{"id":19792,"date":"2016-05-08T17:55:57","date_gmt":"2016-05-08T07:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=19792"},"modified":"2016-05-08T17:55:57","modified_gmt":"2016-05-08T07:55:57","slug":"captain-america-civil-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=19792","title":{"rendered":"Captain America: Civil War"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"captainamericacivilwarposter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Directors: \u00a0<\/strong>Anthony and Joe Russo
\nWriters: \u00a0<\/strong>Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
\nCast: \u00a0<\/strong>Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle, Anthony Mackie, Jeremy Renner<\/p>\n

F<\/span>irst things first. \u00a0Captain America: Civil War<\/em> isn’t a Captain America movie. \u00a0It’s an Avengers movie. \u00a0But such is the rigorous scheduling of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (eight films in the next three years I believe) that this particular story happened to coincide with when the Cap’n was due his next film. \u00a0Sure Chris Evans has his name on the marquee\u00a0but he’s sharing the billing with roughly a dozen other heroes in tights.<\/p>\n

Secondly, maybe as a quirk of scheduling, but maybe not, the film is coming out mere weeks after DC’s much maligned\u00a0Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice<\/em> which more or less has the same storyline and themes as Civil War<\/em>. \u00a0They both ask the question – what happens when you hold super heroes accountable to the collateral damage that they cause?<\/p>\n

The execution of said storyline offers some insight into DC’s continuing struggles to translate their stable of heroes into successful films and by contrast how Marvel seem to effortlessly pump out hit after hit.<\/p>\n

We are introduced once more to the Avengers as they take on a mission in Nigeria where they are attempting to stop the villainous Crossbones from stealing a biological weapon. \u00a0Although the heroes successfully recover the stolen goods, Crossbones attempts to blow himself up, only for the Scarlett Witch to deflect the blast. \u00a0She accidentally sends the full force of the explosion into a nearby building, killing scores of innocent civilians inside.<\/p>\n

The incident becomes a catalyst for the American government and the United Nations to take action. \u00a0They wish to make the Avengers answerable to them as a way to ensure accountability for these walking weapons of mass destruction. \u00a0In a twist to their respective character arcs up to this point, the fiercely independent Tony Stark (Iron Man) believes that the government is right to pursue this path. \u00a0On the flip side, the government super soldier Captain America isn’t so sure that the heroes should be hamstrung by bureaucrats who could have their own agenda.<\/p>\n

A line is drawn in the sand and the other Avengers find themselves having to choose a side. \u00a0Team Captain America or Team Iron Man.<\/p>\n

\"civilwar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Where\u00a0Civil War<\/em> diverges from\u00a0Batman vs Superman<\/em> is that it doesn’t really take any of this very seriously at all. \u00a0Sure Scarlett Witch killed a bunch of people but the film doesn’t really bother with any scenes where you\u00a0see her coming to terms with what she has done. \u00a0The original comic book series is noteworthy for the death of a long-standing super hero but the film tosses that out the window too. \u00a0Instead, the two sides converge at an abandoned airport in Leipzig and they fight.<\/p>\n

And what a glorious fight it is!<\/p>\n

Civil War<\/em> gives audiences one of the most entertaining super hero battles that I can ever recall witnessing on the big screen. \u00a0Sure the characters are superficially given a motivation to pick a side but I suspect the real reason that the screen writers lumped them in one team or the other is to try and conjure up the most entertaining combinations of super powers to pit against one another. \u00a0What if you have two guys in flying suits shooting missiles at a guy who grow to five times his normal size? \u00a0What if you threw a guy with wings and an archer against a web slinger who can scamper up walls?<\/p>\n

Honestly, the airport showdown doesn’t have particularly high stakes (two heroes momentarily pause to confirm that neither side is seriously trying to hurt the other) but the banter is terrific and stuff blows up real good. \u00a0Enough to delight anybody’s inner ten year old. \u00a0The debut of Spider-man as a character under the Marvel Studios banner is also a welcome sight.<\/p>\n

There’s a moment when one character directly references\u00a0Star Wars<\/em> and I was reminded of what an entertainment behemoth\u00a0Disney has become with all these enourmous\u00a0pop culture franchises under one roof. \u00a0Maybe for one movie they should toss Han Solo and Mickey Mouse into the Avengers. \u00a0Just because they can.<\/p>\n

\"civilwarpic\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After the airport scene, the film remembers that there’s a villain on the loose (poor Zemo has a thankless task trying to stand out in the pantheon of comic book villains) and re-aligns with the standard super hero formula for the home stretch. \u00a0The ending brings about plenty of closure\u00a0but naturally it also leaves the door open for the next one too.<\/p>\n

People loved\u00a0Captain America: Civil War<\/em>. \u00a0They liked it\u00a0a lot<\/em>. \u00a0I’ve seen plenty of ‘Best Superhero Movie of All Time’ platitudes being thrown around at this thing. \u00a0I don’t know if its that exactly but there’s no denying that the House of M has created a franchise juggernaut the likes of which Hollywood has never seen before and it shows no sign of slowing down.<\/p>\n

This is the thirteenth<\/em> Marvel Cinematic Universe film since 2008 and the third movie under the Captain America banner. \u00a0By rights we should be seeing franchise fatigue setting in. \u00a0Think of how lousy\u00a0Spider-man 3<\/em>,\u00a0X-men 3: The Last Stand<\/em> or\u00a0Superman III<\/em> were. \u00a0But Marvel have miraculously kept this thing going and kept it going strong. \u00a0And if anyone thought for a second that bringing together all those actors and screenwriters across multiple films was a cake walk, all they have to do is to load up Youtube and rewatch ‘Sad Ben Affleck’ to be reminded of how badly it has gone for the Other Guys.<\/p>\n

Marvel – they keep on rollin’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Political interference in the Avengers’ activities causes a rift between former allies Captain America and Iron Man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1022,1873,1689,1160,1596,2510,2262,874,2054,2512,1502,2511,2120],"class_list":["post-19792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-films","tag-captain-america","tag-chris-evans","tag-daniel-bruhl","tag-don-cheadle","tag-elizabeth-olsen","tag-iron-man","tag-jeremy-renner","tag-marvel","tag-marvel-cinematic-universe","tag-paul-bettany","tag-paul-rudd","tag-robert-downey-jr","tag-scarlett-johansson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19792"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19809,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19792\/revisions\/19809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}