Captain America: Civil "OH MY GOD DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?!" War review.

Well the second of the good guy vs. good guy comic book movies has been viewed by me and mine, Captain America: Civil War.

It.

Did.

Not.

Disappoint.

It is both a lot and a little. By the end I had had enough and still wanted more.

By now we all know a little and a lot about this film. The Avengers are torn apart due to the fallout from the films leading up to this one. See superheroes cause a lot of collateral damage. The world governments think they should be held accountable and controllable. The U.N. decides it will throw the Avengers under their umbrella to be able to deploy them (or not) when necessary. Well this goes over poorly as half the Avenger roster is ok with it and the other half is not.

Then throw in a volatile situation with Winter Soldier, bombing the U.N., earlier civilian casualties while dealing with Crossbones, personal conflicts, ending friendships and all some tugging at heartstrings. This of course all ends with side choosing, team splitting, recruitment and then a big showdown. However, there is more than just a big airport battle scene that has been thrown at us for months. There is a look at terrorism, hate fueled vengeance, issues of state control, military might/use, too many secrets and the various relationship issues that are always on these super teams. It all meshes together really well and never seems to bog down.

This shit is about to get real!

Civil War is a great mix of heavy and light story elements. Just when the film gets heavy and starts heading to a lot of mopey/self-loathing super hero stuff, the tone switches and it becomes an awesome military thriller. Then it becomes an action set piece that, to date, is the best superhero stuff I have ever seen. Then recovers to military thriller to move to that within another balls out action piece. The comedy bits are few and far this time around, but when they hit. They hit very well. It all flows together nicely to make for one damn fine superhero film!

The inclusion of Black Panther was really cool. I was never a big fan of his character. Plus I was too busy following the majority of the X-men, Ghost Rider and a lot of Spider- Man for all my time in Marvel comics. It just seemed T’Challa was always just hanging with the giant Avenger roster at that time. His presence in Civil War was really sweet and he was a definite high point for me. He brings a new bit of coolness to an overflowing well that is the Marvel movie universe. PLUS! We were introduced to him and didn’t have to suffer a tedious origin story either.

See Hollywood. That can be done! Try it. Please!

The big airport showdown (that is only one of four great action set pieces and the other three are as crazy stupid fun as well)we have all seen snippets of is as awesome as I was hoping it would be! There are ten characters here battling it out and they all get descent screen time. That is insanely awesome and fun! The biggest standouts from that fight were Black Panther (actually his first action piece was great too), Ant-Man and of course all the Spider-Man stuff. Those three had my favorite action bits from that giant melee. That sequence is, and should be, every comic book fan’s dream come true. Just amazing stuff there! 

I could just gush about this, the action in Lagos and the final throw down for a while. So much amazing action stuff. A visual delight for me.

Brings back the memories of the Gundam watching and various mecha stuff from years ago!
Need a bit more guns though.

Ant-Man as the "every man" in this universe was stellar.
Plus a sweet call back for Marvel fans here too.

Really should have had a Black Widow movie within this who cycle of films.
She kicks a whole lot of ass in all the marvel films to date.

Did I mention how bad-ass Black Panther is in this movie?

Hell, it is the first time I have seen, once again so far, a comic book trilogy that has gotten better every film. Captain American 1^st Avenger was good, Winter Soldier was better and Civil War was even better. This never happens with superhero films. They usually stumble with part two or three. The Captain America movies did not do that at all.

If there are low points for me it is Aunt May. She should not be that young.  I shouldn’t find her attractive. Right? Marisa Tomei seemed like a bad choice. The end credit stinger was weak too. I get the reference, but many seemed to miss it. Crossbones was a bit of a throw away villain, but at the same time the fight scene with him and his goons was sweet. Finally, the Civil War tag was alright and not. The Civil War comic was huge and spanned so many years and characters. Finally, this is a middling annoyance at best. The 5-on-5 teams here felt more like big throw down and not Civil War. However, a better title might than that would be hard to devise.

I could prattle on and on about the events and action of this film, however, I won’t. You have either seen it or are waiting to see it and will have your own opinions.

Personally, one of the best super hero movies to date.

The next Marvel buddy road trip superhero movie?
Falcon and the Soldier.