So I've just come out of Captain America: Civil War.
I'm gonna say up front that none of the trailers for this movie sold me on the concept. Or rather, the trailers never made me feel that this movie was necessary.
Yes it's an introduction for Black Panther and Spider-Man 3.0, but did we need such a convoluted story? Especially now in the wake of Age of Ultron and leading into Infinity Gauntlet.
Reviews have been super positive for this movie so far. What seems to be the general consensus is that the parts are better than the whole for Civil War. What do I mean by CA:CW being convoluted? Its a Marvel movie. They aren't difficult to understand! Right?
That's true, but I mean it is convoluted when remembering that this is not a stand-alone movie at all.
It is the third Captain America movie and it is the 13th movie in the MCU.
That's a long of viewing.
So this movie literally only makes sense if you've (at least) watched the first two Cap movies. But then to grasp the notions of the Sokovia Accord and the reasons why it (apparently) is needed, you need to watch Age of Ultron.
What I'm trying to say is that taking this movie out of context and attempting to appreciate it for its own merits is very tough.
This movie is completely enjoyable and well created. The action is admirable (if only really the next step from what was on display in The Bourne movies with superheroes). Each character gets at least one good moment to show off their abilities and personality. Standout performances go to the scene-stealing Paul Rudd as Ant Man and Tom Holland as Spiderman. Paul was fantastic and Tom has certainly made a quality impression as Spider-Man.
But the bromance between Cap, Falcon and Bucky is probably the best part of the whole movie.
The story is kinda crappy. Fun, but crappy.
The cause of the rift between Cap and Tony is loose and undefined. It only got better right at the end. I'm not gonna spoil why here, but sufficed to say, The best emotional "war" between Cap and Tony is right at the end, when they could have (and probably should have) played that card much, much sooner.
I guess the biggest issue I have with Civil War is that it pulls so many punches - largely by design. These guys are friends and therefore they aren't going to go all-out in the fights. They are literally gonna pull their punches. Even when Rhodes is injured, it's doesn't feel like that big of a deal because he's friends with Tony fuckin' Stark. He's gonna get himself a shiny new pair of legs before you know it.
Then it all ends so perfectly with a wonderful... letter... We don't see the awesome breakout, we don't see anything about the fallout from the break up of The Avengers or the Sokovia Accord. Nothing. Nothing really feels like there is much on the line. So Civil War is another stop-gap movie.
We're starting to see something very familiar in the storytelling. Something that is common in TV seasons. Filler episodes. This felt like a well-produced, well-acted filler episode.
What else to say?
Black Panther was good and could be the next great movie - if handled as an isolated, standalone movie. Spider-Man was good. I shall reserve justice for now but he was fun during the fight scene and interesting when he was Peter Parker.
But it now feels like you're not going to be able to watch and completely enjoy any more MCU movies without watching at least one or two additional films. Spider-Man has already confirmed that Tony Stark is gonna be in the film. Winter Soldier is likely to appear in the Black Panther feature. Whose going to be the cameo in Dr Strange, I wonder.
I wonder now how Spider-Man: Homecoming is going to play out. Spider-Man was introduced through Iron Man and Tony Stark has already been confirmed to appear. So will Spider-Man: Homecoming be an origin story? Will it continue on from Civil War?
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this movie a lot. But it makes me worried about how successful the following movies are going to be at telling isolated stories. Or if Marvel/Disney are even going to bother trying any more. They have invested so much time and money into creating the MCU that stand-alone movies could very well be a thing of the past.
That's the exact reason why I think that the DCCU could be much better. Yes, they are heading as fast as they can into the Justice League, but I am far more interested in the individual movies. The next Batman movies is gonna be awesome given the people involved; Wonder Woman is looking excellent and I can't wait for a trailer to drop; I'm a big fan of The Flash; Aquaman could be exciting.
Marvel are churning out very good movies at a very fast pace, but there don't seem to be too many coming out with their own "flavour". I fear that it is a potential issue of breeding out impurities and resulting in