Road to Endgame: Captain America: Civil War

Directed by Joe & Anthony Russo
Release Date: May 6th, 2016
Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Olson, Scarlett Johansson, Daniel Bruhl, Don Cheadle, Paul Bettany
Box Office Worldwide: $1,153,304,495

It’s funny to think that Captain America: Civil War was at one point the most anticipated MCU movie prior to its release. Now that we’ve gotten Infinity War & Endgame it’s definitely not the biggest movie in the MCU anymore. That being said, it’s still one of the best.

In an epic collision between friends, the movie follows the Avengers political dispute among each other on whether or not there should be government oversight. How fun would that be? Picture you and your friends beating the shit out of each other at an airport and one of you almost dying!? Incredible fun!

It was also a brilliant plot for marketing. Before the movie came out, Marvel was asking all its fans to pick a side between Captain America and Iron Man. For what it’s worth, I picked Team Iron Man. He’s my favorite character and I thought it was pretty screwed up that Cap & Bucky Barnes beat the shit out of Tony Stark after he discovered Bucky killed his parents… what the hell is that, Cap!? Plus, Cap is a 100 year old virgin so do you really want to side with him? Didn’t think so.

(Full disclosure I love Cap and the virgin joke probably doesn’t work anymore after Endgame.)

Anyhoozle, let’s review Captain America: Civil War

Positives

• The story of this movie feels like it’s rooted in the real world (our real life world, not the TV show). If our actual Earth had superheroes it feels like governments interfering with The Avengers would be a current event. With all the previous attacks and battles (New York, Sokovia, D.C., etc.) it makes sense that governments of the world would say “hey, guys. Thanks for all of your help but since you guys showed up, we’ve kinda had a lot of people dying.” Especially after after an entire fricken country was dropped from the sky in Age of Ultron. It’s a sensational story and display of storytelling that breaks up Earth’s Mightiest Heroes into two teams thus creating MAJOR implications for the next handful of years in the MCU.
• The plot of the movie is wonderful, too. The first scene of the movie is the Winter Soldier derailing a car and extracting something from the trunk. Later we get a flashback to that scene when Bucky reveals it was a serum to create a squad of Winter Soldiers. Then at the end of the film we get another flashback to it to see that the two people Bucky killed to retrieve the serum were Tony’s parents. The flashbacks to that scene are placed beautifully in the movie. They keep the movie flowing and creating new story angles to keep the film fresh.
• We see great character arcs out of Captain America and Iron Man. This is the finale of Cap’s arc. He started his run in The First Avenger as an obedient soldier to authority, and he ends the arc here by flipping the government off and doing what’s good for the sake of good and not for the pigs. It’s awesome to see his rogue transformation over the trilogy.
• Iron Man’s mental health continues to deteriorate from Iron Man 3. We see him have PTSD in IM3 from the events of The Avengers, then we see Tony’s vision of everyone dying in Age of Ultron and now we see Tony having to live with the guilt of creating a mess of Sokovia. Tony is one of the best characters in the MCU because he has these emotional issues that make him feel like a regular joe… with a shit ton of money. He has so much personal guild (and he should) from those that lost their lives in Sokovia, that he’s willing to change everything so the Avengers don’t harm anyone else while kicking ass in their battles.  
• The overall impact of this movie is a positive on its own. We hadn’t really seen a superhero movie, at least I can’t think of one, that combines all these different heroes and have them square off against each other. It was a monumental flick at the time of its release… and it still is unique! Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice tried to do a similar setup… didn’t do it as well.
• It’s significant for character introductions. We get Black Panther… and Spider-Man. Black Panther’s intro was great but I can’t compare it to Spidey. Spidey appears when Iron Man is putting together his team. Black Widow says she’ll get T’Challa and asks Tony where his guy is. Tony smirks, camera cuts to New York and “QUEENS” flashes on the screen to the sound of Alt-J’s “Left Hand Free.” And it. Is. Awesome. Everyone in the theater knew right away that we’re getting Spidey. And Tom Holland is wonderful in the little screen time he gets as both Peter Parker & Spider-Man. I’ll be talking about that a lot more for my Spider-Man Homecoming review.

• The action scenes are amazing. It might be the best MCU movie in terms of action. The opening battle in Lagos, Cap, Bucky & T’Challa’s chase through the city, the airport fight and Iron Man V Cap & Bucky. They’re all so intense and fun. My favorite battle is the last one we get with Iron Man V Cap & Bucky. You can feel the emotion pouring out in that final battle between Tony, Cap & Bucky on so many different levels. When Cap is trying to settle Tony down and tells him Bucky didn’t have control when he killed his parents… Iron Man responds with “I don’t care. He killed my mom.” Damn. That’s heavy. And it concludes with Cap sticking the shield into the Tony’s arc reactor after Tony rips off Bucky’s arm with this chest repulsor… oh my god it’s all so freaking good.

• Helmut Zemo is a solid villain. His plan is the most unique from a villain in the MCU. It’s a nice change of plans from typical evil-doers like Ultron, Yellowjacket and Ronan the Accuser. Those three villains want to do bad to the world, but Zemo just wants to breakup the Avengers who demolished his home.
• Love the call back to The Incredible Hulk with General Thunderbolt Ross being Secretary of State now. I know Hulk isn’t one of the better MCU movies but it’s still an MCU movie damnit!
• Great Stan Lee cameo as a Fedex driver calling Tony “Tony Stank.”

• Very cool to see the Raft, too. (The Raft is the underwater prison).

Negatives

• Now that Cap went to live a life with Peggy after Endgame, it creeps me out that he kissed Sharon Carter (Peggy’s niece). Like, it’s not terribly weird but his interest in Sharon was never touched on again, so it was kind of useless in my opinion.
• Zemo’s plan is complex. It’s cool on one hand but on the other I think it’s overly complex at times. The plan needs to be timed out to a T or else it probably doesn’t work. I’m not going to say that it’s impossible and it makes his plan dumb, but I think sometimes less is more.
• The scene when Zemo is getting the red book to brainwash Bucky again. He infiltrates an old Hydra agent’s house and hangs the agent upside down over a sink to figure out where the book is. So Zimo starts filling the sink with water to drown him and the water starts overflowing before it covers his mouth and nose lol. I really don’t count things like this against movies but I do find it funny.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiYNUVrntkY (Fast forward to 3:07 and you’ll see what I’m saying).

Overall Grade: A

This was an uber tough decision. I thought it was always an “A” grade, but this time around it felt closer to an A+. But I couldn’t put the perfect score on it. I don’t even know if I can explain why I give it an A. I looked at Guardians, Avengers, Endgame and a couple other MCU movies I haven’t ranked yet, and I think Civil War just misses the cut. Again, I don’t even have an explanation for you.

MCU Ranking

1. Guardians of the Galaxy
2. Avengers: Endgame
3. The Avengers
4. Captain America: Civil War (Again, it’s so close to an A+)
5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
6. Iron Man
7. Captain America: The First Avenger
8. Ant-Man
9. Avengers: Age of Ultron
10. Thor
11. Iron Man 3
12. Iron Man 2
13. The Incredible Hulk
14. Thor: The Dark World

Next up: Doctor Strange