Captain America: Civil War is a good movie for sure and I did enjoy elements of it and the fight between Cap and Iron Man was well done, however, the film does have its issues but on the whole is entertaining.
Captain America: Civil War
(2016)
Genre(s): Action, Science-Fiction
Buena Vista | PG13 – 147 min. – $39.99 | September 13, 2016
Date Published: 09/12/2016 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE — 3.75/5 |
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Round 2 of the battle of the superheroes was Captain America: Civil War and although I personally liked Batman v Superman (the Ultimate Edition in particular), there’s no doubt it got trashed by both the critics and general audiences. Civil War came in with just about equal hype but delivered on both fronts. While I didn’t think it was one of Marvel’s best, it’s still one heck of a movie with great twists and the fight sequences were well choreographed. The story, and reason it’s not an Avengers movie, is a direct follow-up to Captain America: Winter’s Soldier. Steve Rogers’s (CHRIS EVANS) old buddy Bucky Barnes is alive but now an agent working for Hydra and in Civil War’s opening, taking place in 1991, Barnes aka the Winter Soldier has caused a car crash and steals super soldier serum in the trunk. Flash forward to present day Lagos, Nigeria. Captain America and his team — Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (SCARLETT JOHANSSON), Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (ELIZABETH OLSEN) and Sam Wilson/Falcon (ANTHONY MACKIE) — are tracking terrorist known as Crossbones (FRANK GRILLO) who has come to Lagos to bust in and steal a bio-weapon. Cap and company, after a lengthy chase and fight through the streets, apparently stop him but Crossbones has one last trick, a built-in explosive which he sets off but not before Scarlet Witch manages to contain, throwing him into the air away from innocents but loses containment and the bomb goes off into a building where (IIRC) 11 people are killed. Back Stateside, Scarlet Witch is dealing with the psychological ramifications while the Avengers are faced with a political one. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (WILLIAM HURT) has been brought to HQ to present the Sokovia Accords, a document that would have the Avengers operate under the jurisdiction a United Nations council and will only be allowed to intervene on approval of this panel, this due to the collateral damage ranging from Lagos to New York City. There are only two options: sign the Accord or retire. Choosing to sign, Tony Stark (ROBERT DOWNEY JR.) wants to save the Avengers while Steve sees what could go wrong. Clinton Barton/Hawkeye (JEREMY RENNER), Sam and Steve choose not to while Tony, Natasha and Vision (PAUL BETTANY) believe in the need for it while Wanda feels mixed. Two weeks later, at a council meeting to ratify the accord, we meet Prince T’Challa (CHADWICK BOSEMAN) and get to know just enough about him before an explosion erupts killing his father. Footage from a security camera places blame on the attack on Bucky (SEBASTIAN STAN) and there’s an APB to take him down. Hoping to get to him before the others, Captain America, with info provided by Sharon Carter (EMILY VANCAMP), granddaughter to the recently departed Peggy Carter, tracks Bucky to a rundown apartment. When Bucky appears, they exchange some words but not before an evading militarized police converge. As Cap takes them down, Bucky escapes out a window only to be confronted by Black Panther who, of course, is T’Challa; wanting vengeance on the man he (and the world) believes killed his father. Of course the truth is, it’s a conspiracy perpetrated by a man named Zemo (DANIEL BRUHL) who set into motion a way to defeat the Avengers… all from within as his actions pit Iron Man and his crew which includes Black Widow, Vision, Black Panther, War Machine (DON CHEADLE) and special guest star, Spider-Man (TOM HOLLAND), who gets introduced before his MCU debut, Spider-Man: Homecoming. Cap’s team, who to me is the weaker of the two, Winter Soldier, Scarlet Witch, Falcon, Hawkeye and their own special guest star, Ant-Man (PAUL RUDD), who, like Spider-Man, doesn’t has a dog in the hunt. MIA are Thor and Hulk but including them the filmmakers could defend not calling this Avengers: Civil War I guess… Those two, however, will appear in Thor: Ragnarok. The acting is pretty much the norm from what we’ve seen in the past MCU movies. Robert Downey Jr. stands out the most advancing his Stark character beyond just being a wise-ass while Chris Evans’ Cap gets more dimension though it’s his continuing evolvement that began in Winter’s Soldier. The others are more or less filler. Sebastian Stan really has nothing to work with while others like Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Olsen are sidelined. I will say, as shoehorned in as Spider-Man was, this film at least gave us a nice introduction to Tom Holland who, with a solid screenplay and the advantage of being a part of the MCU, could be the best interpretation of Spidey to date. Captain America: Civil War sees the return of Anthony and Joe Russo sitting in the director’s chair following the success of CA: WS and they certainly have an eye for the camera and are able to direct some nicely choreographed fight scenes especially that of Captain America and Iron Man while the airport sequence, while certainly nifty for the Marvel fan, I found it a tad, what’s the word, dumb. I understand they wanted to balance the seriousness of the story (and change within this universe) but hearing the wisecracks, albeit amusing, didn’t fit. It also doesn’t help that I didn’t once think they were fighting for a cause but instead because we needed the scene. Heck, even when one of them is critically injured, the impact (so to speak) is lessened by film’s end and no doubt this character will be near full strength in time for Avengers: Infinity Wars. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 4.0/5 |
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This 2-disc release comes with a glossy, semi-reflective and title-embossed slip cover. Inside is a code for the Digital Copy. Audio Commentary – Directors Anthony and Joe Russo and Screenwriters Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely provide a lively yet still informative track providing detail on the production, working with the actors and other tid-bits. United We Stand, Divided We Fall: The Making of Captain America: Civil War Part 1 & 2 (TRT 45:43; HD) is an extensive making-of featurette that includes on-set interviews with members of the cast (Evans, Downey Jr., Bettany, Mackie, etc) and crew (Russo Brothers, Feige, etc) and has behind-the-scenes footage. Captain America: The Road to Civil War (4:11; HD) looks at the path so far within the Marvel Universe. Iron Man: The Road to Civil War (4:27; HD) is the same, except this time focusing on Iron Man and his evolution. Open Your Mind: Marvel’s Doctor Strange (4:02; HD) is an exclusive sneak peek at the next movie within the MCU. Deleted & Extended Scenes (7:52; HD) – There were four scenes either trimmed or removed. Although nice, there’s really nothing of note and were probably rightly cut for pacing. Gag Reel (2:53; HD) |
3D VIDEO – 4.5/5, 2D VIDEO – 5.0/5
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| Captain America: Civil War comes to Blu-ray through Buena Vista Home Entertainment presented in its original theatrical 2.39 widescreen aspect ratio and given a nice 1080p high-definition transfer. There’s no surprise that detail is sharp throughout and colors are generally vibrant and splash onto the smaller screen quite nicely, even when the tone of the film goes dark.
As far as the 3D transfer goes, from my memory it more or less matches what I saw in theaters. It’s nice for sure and there’s some good amount of depth that shows especially during the in-flight action sequences and even those few moments within the Iron Man or War Machine suits. Colors still looks bright even if it’s a darker tint as is somewhat common on 3D releases. |
AUDIO – 5.0/5 |
| Although Disney still seems behind the times not going with either an Atmos or DTS: X tracks, the movie still comes with a rock solid DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track and if there’s any movie that shows a wide range, it would be this one. Some scenes are strictly dialogue driven and in those, it sounds crisp and clear but once the action ramps up, that’s when this lossless track goes into overdrive. Each and every channel gets used to its full potential. |
OVERALL – 4.25/5 |
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Overall, Captain America: Civil War is a good movie for sure and I did enjoy elements of it and the fight between Cap and Iron Man was well done, however, the film does have its issues, one being the airport tarmac sequence, while fun to behold at times, also felt messy and the inclusion of Spidey felt forced, though seeing the future of the character in the MCU kind of makes up for it. The Blu-ray released through Disney offers great video/audio transfers and a fine selection of bonus features. |
Great review thank you ! will be getting the 3D version.
btw when you have time if you could update the blu ray release page, it didnt have this movie on the list so im glad you psoted this review…thanks
Thanks for visiting and yes, IMO the 3D combo pack is worth it (heck not big on slip covers but this one is nice).
As for the release schedule page, I actually started working on it but then got inundated by reviews. My hope is to update this weekend.
I bought this as a blind-buy, having not already seen it, and thankfully it turned out to be pretty good. However, it falls short of the excellence of “Winter Soldier” in that it doesn’t really feel like a Cap movie to me, but rather an Avengers movie (minus two members). I would have preferred a Cap3 that followed up primarily with the Bucky stuff, with maybe a B-story involving Crossbones, who I expected to have a significantly larger presence in the film. I dunno, the Civil War plot just seemed to crush what could have been a great Cap movie and should have belonged in an Avengers movie, IMO. It’s like they crammed two movies into one here, and unfortunately it’s Cap that got the short end of the stick.
I agree. It was entertaining but I think the screenplay would’ve benefited from another pass. And it was more or less an Avengers movie but their thinking probably was it’s a continuation of Winter Soldier so that’s why it was titled Captain America.