Toilet Review: Look away now if you don’t want spoilers, any spoilers at all, because I have a lot of feelings about this movie and I am going to spoil the shit out of it.
Last warning.
Spoilers ahead. Loud, ringing klaxon spoilers.
Ok.
“Civil War” is the third Captain America movie, and it has some serious problems. Before I go on though, I need to come clean that Captain America is my favourite Marvel hero. I love Steve Rogers and his relationship with Bucky, where he came from, and the tragedy behind his character is something that I’ve always been compelled by. I’ve waited eagerly for this movie since the days that “Captain America: The First Avenger” came out. So it pains me to say that “Civil War” has a lot of problems.
In each of the three acts, there are some fantastic pieces, be they action or plot line. The movie has a fairly solid opening act, wherein we meet the team on a mission in Lagos, where, due to Cap’s obvious blind spot for Bucky, a whole bunch of people die. This spurs the nations of the world to come up with the Sokovia Accords, requiring the Avengers to report to the UN. Cap is understandably horrified, and refuses to sign. Tony wants him to, and this all leads to them refusing to come to an agreement. Tony leaves Steve behind in London while travelling to Vienna to sign the papers. Here we meet T’Challa, the Black Panther, and suddenly everyone is calling for blood.
I had a debate with my friends last night, as they couldn’t understand why Steve refused to sign the papers. “But surely, accountability is a good thing? Why would Steve split the team like this?” To me, Steve Rogers was, and will always be, that scrawny kid from Brooklyn. He has been pushed around all his life, by bullies as kid, by assholes as a young man, by the army when he became a veritable god.When he woke up from the ice, it was the only time he could act of his own free will. It’s not that he doesn’t want to be accountable, it’s that HE wants to be accountable for his own actions. He wants to make the decision about where to go, and how to help. With the UN holding the Avengers’ leash, this power, the power of freedom, is gone from him forever. He points out that people will always be people, and in such a powerful organisation like the UN, there will always be agendas. The Avengers agenda may line up with the UN today, but maybe not tomorrow. Maybe they will be sent to a place to deal with something that they don’t want to. Maybe the UN would choose not to send them somewhere they need to be. But this power of choice is lost to them when they sign. Steve has seen what power can do and the crippling, corruptible influence it can have. He never tells anyone else not to sign, he makes the decision for himself, and others follow him.
The middle act is where everything begins to unwind for me in this movie. It’s overly long, and the fight that we are promised in the title barely registers above “school yard scrap at 3 behind the bike shed”. It is also the most humorous act in the movie, with some nice scenes between Sam Wilson and Bucky. It takes a very long time to even get to this point though, with nothing of overt consequence happening in the mean time. We meet our bad guy, Zemo, up close and his motive is seems pretty legit. Suddenly the race is on to Siberia. We see Steve and Bucky have a few moments together, and they reminisce. It is clear that Steve is reveling in having his best friend back. They work together in a way that they haven’t in neatly 70 years but it’s like they’ve never been apart. Steve shields him, and Bucky covers Steve in movements so natural, its as if they had always been doing it.
Finally, we come to the last act, and because of the meandering, bloated middle act, the last act fails to stick the landing. There are numerous red herrings that feel cheap, and I was left wondering why our villain did what he did. It seems overly complicated and I’m not sure if the set up warranted the stated outcome. If Zemo wanted the Avengers ripped apart, there was not whole lot of sense as to why the last act played out like it did. He could have just headed to Siberia, got what he needed, came back and fucked shit up right from the get go, but no, we have this long movie that leads to something that could have been done in the first 20 minutes. It’s thematic as fuck though, the pay off. It certainly couldn’t have been revealed in a more resonant place. I’m not going to spoil the reveal, just in case you happen to stumble across this before seeing the movie, but suddenly the Sokovia Accords are the least of the things dividing Tony and Steve,
I understand Tony’s reaction. He isn’t a man that is known for his calm, collected response to anything. But I did feel that he acted illogically. Tony knows the truth about the reveal, he knows that the circumstance surrounding it is exactly how Steve is telling him, but yet he continues to ignore the rational point until the very end, and even then I’m not sure he understands. Tony has become more and more hypocritical throughout the movie, but here it really takes the biscuit.
I feel like the end is particularly powerful, with Steve leaving his shield behind as he struggles to walk away with Bucky. He’s walking away from everything he knows, everything he stands for, to protect his dearest friend. It’s a wonderful point in Steve’s story. He knows his friend is safe now. After everything, he may finally be able to make it up to Buck.
I do feel that perhaps this movie might have been misnamed; the “Civil War” of the movies is certainly not the “Civil War” of the comics, but it’s hard to know what to call movie that needs to set up the Sokovia Accords, and have the Avengers split, so I guess it’s sufficient.
There is some pretty swish cinematography in this installment of Cap’s story. The last fight between Steve and Tony in particularly stands out. As the morning sun rises, suddenly their fight is bathed in this fragile sunlight, indicating that it’s more than just a new day, it’s a new beginning for them both, however they may want it to play out.
All of this being said, I liked the movie. But I’m biased as hell. Steve Rogers could be a commercial for ice cream and I’d love it. If you are an Avengers fan, go see it. If you like Steve Rogers, go see it. If you aren’t generally pushed about comic book movies either way, and haven’t seen many of the previous installments, I wouldn’t bother. You will be confused as hell, and will be annoyed by the meandering, often overt plot.
But yeah, I’m going to go see again in the cinema, and I’m going to get the dvd when it comes out. Because I’m a giant fucking loser, and Steve Rogers is my goddamn heart.
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