Captain America: Civil War

[talkstowolves]

Civil War. You might have heard of it. No, not the baseline divisive and horribly costly war that fractured the United States of America in the late 19th century. The Marvel one where a bunch of superpowered people came to blows on account of the Superhero Registration Act – I mean, the Sokovia Accords – that sought to restrain their actions. The Russo brothers took an epic and sprawling comic book storyline and tried to turn it into a two and a half-hour film.

Like this:

It went about as well as could be expected. The problem with Captain America: Civil War is that…

[Click through to BuzzyMag to read my review!]

 Note: The image from marvelfactpage above is used with permission.

Mirrored from geekdame.com. Please comment there.

Comments

[kore]

'this Superhero movie is not something to marvel' <333

I've thought quite frequently that while Tony (and Steve to a lesser extent, altho he mainly Reacts to Tony) is Active, CW Bucky is super passive and kind of in the thankless sexy lamp/Supporting Girlfriend role, which just sort of points out how much it sucks. I wished there was a moment where his reluctance to fight was a good thing, like with Steve at the end of TWS or T'Challa at the end of CW, but the filmmakers didn't seem to really like him, or at least not sympathize with him a lot.

But Civil War just wasn’t a good MOVIE.
The pacing was terrible, rushing from set piece to set piece and managing to feel interminable. The emotional tension that would have kept us engaged was sorely lacking. The endless spectacle was desensitizing. The spots where they just missed accomplishing something truly sublime were glaring: Natasha and Clint – whose dedication to each other overcame brainwashing on both sides, whose friendship is so deep that Natasha is as close to Clint as family – come to BLOWS, and there’s just a quip about whether they’re still best friends? That makes a mockery of both their relationship and a divisive issue apparently serious enough to be called CIVIL WAR.

And, of course, Civil War completely fumbles the serious issue of mental health.
Bucky is the victim of extreme brainwashing, and suffers from PTSD. His violent reactions are directly related to these facts, rooted in the bone-deep terror that he isn’t his own master because of code word-conditioning. The entire movie hinges on Steve’s insistence that his friend be protected and fairly judged, whereas Stark considers him dangerous and beyond redemption. How do you think Civil War resolves this aspect of the movie? Bucky’s just put on ice, because he’s too much trouble to the rest us to be allowed to work through his experiences, to live, to heal. Best that he just… go away. Not die, we’d never say DIE, but really… just don’t exist. What an unfortunate message.

Yeah, EXACTLY. That was a big part of what hung me up on that mid-credits sequence (along with HOW IT WAS TWENTY SECONDS LONG, WTF) and it did feel like the emotions were really sacrificed for the giant set pieces, especially the airport scene, which was set up as a Huge Conflict and the movie's "splash page," but just kind of...falls flat, in terms of the plot. They're not really fighting seriously, and the one person who's badly injured gets hurt by accident. So it felt like the movie kept telling me (and telling me) THE STAKES ARE SO HIGH OMG, but it really didn't feel that way. And plot-wise, it was a big mess.

I don't see this stuff getting any better with IW, because if anything, it sounds like it's going to be even more overstuffed and full of zip-bam-pow fight scenes and there'll be even less time for any emotions. And this is where people always tell me, that's not what you go to superhero movies for, but the reason I really liked movies like TWS and the IM series was they did have emotional weight. If I don't care about the characters, the movie, no matter how big and flashy, is just kind of like Feige and the Russos playing with action figures while I look on.