Captain America: Civil War Review:
By Akintoba Kalejaye

I was quite late to the party as far as viewings go since I saw this movie on the second day of its release. But, as the Japanese say when mimicking English language “Don mind, don mind…”, Just don’t mind. .

Moving on, we have all been waiting for this movie for quite some time, our appetite not being sated by the fiasco that was Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. I will be predicting since BVS came up that Civil war’s opening earnings will be stalled by BVS nearly breaking the whole Superhero genre of Cinematic releases but, that’s a discuss for another day..

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

I will take this review in steps to enable you follow my thoughts and the basis upon which I base my analysis of this movie. I will itemize based on General thoughts, Positives, Negatives and True personal bias. So, first things first….

General Thoughts:

This was a good movie. Captain America: Civil War was a well-crafted, well scripted master piece. Given the tediously complex nature of two heroes contending while continuing to portray their motivations and inclination as relatively pure, marvel did a very good job. The scenes were well lit, the action scenes were intense and immersive, the characters well fleshed out and continuity as per other marvel movies was nailed at the bullseye

The production crew did their job quite splendidly. The cinematography and directing of the movie was clearly outstanding. Captain America: Civil War, mostly was a hit from the beginning to the end.

The acting? It was good, mostly. By now, all marvel characterizing has settled into a pretty mellow and expected pace. All the actors are conversant with their roles and they all definitely did not disappoint.

On a general basis, this was a good movie. I immensely enjoyed myself even though I went into the cinema hall expecting to mentally tear the movie apart.

Next, the particular positives.

Positives: Apart from my general thoughts anyway…

Captain America: Civil War was mostly a cinematic experience of positives.

The introduction of Tçhalla portrayed by Chadwick Boseman and a young Spiderman by Tom Holland were strokes of genius that marvel excelled with. These two characters were the hallmark of the movie for me and every scene they were in blew my mind every time. Still on acting, the introduction of ant man by Paul rudd into the larger marvel universe was also a good move. The movie made sure to mostly utilize all characters properly and efficiently. I address the bads on the acting below though.

Tçhalla portrayed by Chadwick Boseman

Spiderman by Tom Holland

And, Sebastian Stan as Bucky was really the star of this movie. His portrayal of a tortured constrained character was a hit every single time. If I will be honest, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye was also quite above average.

The cinematography was excellent. The directing was superb. The Russo Brother and Kevin Feige outdid themselves on this one. The tone of the movie was adequate and tastefully executed. It was dark when it needed to be and light hearted when it needed to be. The action scenes also were well executed; I honestly have nothing to complain about.

This movie was a step from past marvel movies, definitely.

And now, * drums roll*, the Negatives.

The Negatives: Whatever that movie was, that was not a civil war…

Captain America: Civil War: who's side are you on?

Most of the problems I perceived in the movie had little to do with directing and more to do with acting and characterization. While I am trying not to spoil the movie, it will be hard here so bear with me.

It is my personal theory, that all the returning actor have settled so comfortably into the lull of being marvel heroes, that none of them impressed. Yes, they did not disappoint since they are all A-Listers any ways, but not one of the returning actors wowed with their acting chops (Except Buck Barnes by Sebastian Stan, and that doesn’t count). There was little to no chemistry between Captain America and Iron Man enough to explain or warrant the emotional investment needed to immerse the movie watcher in why this “civil war” was so terrible and bad.

Chris Evans’s Captain America was flat at the best and honestly bored me a bit. Even though he was the titular character, it would be more accurate to say that a Bucky Barnes, black panther and Baron Zemo movie. Robert Downey seemed very tired and uninterested in most of his scenes, when he smiled, it never reached his eyes and when he frowned, he looked constipated. This was a bad outing for the two main characters. The talent as far as their look on screen as far as I am concerned would be the directing team who managed to make them passable. Scarlet witch? someone needs to tell Elizabeth Olsen that she is an actress. Oh my god, that was an abysmal performance. Paul Bettany was okay, *meh*.

On the directing? *sigh*, the first 30 minutes of Captain America: Civil War was quite honestly flat. I am reluctant to use the word “boring” but, the beginning was flat. The directing team also totally failed at portraying the civil war theme. In the comics, Civil War was an arc that spanned several month and several comic franchises. The civil war tore the marvel universe apart.

Compared to that, this was mere an area boys fight at Onikan over who finished the Ogogoro. That was definitely not a civil war. But, honestly, this paragraph deserves its own full derivation on its own to do justice to it.

The scripting of the movie also completely missed the essence of Zemo, the apparent main villain of the movie. His motivations were not clear, his ability or how he was able to pull off the whole fiasco was glossed over at the most and his manner of achieving said goals were inconsistent and unrealistic at the best. Show iron man a piece of information? that was the best they had? Oh wow.

Oh well, despite all the above the movie was solid, so you can ignore and form your own opinions after seeing the movie.

My Personal Bias:

I will keep this short.

Captain America: Civil War was actually not a civil war. The returning actors were not the stars of the movie and they need to step up their game. The producing team need to look at the total package and make notes for the next cross franchise movies.

But,

This movie was awesome, fun and all it needed to be. It impressed me beyond measure and Encore to Marvel!

….I think The Avengers Movie was a better movie though.