Movie Title: Captain America: Civil War
Grade: A
Rating: PG-13, 2 hours 26 minutes
In a Nutshell: Congratulations, Marvel. You successfully created another superhero film that includes humor, TONS of amazing action sequences, impressive CGI, thoughtful themes and intelligent questions, all while staying true to the comic book heroes so many love and giving them heart.
This may be declared the first summer blockbuster movie of 2016, as well as one of Marvel’s best movies. The Russo brothers seem to have rescued the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Each of the Captain America movies has been outstanding and gets better and better. You can see my movie review for The Winter Soldier here.
Combine the popularity of Comic Con and other knock-off “cons” with the flood of superhero movies in the last decade, and what a glorious time in history it is to be a comic book nerd.
Uplifting theme:
- When to compromise and when to stand firm.
- The right to choose for yourself.
- Vengeance vs. justice vs. mercy
- Friendship
- Choices and consequences
Things I liked:
- The choreography of the fight scenes was truly amazing. Critics and future filmmakers will probably use this movie as a primer for how to make great fight scenes.
- I love that Stan Lee is carefully placed in each Marvel movie with a funny line. In this film, he plays a FedEx employee who asks “Are you Tony Stank?” It’s a cute moment.
- I love Captain America. He’s so good, brave, kind, loyal, and patriotic. What a great role model. I love that grown men in the audience were wearing Captain America t-shirts. Suit up! There’s a scene that will make girl fans swoon all over Chris Evans when his big muscles bulge even bigger while he holds a helicopter to the ground. (sigh)
- I love small details in movies. For example, there is a bomb blast and you see little pebbles and dust in Black Widow’s hair.
- There are a lot of jaw-dropping stunts. That stunt team deserves an Oscar.
- I didn’t know anything about Black Panther. His solo movie should/could be really good. Great job Chadwick Boseman!
- Spiderman was really great and provided perfect comic relief. Tom Holland nails Peter Parker as a young kid and Tony Stark’s connection to Spiderman (whom he calls “Underoos”) adds tasty substance to the back story. When Tony first meets him, he asks “What are you? Spider Boy?” When Peter declares “I’m Spider Man”, Tony smirks “Not in that Onesie, you’re not.” Hilarious.
- The CGI is extremely impressive. There is a really cool scene where you get to see Tony Stark as a teenager.
- Lots of cool gizmos and gadgets.
- Ant Man. Awesome. The audience cheered the minute Paul Rudd first appeared on the screen.
- I don’t know Vision at all, but I have always adored the talented Paul Bettany ever since I first saw him in A Knight’s Tale
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- Shout-outs to Don Cheadle (James Rhodes) who is excellent in everything, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, the lovable Martin Freeman (Everett Ross) , and Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Maximoff) who has gorgeous legs.
- Robert Downey Jr. gives a solid performance and provides some depth to the story line.
- I’m going to have to see it again just to catch all of the clever lines that are hurled at the audience so fast. For example, Tony Stark says to Captain America, “Why are you so defensive?” which is hilarious because Captain America’s weapon is a shield. ha ha
Things I didn’t like:
- It seems like a good conversation could have prevented a lot of fighting, right?
- There are some scenes that utilize subtitles that young kids won’t be able to understand.
- There’s a moment where you actually see Scarlett Johansson’s stunt double’s face. Otherwise, that stunt double kicks some serious butt and is amazing.
- Jeremy Renner is good, but Hawkey’s character didn’t grab me in this film.
- You don’t have to be a Marvel fan to enjoy this movie, but it definitely helps.
Funny lines:
- “Sometimes I just want to punch you in your perfect teeth.” – Iron Man
- “I don’t know if you’ve been in a fight before, but there’s usually not this much talking.” – Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie)
- “Can you move your seat up?” – Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier
“No.” – Sam Wilson/Falcon (Hilarious scene)
- “Are we still friends?” – Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
“That depends on how hard you punch me.” – Clint Barton/Hawkeye
- “Congratulations, Captain. You’re a criminal.” – Sam Wilson/Falcon
- “So, you like cats?” – Falcon
“What?” – Captain America
“The dude shows up dressed like a cat and you don’t have questions?” – Falcon
- “Ok, tiny dude is big now. He’s big now.” – Sam Wilson/Falcon
Interesting lines:
- “Victory at the expense of the innocents is no victory at all.” – President of Wakanda
- “In our job, you save people, but sometimes that doesn’t mean everyone…but you don’t give up.” – Captain America
- “I was wrong about you. The whole world was wrong about you.” – Iron Man to Captain America (It made me so sad to see those two fighting!)
- “Stay down. Final warning.” – Iron Man
“I could do this all day.” – Captain America
- “He’s my friend.” – Captain America
“So was I.” – Iron Man
- “I should be the one to bring him in.” – Captain America
“Why?” – Black Widow
“Because I’m the one least likely to die trying.” – Captain America
- “Steve, you know what’s about to happen. Do you really want to punch your way out of this?” – Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
Tips for parents:
- There is a LOT of fighting, violence, and torture.
- There is a bad guy with a burned face that might scare young children.
- Some profanity.
Can’t get enough? Let the merchandising begin!
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