Captain America Civil War Review

Tien-Li Hsiung

Captain America: Civil War is the last installment of the Captain America trilogy of films, and the first film set in the Phase Three lineup of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Civil War stars William Hurt, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Olsen, Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd, Paul Bettany, Robert Downey Jr., Chadwick Boseman, Don Cheadle, Daniel Bruhl, Tom Holland  and finally, Chris Evans as Captain America. After an Avengers mission goes wrong, U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (Hurt) states that the United Nations will pass the Sokovia Accords, which allows the U.N. to control the Avengers. Tony Stark, Iron Man, (Downey Jr.) is for the accords after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, where his creation of Ultron caused only mayhem and destruction. However, Steve Rogers, Captain America (Evans), is against any sort of government control of the Avengers, believing that their freedom will be taken away. Confusing things even further is the return of Bucky (Stan), Rogers’ childhood friend, and the appearance of Helmut Zemo (Bruhl), who seeks to tear the Avengers apart using Bucky.

Civil War is great in the character department — everyone from Captain America and Iron Man to the rest of the Avengers have a character arc to go through. Vision (Bettany) and the Scarlet Witch (Olsen) have to deal with their powers and how they could unintentionally harm people. Black Widow (Johansson) is conflicted between Captain America and Iron Man’s sides, and sees that both heroes have a point. War Machine (Cheadle) and Falcon (Mackie) stick with Iron Man and Captain America respectively as their best friends and partners. There’s also an appearance from Ant-Man (Rudd), Spider-Man (Holland), and the film debut of Black Panther (Boseman) who goes through some character development throughout the film.

Civil War does require watching the previous installments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in order to understand where the characters are coming from. After all, it’s the last installment of the Captain America trilogy after The First Avenger and The Winter Soldier. Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers also have huge roles in this film, so watching the Iron Man Trilogy and the first two Avengers films are also required. Although Ant-Man’s cameo was great, his introduction into Civil War was very abrupt and watching the Ant-Man solo film is another requirement.

Civil War isn’t without its flaws, the pacing could have been better and more polished. Especially with how complicated Zemo’s plan was sometimes. At times it feels like The Winter Soldier is the better sequel due to more focus on Captain America, whereas it feels like this film should be called “Captain America & Iron Man: Civil War” instead.

However, Civil War is more enjoyable to watch than it is painful to sit through. It’s an excellent example of a film using its larger universe as its background. It’s also a film that feels like it gets better with every repeated viewing. Captain America: Civil War is a 8/10.