Captain America: Civil War

Somehow Captain America became my favorite superhero of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When I first saw his origin movie I fell asleep during it. Even after enjoying him in his (smaller) role in The Avengers, I still wasn't anticipating his second solo outing, Captain America: Winter Soldier.

And now here we are in Phase 3 of Marvel's plan, and Captain America is easily the best, most interesting and fleshed out of the Avengers. Because of that, or perhaps it is the other way around, his films are the best of the solo outings. By far.

While I don't think Civil War is as good as Winter Soldier (my favorite of the Avengers films, although none are likely more fun than Guardians of the Galaxy), it's still a decent film that gets the most out of the franchise's characters (despite there being about a billion of them now). We've been with these characters for a long time now, so when sides are chosen we understand each of the superheros' reasons for choosing the way they do.

Cap and Tony Stark are the leaders of the two sides, something that isn't surprising as these two have been slightly antagonistic since they met (I agree with Entertainment Weekly's assessment in their review that these two have the best solo outings). They are two sides of the same coin, wanting the same things but each going about it in different ways. They also respect one another, which is why I appreciate their reconciliation when Stark realizes he is wrong.

However, I don't quite buy Stark's then issue with Cap and Bucky after learning the truth about how his parents died. Revenge as a reaction after the death of a loved one is my absolute least favorite tropes. I never buy it (I could write an entire post on this...). And not from Stark, who is smart enough to realize that Bucky is not really responsible for the deaths. It's at least a gray area and Stark's reaction is black and white.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is getting so big now that it's hard to remember all that happened in the last films. I really just have generalized memories, like being disappointed with Age of Ultron, enjoying Guardians of the Galaxy, surprisingly liking Iron Man 3, not caring for Thor: The Dark World. I didn't even bother to see Ant Man. I kept trying to piece together what had happened previously and why a character was acting a certain way. Which is why the earlier films are my favorite - everything was simpler then and the cast was smaller.

Speaking of cast, there are A LOT of superheroes in this film. We have our well-known Avengers, but also get Black Panther, Vision, Wanda and Spiderman. Yes, Sony finally gave permission for Spiderman to join the Universe and he is fantastic! Lots of promise there.

Also, can we talk about how there's no way Howard Stark is Tony's father and Peggy Carter is Sharon's aunt; they should at least be grandfather or great-aunt. If we assume Howard Stark is 30 when he's introduced in The First Avenger, that would make him 80 in 1991 when he dies. There's also no way he has a son who is 20ish in 1991. And, if Bucky/Winter Soldier was unthawed in 1991, shouldn't he have aged and been much older in 2016??

Anyway, I fear there will soon be superhero fatigue. The Universe keeps expanding and adding more characters, that at some point I just won't care anymore. This article sums up my concerns perfectly.