THERE MAY BE A FEW SPOILERS! BEWARE!
All week long on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Fallon was gushing all over Captain America: Civil War. “Oh, man, it is so action packed! I mean, it is NON-STOP ACTION!” Well, actually, Jimmy, it’s not. I know, you have an obligation to get people into the theatres to see a movie and the best way to do that is to hype the ACTION! But Civil War is a different kind of action movie. Most of the scripts depicting Marvel’s super hero universe use dialogue to set up the action sequences. This script differs from those others because it uses the action sequences to set up the scenes of thoughtful dialogue between the characters. In fact, the weakest parts of this movie are the action sequences. Wait a minute, my Marvel Universe Geeks, don’t get you pocket protectors in a bunch. Yes, the BIG action sequence at the airport, GREAT, well thought out, well-choreographed and filmed perfectly. But most of the other fight scenes and chase scenes were clumsy and awkward. They used too many camera tricks that only blurred the action so the audience really couldn’t see what was going on. And what’s up with the frigging camera shaky stuff? Yes, I know the documentary footage from Vietnam was all shaky, but that wasn’t an artistic choice on the part of the filmmakers. The shaky camera, the jump shots, filming the fight scenes on high speed film really just makes a muddy mess of the scene.
But let me get back to the good stuff, the script. I don’t think there’s a more literary action movie out there. This isn’t a movie just about fighting and blowing things up. It’s about ideas, particularly the moral implications of war. AND even more to the point, this script deals with the ramifications of “collateral damage.” Yeah, you know that phrase. Every time Obama sends a drone out to KILL the bad guy in some foreign country we never heard of, some innocent civilian winds-up getting killed. And whenever that happens, the State Department comes out with some sort of glib statement about collateral damage. “Hey, you know, we didn’t mean to kill little Suzie Q while she was outside her house bouncing her red rubber ball . . . But accidents happen! The good news is we KILLED the bad guy.” There’s also a lot about revenge in this movie. In fact, the whole story is motivated by the need to kill the people who killed somebody's a loved one either intentionally or by accident. And the script isn’t just a casual debate about war and its horrors. It’s not just an intellectual exercise. The issues are discussed in very human ways leaving the audience not sure just who are the good guys and who are the big guys. It’s neither pro-war nor antiwar although it does layout both sides of the argument in clear and precise strokes.
The acting has never been better. Chris Evans and Robert Downy Jr. never played these characters better. But they did have a kick-ass script to help them along. All the head-butting these two characters have done in every movie they’ve both been in has finally come down to the final show down. I know the movie is called Captain America: Civil War, but it’s just as much about The-Rich-Kid-From-The-Penthouse as it is about The-Poor-Boy-From-The-Bronx. Sabastian Stan’s Bucky (with the good hair, see? I’m pretty hip to the new century’s pop! Hee!) is psychotically charming as the Winter Soldier trying to come in from the cold. And I’m pretty sure his horrifying journey is a metaphor for PTSD. And the rest of the cast is just brilliant even though they don’t have much screen time. But one standout in this supporting cast has got to be the new (and improved?) Spider-Man played with wonderful, teenage awkwardness by Tom Holland.
So, except for my constant hounding about phony baloney action sequences (which I’m hard pressed to understand WHY more people aren’t complaining about it) Captain America: Civil War is probably the best executed Marvel movie we have seen yet.
Grade 89% = B+
