie is great and it excels because it’s damn smart – the script holds together, knows when to be fun, knows when to be funny, and knows also when to be serious. Because as much fun as it is to watch the movie slam together its action figures like it’s the twelve year old in all of us, it knows that all the violence matters. It has an impact. This isn’t just a great superhero movie, this is a great movie.
So, yeah, this movie is basically Avengers 3 in that it stuffs in Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, Vision, Scarlet Witch, War Machine, Falcon, Hawkeye, and The Winter Soldier… and then brings in Ant-Man, Black Panther, and Spider-Man to stir the pot. It even has time for Sharon Carter, Crossbones, Aunt May, Howard stark, a startling Robert Downey Jr. Age 20, and General Ross (last seen in the Incredible Hulk, for pity’s sake). And with a movie stuffed with this many people, it’s almost shocking how much screen time they all get. And when they are off-screen, there’s a solid reason. Because the people who wrote this knew what they were doing and even its blatant advertising for future movies (looking at you Spidey and Black Panther), it doesn’t FEEL like it.
A special shout-out to Spider-Man and the kid (Tom Holland) playing him. Best. Spiderman. Ever. He isn’t in the movie a lot but he’s more than a cameo and he nails the thrill of being Spiderman… and a teenager. As you may or may not know, Spider-Man is basically on loan from Sony since they have the rights to the film version… if they hadn’t come to an agreement with Marvel, he wouldn’t be in this movie and I wouldn’t be hoping now for a great stand-alone film with him.
As to the plot – Captain America is on one side of a disagreement and Iron Man is on the other… and they both have good arguments. To the extent I know the comics this is based on, it’s a much better variation on why they would fight and it doesn’t make Iron Man out to be an inconsistent jerk the whole movie. And it has a better conclusion.
The action is solid, the visuals are great, and the directors (who also made Winter Soldier) know how to put it all together with heft and importance. And, as is usual with these movies, they know how tell a good joke… and it never seems out of place.
So, there ya go. A rapturous review with few, if any, negatives or nitpicks. Check it out.
Score: 91