'Captain America: Civil War' Dumping Ground

Can't believe I haven't mentioned it but Cap 3 is going to be the kickoff for Marvel's adaptation of Civil War. I'm not clear if Cap 3 is going to be the totality of it or if it's the start of the storyline that will bloom in a later Avengers film. But this is one movie I'm seriously stoked for. I seriously dig the Civil War comics and it's incredibly Marvel Studios-friendly... except for Spider-Man... and clearly that's negotiable.

It's always mystified me how someone can be over-the-top insane about some movie coming soon. I like comic movies but goings CRAZY for them? Not so much. But Civil War? Yeah, I could lose my shit over a Civil War movie.

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I understand the story and franchise potential of that Infinity War thing but... honestly, I'm a lot more up for Civil War right now than I am about the Infinity stuff. Maybe it's just because I'm not a Marvel guy in the big scheme of things but I always regarded that Infinity shit as a fairly minor story in the grand scheme of things. Yeah, it has admirers but I'm hardpressed to think of anybody who pointed to those stories as their favorite. Before the movie announcements, I mean. But now? Yeah, lots of people out there are suddenly realizing how much they've always loved the Infinity Whatever.

As for Civil War, a lot of people point to that as the moment when the wheels came off Marvel's wagon. And an almost equal number point to it as the moment they first became invested in Marvel. And love it or hate it but Civil War's probably the biggest, most "important" thing Marvel has done in the past 15 or so years.

But Civil War's getting a Captain America sequel and the Infinity Whocares is getting multiple Avengers films.

*sigh*

Look, I don't want to sound like I'm criticizing here because I'm not. I'm kind of beyond questioning Marvel Studio's creative decisions at this point. But it looks like I'll need to see the final products before I can condone this decision.

The trailer is pretty "meh" for me. I'm calling it 'Captain America: Winter Soldier Redux War', because we are basically seeing the same movie, just with GUEST STARS!

The Spider-Man reveal was weak-sauce too. They are on a fucking TARMAC, again,  and NO ONE saw him coming?? The CGI was spotty at best too.

But of course, the trailer doesn't get 1/3 the hate 'BV.S' ones got, because......reasons.

I realize the practical realities Marvel is up against here but the comic book Civil War had dozens (or hundreds) of people on each sides. And not just superheroes; supervillains chose sides too.

It looks like the movie will have four or five people on each side. It's arguably way too soon to do this movie because the MCU hasn't been built up big enough yet.

Oddly enough though...

We've got a movie coming where hero fights hero. A major part of the conflict is centered on the mass amounts of destruction from earlier. The human billionaire philanthropist/playboy/corporate titan thinks the superhero community needs to be kept on a leash, at a minimum, and maybe eliminated entirely... and he's just the boy to do it too.

I'm not talk about Civil War up there; I'm talking about Batman v Superman. Interesting how the basic concepts are fairly similar though, yes? One of those will be adored by the fanbase while the other will be decried. And not even because it even makes any fucking sense but because it's the Internet.

*sigh*

Apologist Puncher wrote:The trailer is pretty "meh" for me. I'm calling it 'Captain America: Winter Soldier Redux War'

I was worried about how this will seem too similar to WINTER SOLDIER. What I loved about the first two CA films was that they're very different from each other. They feel like distinct films, for obvious reasons, but I thought it was cool that Marvel would gives us a new flavor in each installment. Instead it's the same directors and it looks to be going for the same Bourne action aesthetic the second film did. If it's done great, fine, I can go with it, but that does make THE FIRST AVENGER in hindsight to look like the odd man out when you look at all three films.

James Stocks wrote:

Apologist Puncher wrote:The trailer is pretty "meh" for me. I'm calling it 'Captain America: Winter Soldier Redux War'

I was worried about how this will seem too similar to WINTER SOLDIER. What I loved about the first two CA films was that they're very different from each other. They feel like distinct films, for obvious reasons, but I thought it was cool that Marvel would gives us a new flavor in each installment. Instead it's the same directors and it looks to be going for the same Bourne action aesthetic the second film did. If it's done great, fine, I can go with it, but that does make THE FIRST AVENGER in hindsight to look like the odd man out when you look at all three films.

Agreed. One thing I enjoyed about Mark Waid's run is that he played Cap as a sort of American James Bond in a Connery sense of the term. Before it came out that we were getting Civil War, I was hoping the third Cap movie would be done in that type of style.

Spoiler warning so I don't get griped at for something that happened ten years ago in the comics:

In my last post, I made a prediction. Suffice it to say I missed the forest but kinda sorta in a way maybe hit the trees.

No spoilers here.

I enjoyed Civil War. It was a fun time at the movies. There was a fair level of action, which is important for this type of story. If I have a gripe about the Winter Soldier, it's that I don't remember it having as many action sequences as it might've. That's less of an issue with Civil War.

Spider-Man is obviously in the movie. That much is no secret. Again, no spoilers here. But if you enjoy how Spider-Man is portrayed most frequently in comics (or at least most famously), you'll probably really dig this iteration of Spider-Man.

There's bound to be a spoiler thread (or maybe not since this forum has really slowed down) but I'll say that I didn't find Holland to be a drastic improvement over Andrew Garfield. If anything, I think he's a bit more from the Tobey Maguire school of Peter Parkers. Which either works for you or it doesn't.

On a technical note, there's a brief moment where we see a younger Tony Stark. It looked like Downey's likeness was digitally de-aged. If you remember what Downey looked like from about 18-22 years old, that's fairly close to how he looked for a brief section of CW. This "youthening" effect has really improved over the years, I must say.

In general, Captain America- The First Avenger remains my favorite Marvel Studios film followed closely by Thor. Civil War is worth seeing in theaters but I shouldn't expect it will change anybody's life. So far, Marvel seems to be continuing a trend where the first installment of a given franchise is rock solid, the sequel is mediocre and the third is a major improvement over the second but not quite as good as the original.

Makes me wonder how things will shape with Ragnarok and the Infinity War.

Just watched it.

Jesus, critics who say THIS was "superior" to 'BVS' PROVED my theory in the review thread.

What an almost total waste of time THAT was. So, post 'Man Of Steel', every time innocent people MIGHT have died, the Marvel heroes are going to LITERALLY fall to pieces now?? Wandas reaction actually made me laugh. No lie.

The woman who got Starks spurs a janglin' was fine, but then the villain of the story has the exact same story? And Jesus, what a shitty villain he was. I'm not very familiar with him, but even I know that was NOT Baron Zemo. I mean, why even give him that name? He disappears for huge chunks of the movie, and you actually forget he exists. But yeah, Lex Luthor was just so horrid, right?

Yeah, the action scenes were good, and I enjoyed the kid playing Spider-Man. The "ah gee, shucks" star-struck stuff carried on a bit long for me though. I mean, eventually he would have realized "Hey, these guys are TRYING to kick my ass. Game face time.". But, this IS a Marvel movie. Quips and funny words take precedent.

What was Martin Freemans character there for? Anyone?

I did like the fight at the end, and wish the Batman-Superman fight went as long. Or longer. If they shot more for it, I hope it's in the extended version. But there is NO WAY Captain America nor Winter Bucky could take punches from Iron Man. Definitely not as many as they did. Their faces should have looked like Stallones at the end of 'Rocky'.

Also, the way the movie ended flabbergasted me. Cap writes a letter, says "Sowwy Tony. Luv ya lots" and that's it?? I know why it ended the way it did, and for that, chalk a win up for WB. Cap was supposed to die, and when they realized Snyder did it first, they blinked. Two endings WERE shot. For a reason.

I'll leave this as my final words regarding this movie:

Like every other Marvel movie post-Iron Man, did you EVER feel like ANY of the main characters were actually in danger?

Think about it.

One thing I find disappointing about a lot of Marvel movies lately has been how little relevance the mid/post credit scenes have contributed to anything. Ever since the first Avengers movie, they haven't done very much to tease what's coming.

One of the Civil War scenes could just as easily have been put into the movie itself. It's basically Rogers shooting the shit with T'challa and they talk about goings on with Bucky. Why is that scene not included in the proper film? It wraps up Bucky's story (for now at least) and really says nothing either way about what may or may not happen in future films. It's just kind of there.

If you watch the post-credits scenes from Phase One, each of them contributed something valuable to what was coming next. Whether it was about the first Avengers movie or if it was about simply the next Marvel movie prior to Avengers, they all developed something important.

Lately though you get idiotic bullshit like Howard the Duck or Stark trying to make Banner his therapist or other shit. Yes, sometimes these scenes are important... but more often they're obligatory and could fit into the movie easily or be removed entirely and nobody would know the difference.

I'd wondered about Rogers. There are already staggering similarities between BvS and CW. If Cap had died in CW, like he was supposed to as per the comics, the comparisons would've been too much. Hell, they're probably too much as it is. But both of those characters dying would've broken everything for everybody.