Captain America: Civil war review (Spoliers)

I finally got around to watching Civil War last night and both myself and Ms Torn Branches loved it.

One of the major flaws of the Avenger series (barring the first one) was the lack of attention given to the super villains. Apart from Loki, the super villains all suffer the fate of one shot movie evil-doers - the are beaten by the good guys never to be heard from again. We never get much in the way of character development or grow with the villains like we can with the 'good guys' for example Iron Man.

This is where Civil War shines. We know and love both Captain America and Iron Man, and we understand where they are coming from when they make the decisions they do. Putting the conflict into D&D terms, the main plot revolves around Iron Man (Lawful Good) vs Captain America (Chaotic Good).

So does this mean that Civil War lacked a decent villain? Absolutely not. Helmut Zemo's villainy is both intelligent and understandable. Helmut is essentially just an ordinary man - what hope does he realistically have to take down the Avengers - zip, zero, nada. 

This is why the story is so believable. Helmut doesn't try to out-fight the greatest heroes on earth. Instead, he exploits their own fragile emotions to get them to take each other out. 

So whose side was I on?  I came out of the film thinking that everyone would be cheering for Captain America. Ms Torn Branches was surprised to learn this and assumed everyone would be on Iron Man's side. This only cemented my positive view even further. If two people watching the same movie can come out with a different perspective on the moral decisions of the characters, then the writing has been effective and the conflict was genuine. 

Aside from Iron Man and Captain America, Marvel has used its full stable of superheroes to good effect. The movie also introduced two new superheroes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe - Spider-Man and the Black Panther. The latter was superb and I look forward to seeing more of the Wakandan royalty. 

Overall I have not been a great fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I'll always prefer the artistic freedom writers get with comic books. However, this movie is the exception to the rule and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Highlights:

• Complex villain with good plan
• Genuine conflict
• Great additions with spidey boy, Antman
• The Winter Soldier and the Black Panther were both show stealers.