Marvel Just Won the War
Grab your seats, class is in session.
Possibly the most anticipated Marvel movie to date was finally released this weekend and the Professor has already seen it twice. I’ll also be going to see it at least one, probably two more times. Today’s topic is:
I’m not even going to bury the lead here, though I may have already. Captain America Civil War, in this writer’s humble opinion, is the best Marvel movie ever. And I do mean, ever. I am a huge fan of Captain America: Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, and Civil War has easily surpassed them.
When Civil War was announced, I was kind of skeptical. Having read the comic book equivalent, I wasn’t sure how they would be able to pull it off. Some of the key characters involved in this story weren’t available to Marvel. They did not yet have Spider-man to work with. They did not have (and unfortunately still don’t) have the Fantastic Four. There was no Captain Marvel planned and there was no X-Men to play their part. It just seemed to me that this many missing pieces, all of whom were fairly important, would be hard to work around. I was completely and totally wrong. While the movie doesn’t follow the comic path at all, really, it doesn’t matter. It didn’t need to. The Russo brothers created a new story to go with and it is absolutely beautiful.
There may have been one or two other reviews before where I claimed I didn’t have any dislikes about the movie. Even those, however, I found something, albeit probably minor, that I had an issue with. This could potentially be the first time I have no issues with a movie at all. I enjoyed every single thing about this movie. I don’t really need to get into characters like Captain America, Iron Man, War Machine, Black Widow, etc. as I have expounded on my love of them from previous movies. They are all either just as good, or even better in this movie. Black Widow would fall into the category of even better. For sake of time and space, I’ll just get into the new additions to this movie that I fell in love with. First and foremost, Black Panther. Previous to this movie, I had not seen anything with Chadwick Boseman in it. This is something I regret and hope to remedy. Having always been kind of a minor Black Panther fan, I wasn’t looking for too much from the character, though I knew he had a central part to play. Not to say my expectations were low, I just really had none. However, if I had? They would have been shattered. Boseman brings to life T’Challa/Black Panther in such a way that I absolutely need to know more about the character and can not WAIT until that solo movie is released (Feb. 2018, for the record). He truly brings a panther type persona to his character: silent, sleek, intelligent, and extremely deadly. Even out of the Panther costume, he carries a deadly air about him that is palatable. You can tell he is a force to be reckoned with just by watching him move and hearing him speak. Just after he appears and a major story plot point hits, he speaks a single sentence that strikes so hard it stops the movie in its tracks momentarily. It is beyond powerful and sets his tone for the remainder of the film. Technically, the main villain of the film is a slightly different take on an old school Cap villian, Baron Helmut Zemo played fantastically by Daniel Brühl. You would recognize him from Inglorious Basterds as the celebrated Nazi sniper. While he does not get a ton of screen time here, he is the main catalyst for everything that happens. Brühl is so good in the time he is given. Sadistic at times, and yet at others, you feel nothing but empathy for him. When you find why he is doing what he is doing, you understand. I wish I could give more than that, but you need to see it to understand.
My favorite part of the film, however? Well, he gets his own section. Why? Because he has always been my favorite superhero and he finally…FINALLY…has been done correctly. Make way, true believers. Here comes the Spider-Man. While I somewhat enjoy the initial Spider-man run with Toby Maguire, and I enjoyed Andrew Garfield’s performance, they are honestly 2nd rate to Tom Holland and the Marvel debut of Peter Parker. Initially, I was afraid of the angle they were going. I did not like how young they were going with Peter. I wanted them to finally go with an older, more experienced Peter. I felt that would be the best way to do it. Fortunately, they didn’t listen to me. They instead went to a younger actor in Tom Holland and decided that they would go with a 15-year-old Peter Parker/Spider-Man. At this point in the MCU, Peter has only had his powers for about 6 months. In a way that isn’t really explained, Stark figures out that Peter is Spider-Man and brings him into the folder for Team Iron Man (not a spoiler, it’s in the trailers). The initial scene with the two of them is amazing (no pun intended). It even involves a quick cameo by Aunt May, played now by (a still very beautiful) Marisa Tomei. In this one scene, you essentially get the entire Spider-Man origin without it being described, and you understand what drives Peter to be Spider-man. It is explained in a vague enough way to keep the scene short, but if you are a fan, you can easily read between the lines and understand what is being talked about. Uncle Ben is never referenced, but you know that is what Peter is talking about. It’s a brilliantly written scene. As far as Spider-Man in action? I can’t possibly describe it well enough to do it justice. You just have to see it. Just know, it’s perfect. And Holland as Spider-Man? All you need to do is listen to him talk. If you know Spider-Man like I do, you know he’s a wise-ass who is easily impressed by “cool” things and let’s everyone know it. He very rarely shuts up, as the character has admitted in the past that silence makes him uncomfortable. Maguire didn’t really talk enough. Garfield did, but his talk was overly corny and bad. Holland’s is spot on perfect and for me, has left me completely impatient for the solo Spider-Man movie, Homecoming (July 2017, just so you know).
I could continue to go on about what I loved about this movie and the article would just get longer and longer, so I won’t go too much more into it. The action is amazing. The comedic beats are perfectly placed and hilarious. The score is beautiful. It all makes a tremendous movie.
I’ll say this much more however: the Russo brothers and James Gunn should be hired by Marvel permanently as their movie writers/directors, with the occasional assist from Jon Favreau. I still love Joss Wheadon, but I don’t think he wants anything else to do with making a Marvel movie. Back up the Brinks truck and make it happen. With Civil War, not only have the Russo brothers have created a masterpiece, but they have proven that the future of the main Marvel movies is brighter than ever. The upcoming Avengers: Infinity Wars movies (2018 part one, 2019 part two) are 110% in the proper hands.
So while this doesn’t need to be said, go see this. In the theaters. More than once if you can. I’ve gone twice. A third time is probably coming tomorrow. A fourth time is on the table for next weekend. As many times as I can afford to, I’ll be going. You will not find a better superhero/comic book movie than this.
Until next time…
Class dismissed.
