Review of the film "Captain America: Civil War" from Uran

"Captain America: Civil War" thundered too loudly and was well advertised, in addition, a lot of hand-to-hand fights were promised, on par with fights with super powers, so after watching this film in the cinema, I did not bypass it in terms of review and present you with a small opinion on this movie . 

According to the plot, Captain America (Chris Evans) and his Avengers, after a powerful battle with Ultron, resolve minor conflicts around the globe. But one of these conflicts leads to the death of people in a certain African country - and the UN, led by the United States, proposed to curb the Avengers with a special set of laws, after which the Avengers should do only what the above-mentioned countries order them. Captain America is against it, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) is for it - and both have their reasons. Everything would be fine, but the sluggish conflict between the heroes is aggravated by a terrorist attack in which Cap’s friend Bucky Barnes, who also happens to be the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) from the second part, is suspected. Cap does not believe that Bucky is the culprit and believes that someone else is behind him, but IronMan believes that Bucky needs to get out quickly. Others come over to the side of both superheroes and the army of Good splits.


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The plot is taken from the famous comic book about the split of all Marvel superheroes with the same name, where most of the Marvel heroes confront each other, trying to decide the question - to become legitimized or to act freely? Those who read will remember that the confrontation was tragic, forever quarreled and many heroes died. However, here the plot is softer in relation to the viewer. Did this help the film? According to my tradition, I’ll list the pros and cons.

Pros:

  • There is a lot of good action, the highlight of which will be two scenes - the showdown between superheroes at the airport and the final battle with "Winter Soldier and Cap vs. Ironman" - for them it’s even worth going to the cinema, everything is done so cool: and double-teams (a huge number of them), tactical tricks, superpowers and most importantly - the bias of battles closer to close combat, and so noticeable that this film can rightfully be called an A-class hand-to-hand action movie. Superheroes combine their techniques in a variety of ways, creating combos, combining them with super attacks and magic, and these two brawls look very, very impressive. In addition to these scenes, there are many action moments with the Winter Soldier, where he stands alone and not very confidently against superheroes and a special forces squad - but these scenes are filmed noticeably worse, as discussed below. It is impossible not to note a good introduction to the film with an action scene against terrorists and Crossbones (Frank Grillo). It was nice to see elements of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with extended ground and transitions from Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), boxing from Captain America, acrobatics from Black Panther (Chadwig Boseman) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and kickboxing with wrestling elements from the Winter Soldier.
  • As a superhero movie, the film has a certain amount of destruction, but in this regard it is inferior to "The Avengers" and "Iron Man", reminding the viewer that this is (AS) a solo film for the Captain, so in this regard the film is "calmer". Dogfights will also return - War Machine (Don Cheadle), IronMan, Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Vision (Paul Bettany) are hot in every sense.
  • There are also dramatic, dark elements. Alas, the mystery and conspiracy theories here are not as strong as in Cap 2, but they are there - there is all the darkness here in the search for Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl) and, as usual, on the Winter Soldier (I would even say that this is more of his solo album than Cap, if you take everything together).
  • A huge ensemble cast, not fully listed above, gives "The Expendables" a kick. Stan Lee's cameo is spot on, as always.
  • Special effects worthy of an A-thriller, even very, Marvel have in their repertoire.
  • Lots of humor from Spider, Ant and Falcon.
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Cons:

  • In terms of action, non-key battles (Winter Soldier's passages, some of the Widow's battles, etc.) were filmed with a shaky camera. Even though the operator tried to hold her, he didn’t always succeed. In these same scenes, the editing was a little let down, which is why some unpleasant flickering occurs. Also, the doubles are VERY noticeable in a lot of the fights, especially for the Widow. Also, the bias in favor of hand-to-hand combat may not suit fans of superhero battles, however, I think there should be no problems with this. Also, the abilities of the Witch and Vision are not fully shown; it is clear that the heroes are restrained by the script.
  • In terms of plot, the film is full of plot under-revelation and the conflict being sucked out of thin air, but the main debate - to remain under the law or to be a free team is generally relegated to the background towards the end. It's a stretch to explain most of them, but to an untrained viewer it may seem wild. Also, the drama that was promised by the comic and trailers was, in general, not much, it was only on the trio of Main Heroes, while the rest get off on this topic with dialogues like “get off it.” The main problem is presenting it specifically to the Avengers for Sokovia. It’s a no brainer that they took part in the creation of Ultron, BUT they are being charged not for Ultron, but for failures and mistakes in the operation to destroy it, which is quite stupid and tantamount to charging Russian and American soldiers for the death of innocents at the hands of the Nazis in World War II . Also, the anger of Iron Man and the others towards the Winter Soldier after finding out the whole truth is stupid - he was under hypnosis when he committed the crimes.
  • The cool introductions of Spider-Man and Ant may seem a bit too drawn out. In general, this is Marvel’s problem - you need to watch previous films to understand who is who, in fact this is one huge epic series, so a viewer who has not watched at least a couple of episodes from it may simply not catch up with what is being said in some places.
  • The main villain, Helmut Zemo, who in the comics was quite a dangerous adversary, here is just an offended martinet from Sokovia for the whole world, and he doesn’t even fight. Why he was so cool and how he managed to pull off his plans is not really explained in the film. In addition, the character finds fault with Cap about his perfect appearance and eye color (an allusion to Nazism and the comic Zemo), but the theme of Zemo’s Nazism is also not explored here, which is why the character is not fully understood. Despite Brühl’s good performance, the character is a failure; for such an epic confrontation, a much cooler villain is needed.

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As a result: suddenly, Marvel turned out to be a good A-class hand-to-hand action movie with a controversial plot, but a lot of well-staged action and an attempt at drama. But alas, the drama of the conflict itself was declared too loudly: despite the name “Civil War” - there is NO civil war, only a conflict within a gang of superheroes, and then by general standards it is small, therefore the Russian name - Confrontation - is more suitable here. In my opinion, Marvel should have waited a couple more years and had a more powerful Civil War with the participation of other heroes, up to the X-Men and the Four.

However, if you are not against Marvel superheroes, roughly know the plot of the background stories from the films of this arc, and are a fan of hand-to-hand action, feel free to go to the cinema and watch decent fights.

12 comments

    Author's gravatar

    and I really liked Black Panther (I mean the idea itself, not how it was shot and edited), of course it’s far from ong-bak or undeniable, but for modern Hollywood cinema it’s quite acceptable.

      Author's gravatar

      lukecage,

      Obviously, the shaking is an attempt to hide the doubles and the actor’s inability to shake on the screen. Well, here at least the operator tried to at least somehow hold her. This seemed acceptable to me in this film.

    Author's gravatar

    I watched the film twice, but couldn’t find enough positives in it to say “liked it.” Despite the cool picture, superhero action, an attempt to catch up on drama, good actors and general fun, I liked the third “Captain” much less than the second or, for example, the first “Avengers”.

    The quality of the action is ambiguous. On the one hand, there seems to be something to look at, but on the other, the camera is constantly shaking, the stunt doubles are constantly flickering (how they got those shots from the back!), long shots are broken by the editor’s epilepsy, etc. And you don’t worry about the characters - they get screwed in every way, but they continue to feel great until the very end of the film. Rowdy was unlucky of course. But Cap, Widow, Panther, Wanda, Bucky and others, although improved, are people. Therefore, their showdowns are simply not interesting to watch.

    Add here the rather sluggish beginning of the film, and yes, somehow everything doesn’t work out very well with “Citizen”.

      Author's gravatar

      DIV,

      I agree about “you screw the characters, but at least they care.” There is more of a complaint about doubles here IMHO, this is not always bad, although in old action films with doubles it was a little better. The camera shook, but not enough to call it bad and epileptic.

      Nudity? Maybe, but the plot needs to be justified somehow and the characters need to be introduced somehow. It turned out to be a hand-to-hand A-action movie with an attempt to introduce drama and not the best attempt, I agree. In terms of drama, the second Cap is much better.

    Author's gravatar

    Yes, those who were waiting for the post-final scene with the Spider - appreciated the small “army” (!) that created this tape))).
    In the action, Downey only grappled face to face (like a "chi-sao") with Zimny ​​for five seconds, and... that's all... actually))).
    The widow was duplicated almost openly. It is clear that Evans tried))), but even when the mask was on him...
    In short, the stuntmen were allowed to earn extra money, which in principle is understandable - the cost of the actors, their insurance, the cost of one shooting day for the aforementioned “army”).

    P/S/ I support the review 100%.

      Author's gravatar

      Alex,

      Bernhardt was in this army, by the way. Well, okay, we won’t really find fault with the understudies.

      In our cinema they made concessions to us and quickly skipped to the post-credit scene.

    Author's gravatar

    Sebastian Stan was a pleasant surprise. Both as an actor and in preparation. Fortunately, it is more difficult to duplicate him - he is without a mask)).
    I wonder what this Romanian has in sports under his belt?

      Author's gravatar

      Alex,

      Sebastian outplayed at least half of the lineup. He did well as an outcast former mercenary. Duplicating him is no more difficult - he is hairy. But I think he pumped himself up and practiced before the role.

    Author's gravatar

    Zemo turned out to be a very good antagonist. Thank God they didn’t make him into another caricatured megalomaniac or Hydra-Nazi. A completely sane character with a clear motivation, like an analogue of Butler’s hero from Law Abiding Citizen. The most important thing: he achieved his goal, pitted the Avengers against each other. And it doesn’t matter which of the heroes wins the confrontation, because the team as a whole will lose. Because there is no longer any team as a whole.

      Author's gravatar

      electricity,

      This is not always a good thing, especially when it comes to a comic-based action movie. The Avengers quarreled not because Zemo wanted it that way, but because Stark and the rest of the dunces had a temperament depicted by the scriptwriters. In addition, they did not really disclose where Zemo was financed for the terrorist attacks. He needed to think of a clearer image, but he looks not like a smart mercenary soldier, but an offended schoolboy. nevertheless, Brühl achieved something in the image of the character.

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