Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
This film critic, and I imagine a large portion of movie-going enthusiasts, needed a break from the superhero genre after the dreadful, banal Batman vs. Superman didn’t provide any new hope for the DC side of things.
Inevitably, before that travesty had a chance to finally sink off the bottom of the box office earnings chart, Marvel strikes back with its latest melee of comic book madness.
This time, Captain America is the focus, although it’s more The Avengers 2.5 as a selection of the big guns and almost the entire roster of B-listers come together in two separate factions to duel it out in the eponymous Civil War.
The plot follows on almost immediately from Age of Ultron, with world leaders demanding control over Earth’s superheroes after the costly and deadly events of the preceding entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), particularly the two Avengers films.
Iron Man (Downey Jr), feeling guilty for creating Ultron in the first place and causing such devastation, is for signing onto the Sokovia Accords (the official name for superhero oversight), while Captain America (Evans), ever the rugged individualist, is very much against it.
After a deadly attack is attributed to Cap’s old partner, Bucky ‘The Winter Soldier’ Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Cap goes rogue to locate and protect his oldest friend while Tony Stark and the Avengers who side with him are given a deadline to stop them before less friendly elements are sent after them.
Superhero vs. superhero action ensues, as new heroes join the fray and a mysterious nemesis, Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl), operates his own shadowy agenda.
Despite almost the entire Avengers line-up minus Hulk and Thor showing up, this is, as it should be, very much Cap’s movie and Evans’ Steve Rogers once again proves he’s the heart and soul of the MCU.
Roll back a few years and I’d have rolled my eyes at the prospect of having to sit through two hours of patriotic chest-thumping centred on a man literally called ‘America’, but his movies have been by far the best of the original Avengers group.
He’s a good man who has to make tough calls, who’s essentially alone in the world and out of his time despite the company of his superhero pals. His battle of ideologies with Tony is compelling, although sadly, it never quite delves into the meat of the issue or evolves past the same argument being repeated throughout and both sides doing something to show why the other might be right.
For those who did see Batman vs. Superman, the subject matter is very similar and so the plot lacks freshness. In summary, the general population is angry at the superheroes for causing widespread collateral damage rather than being thankful that they haven’t been squished by the big, bad aliens. Ungrateful, eh?
That’s not at all to say superhero movies can’t or shouldn’t address heroes’ moral culpability or echo real world concerns, but continually lecturing to and piling the guilt onto the protagonists (and, by extension, the viewer) for superheroes doing what superheroes do is growing rather tedious and, frankly, taking the fun out of the genre.
This is summed up by Downey, who turns in an uncharacteristically morose performance. There are good reasons for his depression, but it doesn’t detract from the feeling that the film could have done with some of his usual charm, wit and fun.
Luckily, there are still chuckles to be had, and most of them are thanks to everyone’s friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, the newest addition to the MCU finally making his bow after endless legal wrangling and fan pleas. He’s easily the best thing in this movie.
Just like BvS, the writers are too scared to just let the good guys fight and let the audience pick a side for themselves. Instead, there has to be an overarching bad guy pulling strings behind the scenes, and here it’s no different.
Bruhl’s Zemo joins the increasingly crowded ranks of the MCU’s underwhelming and forgettable villains played by fine actors. Whatever they try and do, Marvel movies just don’t succeed or seem interested in creating intriguing antagonists other than Loki, putting the emphasis on their heroes’ conflicts with each other instead. While Zemo’s motive is very human and compelling, his actual scheme doesn’t hold up under scrutiny and relies on a few too many coincidences.
What they do deliver on, as always, is the action scenes. They are absolutely fantastic here, particularly one huge airport brawl, and the directors somehow come up with new set pieces and cool shots that make you sit back and applaud.
Ultimately, Captain America: Civil War can’t quite recapture the emotional and cerebral strengths of its predecessor, the utterly fantastic Winter Soldier. Its central villain is again lacklustre and the film as a whole is a bit too miserable for a Marvel offering. Still, it’s a lot better than BvS was and the action scenes are worth the ticket alone.
Regardless, I really, truly mean it when I say I’m superhero’d out for a while. I’m taking an extended break from the produce of this seemingly-endless conveyor belt … oh wait, what’s that? The new X-Men is out in a fortnight? Cool!
* Showing in Novo Cinemas, Cineco, Seef II, Seef I, Saar, Al Jazira, Wadi Al Sail, Dana Cineplex
