And The Winner Is....

As always there are spoilers in this review.

I am a comic book fan and have been since my early teenage years. With that said however I wouldn't consider myself a member of the hardcore fanship, by which I mean I am not passionately anti DC or Marvel in the way that other fanboys are. Yes I will admit that I consider myself more of a DC guy and Batman has always been my hero of choice as his books have made up the vast majority of my reading material throughout my life. I have also enjoyed the works of Marvel and at various times collected titles such as the classic 1992 X-Men series and both Spiderman and Hulk.

So what does this have to do with a movie review I hear you ask, this is afterall my review of Marvels Captain America Civil War. Well the point I'm making is that I have nothing against movies based on the work of either company and that includes those films made by other companies who own the rights to various Marvel movie properties, if a film is good then I am happy as a comic book fan to sit back and enjoy it, if however a film is in anyway bad then I will call it out on its faults regardless of the company from which it came. Case in point is that DCs Dark Knight Rises is not a great film for me and over at Fox the latest Fantastic Four movie (based of course on the first family of Marvel) is just abysmal.

There will be those of you reading this who question my take on DKR and I will admit that it is far better than FF but I am a comic book purist and would love to see the movies that are based on famous stories be more true to the source material. Yes Tom Hardy is not bad but I still do not think that justice has been done to the character of Bane, particularly when you consider the end reveal in DKR that he is nothing more than a puppet for Talia Al Ghul which really stuck in my craw.

With all of this in mind 2016 is a huge year for comic book films and it all began so well with the immensity of Ryan Reynolds finally getting to bring Deadpool to the masses. Putting the Merc with the Mouth to one side however there are three huge smackdowns hittting cinema screens this year, the most anticipated of which for me is X-Men Apocalypse as Days of Future Past is my favourite comic book movie of all time.

First to be released of course was Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice which I have covered in two seperate reviews and which I gave a score of 1 out of 10 due to the fact that it was pure and utter tosh (IMO), with so many plot holes and seemingly pointless ,dull, boring moments that go on for far too long. Yes I disliked the film because of the fact that it took multiple comic book threads, mixed them together and threw them at the wall to see what would stick (the complete ruination of The Dark Knight Returns is something I will never get over) but it was also the terrible direction and clunky dialogue that just took me out of the film and left me longing for it to end.

So being honest I was not particularly looking forward to Civil War as it was clear that the Russo brothers would be making a film that was far and away removed from many of the key moments of the original source material and I was unconvinced that it could work with the limited universe Marvel have brought to the movie world thus far, a universe that is nowhere near as expansive as it really needs to be to pull off Civil War convincingly........at least thats what I thought.

So to the film itself opens with a brief reminder of the existence of Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier as we see some of the torture he suffered to be made the killing machine he became. We also see him cause a car to crash and take something from the boot, this will become important later.

Back to the Avengers who are not the same as we remember from the previous two films. Thor and Hulk are AWOL and Iron Man seems to have hung up the suit to play at businessman whilst Captain America and Black Widow lead the new team which comprises of Vision, Scarlett Witch, Falcon and War Machine. We catch up with them in Nigeria where they are tracking Hydra agent Brock Rumlow (one of the key members of Hydras infiltration of SHIELD in Captain America Winter Soldier) who has become the villian Crossbones. Crossbones team of course cross paths with the Avengers and a massive battle ensues which ends with an explosion killing several innocent people inside a building.

We next see Tony Stark who is at his old college handing out grants to all the students before running into a woman whos son was in Sokovia when the Avengers battled Ultron and as per the modern Superhero movie many civilians were killed in the melee, the womans son being one of the victims. This of course leads to feelings of guilt in Tony as he realises the human cost to the work the Avengers do.

At the Avengers HQ Cap is talking to Scarlett Witch who herself is feeling guilty after the Nigeria explosion. They are interrupted by Vision who informs the pair that Tony has arrived but that he has brought a guest with him, why its only bloody General Thaddeus Ross who we havent seen since Edward Nortons turn in The Incredible Hulk, Ross is now the Secretary of State. Ross addresses the team and tells them that after all the damage they have caused in their previous adventures and tells them that 117 countries have joined together and agreed that the Avengers need to be held accountable and only sent on missions when the UN decrees it so. All the Avengers need to do is sign the Sokovia Accords and agree to be policed. Herein lies the problem however as whilst Tony is happy to do so and encourage the others to follow suit Cap is less enthusiastic and a divide begins to form.

We jump ahead to a meeting in Vienna where the leaders of the world have gathered to watch the Avengers sign the Accords but the process is interrupted by an explosion which kills the king of Wakanda who dies in the arms of his son T'Challa (our first meeting with Black Panther). All signs point to Bucky being responsible for the explosion and this leads to T'Challa promising to kill Bucky whilst Cap goes against the other Avengers by deciding he should be the one to bring his former friend in alive. Oh and as an aside Cap also attends the funeral of Peggy Carter who dies off screen and doesn't make an appearence which is a little disappointing.

Continuing our global tour we find Bucky in Bucharest where he reads a paper and discovers that he is being accused of the bombing which would seem to be a surprise to him. He heads back to his appartment where Cap is waiting for him. Before they can really have a conversation about Buckys surrender GSC9 agents turn up to take Bucky into custody. Cue another fight scene which sees Bucky escape but run straight into Black Panther which in turn leads to an immense chase/fight scene involving Cap, Bucky and Panther. The chase ends with all three giving up to GSC9 following an appearence by War Machine.

The GSC9 HQ is in Berlin which is where they are taken, Bucky as a prisoner and Cap and Falcon (who had also been part of the chase) as 'guests'. Tony is there to convince Cap to sign the Accords which Cap refuses to do as he is convinced that Bucky was not responsible for the explosion and has no faith in the Avengers answering to a higher power. Bucky meanwhile is being interrogated by Cap enemy (in the comic books) Baron Zemo (not called Baron here) who is impersonating the man who was supposed to be doing the questionning. We have seen Zemo earlier in the film looking into Buckys life for unknown reasons though all begins to become clear as he recites key words which trigger Buckys uncontrollable assassin side (why he does this will become clear later).

So Bucky escapes and battles Panther again as well as almost killing Tony and Black Widow. CAp and Falcon confront Zemo and get a hint of what his plan is before helping Bucky escape and shake off the mind control that he is under. Cap then realises that they have to stop Zemo who he believes will be heading back to where the Winter Soldier was born as Bucky was only one of a number of recruits who were given the same treatment to make them villianous versions of Cap.

All of this leads to the big fight scene of the film where Cap brings together a team consisting of Falcon, an out of retirement Hawkeye, Antman, Scarlett Witch (who had to take out Vision to join Caps side) and Bucky to fight Iron Mans team of War Machine, Vision, Black Widow, Black Panther and a debuting SPIDERMAN. Speaking of Spiderman before the fight we get a scene where Tony visits young Peter Parker and encourages him to up his game and join his team which was brilliantly done.

The fight is everything that Batfleck vs Supervilles big fight wasn't. Its full of humour, intense battles and is so good that it had me both laughing and breathless with its greatness. After the battle CAp and Bucky head back to the facility where the Winter Soldier was created whilst Tony visits the Raft prison where the rest of Caps team are being held by Secretary Ross. By this point Tony has relaised that Cap was right and so Falcon tells him where Cap and Bucky have gone so that Iron Man can help him out.

At the facility the three heros team up (Black Panther follows Tony and hides out in the shadows) and find Zemo who reveals to Tony that Bucky was responsible for the death of his parents who happened to be in the car he caused crash in the opening of the film. This drives Tony to battle Cap and Bucky which sees Buckys metal arm being ripped off and Cap smashing Tonys power source to put his Iron Man suit out of commission before he picks up Bucky and leaves.

The film closes with Tony reading a letter from Cap which we hear by way of voice over as we see that he has broken into the raft to release his friends.

There are two post credit scenes. Firstly we see Cap has taken Bucky to Wakanda to have his arm repaired and to be cryogenically frozen as he cannot trust himself due to his Winter Soldier conditioning. Panther promises to keep him safe regardless of who comes to get him. Secondly we see Peter Parker using some new tech he has been given by Tony and there is a tease for the upcoming Spiderman movie.

So that was Civil War, a movie that I went into with trepidation and came out of with a sense of jubilation and a big smile on my face. Many have said that you should not compare Dawn of Justice to Civil War as the MCU has had a decade to establish itself whilst the DCEU is only two films old but when you have two competing films that have such similar plots I think it is absolutely fair to compare the two.

Both films deal with the collateral damage caused by superheroes but whilst DOJ drags its heels for over an hour and doesn't really give any justification for the coming battle between the heroes Civil War gets right to the point and keeps the viewer engaged as we head from one set piece to another as we head towards the big fight. Speaking of heroes fighting each other, in DOJ we get just 7 minutes of fight which whilst visually stunning just does nothing to make you side with either character. Watching Team Iron Man battle Team Cap however is not inly the visual equal of DOJ (and lasts a helluva lot longer) but it also makes you choose a side as some viewers will agree with Caps actions in defending his friend whilst others will see things from Tony's point of view.

Another complaint about DOJ is the number of side characters who barely get any screen time, this is certainly not an issue with Civil War as Marvel gives everyone their own space and we get to see why all of them are choosing the side they are rather than the teams being cobbled together and us as an audience just being expected to go along with it.

In DOJ the only actor to come away with any credit is Ben Affleck (I am prepared to admit I was wrong) but in Civil War all of the main characters come across well. Black Widow and Bucky both get to show off their kickassary, Spiderman and Antman get small cameos that put the Justice League flashes in DOJ to shame and of course the likes of Cap and Iron Man are as strong as ever. In fact the only character who feels surplus to requirements herte is Vision but even he serves a purposes on a couple of occasions.

Now is Civil War perfect? No it isn't, there are certain plot points that feel a little forced or don't necessarily make sense if you really think about them but they are so few and far between (unlike DOJ) that they certainly don't drag the film down in any way. I stated earlier in this review that Days of Future Past is my favourite superhero movie of all time and I scored it 9.5 out of 10 as there were one or two things that held it back from a perfect score. Well I'm going to go out on a limb here and give Civil War the same lofty score of 9.5 as frankly it bloody well deserves it as it has become my joint favourite film of the genre.

My biggest complaint about Civil War is that there were no deaths (Peggy Carter aside). This may sound odd but it was the death of more than one character in the original source material that brought the war to an end and the complete lack of death here does fall a little flat for me but then I guess many will likely fall in the two part Infinity War as in all honesty they have to to keep things fresh going forward into future phases of the MCU.

So we are three superhero movies into 2016. One has been a pleasant surprise (Deadpool), one has been a colossal waste of everybodies time (DOJ) and one has been so immense that it deserves every bit of praise it is going to get (Civil War). My only hope now is that X-Men Apocalypse doesn't let me down.