Maybe it’s because the fictional Captain America is better than the current real-life presidential candidates, or maybe it’s because superhero movies are multiplying at such a rate that we half expect Meryl Streep to be nominated in some kind of Super-Spidey-Bat-Hulk spinoff…
Twelve Marvel films in a row have opened in the number-one box office spot. We’ve grown to accept the formula and swallow the superfood, that mélange of skull-crunching CG action, tasty bon mots, comic-world incest and spinoff potential served up several times a year now by the studios. And by that standard, Captain America: Civil War is pretty decent.
The trend this year is to forgo the villains altogether and have the heroes do battle against each other. Collateral damage is again the impetus for division in the superhero world: after a particularly nasty body count, Secretary of State William Hurt decrees that all super-folk submit to the will of the United Nations. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), guilt-ridden about that event and others (remember Ultron?) agrees; however, Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) cleverly foresees the perils of putting superpowers in the hands of any government, and demurs.
The Avengers quickly take sides, among them Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olson), Vision (Paul Bettany) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). But wait, there’s more…
Adding to the ever-expanding universe of Marvel characters is Chadwick Boseman (42, Get On Up) as T’Challah, a.k.a. Black Panther, who will get his very own franchise in 2018. Tom Holland (In the Heart of the Sea) appears as a young Spider-Man. Daniel Bruhl is the villain Zemo, gleefully watching as the world loses faith and the Avengers self-destruct.
The pivotal scene for comic geeks, then, has to be watching all these Marvel heroes rumble on a Leipzig, Germany tarmac. One-upmanship of sorts of the Batman-versus-Superman conceit, the sequence is a veritable smorgasbord of battle armour and fighting styles, and is the audience’s reward for diligently watching the assorted, intertwined superhero tales that have led to this moment. It’s long but it’s a doozy, and worth some of the clunky political messages injected into the screenplay.
We get to see a personal side of Steve Rogers, too, and it’s not a woman who claims his heart — though Emily Van Camp, playing Agent 13, certainly tries — but his ol’ pal Bucky Barnes. Steve makes some pivotal decisions in the hopes of freeing a brainwashed Bucky from his 80-year stint as the Winter Soldier, hoping, no doubt, to finally have someone to talk to after all these years.
The other vital relationship in the Captain’s life is his flat-lining bromance with Iron Man/Tony Stark, after details are revealed (in clever flashbacks) about Tony’s family tragedy yet Steve blocks any chance of revenge.  Â
Instead of just hanging out in the Marvel Universe, Civil War actually propels the plot forward, a bonus for those suffering from super-fatigue. Everyone else, those invested in the Marvel canon, will love how Civil War gives each character his due and hints at mega-mayhem to come.
Captain America: Civil War opens this week at Scotiabank and Fifth Avenue.
