By Christopher K House
The summer movie season is upon us and Captain America - Civil War kicks it off with a CGI filled bang.
There will be minor spoilers here because I feel I need to explain and expose some of the glaring plot holes that infest this (almost) great film.
We start off in 1991 with then brainwashed Bucky Barnes violently intercepting a speeding vehicle to steal a blue goo which we have no idea the meaning of but, we will eventually, right? It's a Marvel movie everything will make sense? Right?
There will be minor spoilers here because I feel I need to explain and expose some of the glaring plot holes that infest this (almost) great film.
We start off in 1991 with then brainwashed Bucky Barnes violently intercepting a speeding vehicle to steal a blue goo which we have no idea the meaning of but, we will eventually, right? It's a Marvel movie everything will make sense? Right?
Fast forward post the Ultron incident. Brock Rumlow has become Crossbones (Frank Grillo returns) he is tasked with stealing the blue goo we learn is a super soldier serum that will make other super soldiers like Bucky's "Winter Soldier"
After yet another violent attack with civilian casualties, The government, led by Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt) and the United Nations propose sanctions against The Avengers and all super humans. A move Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) supports but, one Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) does not.
A summit in Vienna is called where King T'Chalka of Wakanda is killed in a terrorist bombing in the presence of his son, Prince T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) who hold his father as he dies in dramatic fashion. T'Challa vows revenge as The Black Panther to kill the killer who was caught on the security footage who appears to be Bucky. Of course, nothing is really as it seems.
Captain America tracks Barnes down to his hideout in Bucharest with T'Challa as Black Panther not far behind. Rogers vows to protect his friend to any extreme apparently.
Enter the main protagonist of the film, Colonel Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) who captures all of the heroes including Rogers, T'Challa and Barnes. Zemo uses a series of 'trigger words' to activate The Winter Soldier inside Barnes in order to question him about the incidents in 1991. Barnes, after regaining his senses explains Zemo is headed to the Siberian hideout where other, more violent Winter Soldiers are in cryo sleep. Zemo plans to wake the soldiers for his own nefarious deeds.
Instead of acting together for a common good, Stark and Rogers recruit members for a fight between each other. Now is where the film really falls apart. Stark somehow knows where a previously never mentioned character is and knows his secret identity named none other than Peter Parker aka Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and recruits or bribes the naïve young Parker that he is fighting on the right side. This was a very forced scene and one of the worst written throw aways in the film. Spider-Man deserved a better introduction than this.
Rogers and his team recruit another member that is introduced in a similar manner as an almost after thought, Scott Lange aka Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) Spidey and Ant-Man are nothing more than comedic relief from this point. Holland was excellent as Spider-Man however and I am really looking forward to his solo film. He filled Spidey's boots perfectly.
From here it's an over use of CGI fight between the teams. that is all too predictable, Characters such as Clint Barton aka Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) are once again given the shaft and their characters are not given their potential, Scarlet Johansen's Black Widow suffers the same fate. Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) loses her thick accent speaking near perfect English this go round. The Vision (Paul Bettany) is on team Stark but his bland character could be one of the most uninteresting yet in a Marvel film.
The film is full of plot holes that can't be overlooked, the absence of Thor and Bruce Banner aka The Hulk are mentioned but not elaborated on but, the absence of Nick Fury is never addressed. Of anyone, during this time would we expect Fury to intervene?
Bottom line, the film offers nothing new or original in a Marvel film or, comic book film period. It is the same old story with more characters and a butt numbing run time of 2 and a half hours. The high point was Holland's Peter Parker. It's just too bad this is how we were introduced to him.
Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, Civil War had tons of potential with a lot of great characters. Unfortunately, it fell flat on it's face with overconfidence fans would forgive and forget the oversights and poor implementation of the characters. It's more of the same just with more characters which doesn't make it any better, just more convoluted.
Rating C-
After yet another violent attack with civilian casualties, The government, led by Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt) and the United Nations propose sanctions against The Avengers and all super humans. A move Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) supports but, one Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) does not.
A summit in Vienna is called where King T'Chalka of Wakanda is killed in a terrorist bombing in the presence of his son, Prince T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) who hold his father as he dies in dramatic fashion. T'Challa vows revenge as The Black Panther to kill the killer who was caught on the security footage who appears to be Bucky. Of course, nothing is really as it seems.
Captain America tracks Barnes down to his hideout in Bucharest with T'Challa as Black Panther not far behind. Rogers vows to protect his friend to any extreme apparently.
Enter the main protagonist of the film, Colonel Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) who captures all of the heroes including Rogers, T'Challa and Barnes. Zemo uses a series of 'trigger words' to activate The Winter Soldier inside Barnes in order to question him about the incidents in 1991. Barnes, after regaining his senses explains Zemo is headed to the Siberian hideout where other, more violent Winter Soldiers are in cryo sleep. Zemo plans to wake the soldiers for his own nefarious deeds.
Instead of acting together for a common good, Stark and Rogers recruit members for a fight between each other. Now is where the film really falls apart. Stark somehow knows where a previously never mentioned character is and knows his secret identity named none other than Peter Parker aka Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and recruits or bribes the naïve young Parker that he is fighting on the right side. This was a very forced scene and one of the worst written throw aways in the film. Spider-Man deserved a better introduction than this.
Rogers and his team recruit another member that is introduced in a similar manner as an almost after thought, Scott Lange aka Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) Spidey and Ant-Man are nothing more than comedic relief from this point. Holland was excellent as Spider-Man however and I am really looking forward to his solo film. He filled Spidey's boots perfectly.
From here it's an over use of CGI fight between the teams. that is all too predictable, Characters such as Clint Barton aka Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) are once again given the shaft and their characters are not given their potential, Scarlet Johansen's Black Widow suffers the same fate. Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) loses her thick accent speaking near perfect English this go round. The Vision (Paul Bettany) is on team Stark but his bland character could be one of the most uninteresting yet in a Marvel film.
The film is full of plot holes that can't be overlooked, the absence of Thor and Bruce Banner aka The Hulk are mentioned but not elaborated on but, the absence of Nick Fury is never addressed. Of anyone, during this time would we expect Fury to intervene?
Bottom line, the film offers nothing new or original in a Marvel film or, comic book film period. It is the same old story with more characters and a butt numbing run time of 2 and a half hours. The high point was Holland's Peter Parker. It's just too bad this is how we were introduced to him.
Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, Civil War had tons of potential with a lot of great characters. Unfortunately, it fell flat on it's face with overconfidence fans would forgive and forget the oversights and poor implementation of the characters. It's more of the same just with more characters which doesn't make it any better, just more convoluted.
Rating C-
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