Captain America: Civil War

I think the Russo brothers really just love bringing us the darker hard hitting stuff.

Compared to the other Marvel movies Civil War is the most serious and hard edged entry, and the changes from the source material I feel are mostly for the better. So instead of a superhero registration where all the known superheroes have to reveal their identities and work for the U.S. government, Tony and Steve are on opposite sides of the spectrum for an accord where the Avengers stop acting as a unilateral force and essentially become the errand boys of the United Nations after a debacle in Nigeria. Tony is all for it because he wants to keep protecting the world in the confines of the law and supports being accountable for their actions. Which on one hand I fully understand, there's a lot of collateral damage and deaths in their operations and Tony does not want to seem higher above the people he wants to protect cause he acknowledges the death toll and wants to do something about it. But here's the thing, in a perfect world the Avengers could save everybody. They could defeat the villains and not one hair on everybody's head would be damaged. But...that's not how it is, you can save millions if not billions of people but thousands could still die indirectly of their actions. That sucks, that's f***ing terrible, but it is what happens. No amount of government oversight could change that. But Steve isn't better either, he says screw the system because they could control everything about them and even call them off from saving lives which goes against the entire perogative of The Avengers, they would be puppets of the world's governments. It's fascinating to see these guys swap roles, but honestly after the events of The Winter Soldier I can understand why Steve is against this idea. And they clash. They call in almost everybody we've seen so far and even bring in a new face with Peter Parker, which I have to say after hearing all about the total bullshit Tom has put up with in this series it's great to see him in the role at last and I'm happy he's still around. The fights are pretty good, but truthfully the story and dilemma is what got me most invested, it's a bleak and dire situation for the Avengers and everybody is just trying to do the right thing, the same aspect that made me really like The Winter Soldier. Now I know there's people out there who just want to see shit explode and watch superheroes do battle, that's fine, comic books are escapist fiction, not every comic book movie has to be like The Dark Knight, but when a comic book movie puts so much very well constructed emphasis on a more internal dilemma and the character's emotions and their own world views it genuinely does make for a compelling and really good story! The Winter Soldier and Civil War are honestly tied for my favorite Marvel movie because of this factor. Sure the movie has flaws, the villain is so transparent he borders on invisible in terms of story, yeah I kept forgetting who the people were in the story who were not the superheroes, yeah Spider-Man was very quickly slapped into the story, yeah it should have ended at two hours in and not kept going for another 30 minutes but it still turned out to be a really good movie. I feel like the best comic book movies are actually ones that ascend past the genre, Michael Keaton's Batman, Christopher Reeve's first Superman movie, Watchmen, The Dark Knight, Wonder Woman, The Winter Soldier, Civil War, all are damn good comic book movies but they go beyond just being a comic book movie and can be looked at as just a movie. That's not an insult, film is film, but they give that much more to really give the genre more respect and validity, and not just be kid movie bullshit that's just entertainment fluff. Yeah it's still awesome seeing Captain America and Iron Man square off, and Batman fighting the Joker, and there is never anything wrong with that. I'm a comic book lover now and forever, but also a film critic. And in my opinion Civil War gets a solid 3.5 stars, 7.5/10! Good news everybody, the Doctor is in tomorrow.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Alright, we're sorta back on track.

Captain America is a decent film, but honestly I haven't been enjoying much of these movies since Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk but I sense with Captain America we're getting back there a bit. This could very much just be a tribute to war movies from the 40s to the 60s, let alone a comic book film. The production design and style the movie gives us throughout kinda encapsulates war movies, film serials, and your modern superhero action flick. It's not half bad, and I can usually dig war movies so this film had a bit more going for it. It's really hit me though how much I know about these movies even though until this point I've saw only 4 of them, through pure cultural osmosis because people can't shut up about these movies, I was like oh we'll see Red Skull again, oh that's the tesseract, oh Bucky will have a robot arm, yep Steve's gonna crash in ice and wake up in modern day, it's like I've seen these movies without seeing them at all. How weird is that? I mean I knew very basic story beats of pipsqueak Steve Rogers wants to join the army, but he an 89 pound weakling so they test a super soldier serum on him and he quickly becomes a war hero going by the name of Captain America. That's pretty much the movie in a nutshell, not much happens beyond that but it really ain't a bad flick, I was with it from start to finish and actually did like Chris Evans in this so thank God he at least got better after Fantastic Four, and I even appreciated seeing the golden age Captain America suit in the movie. But seriously what in the hell was up with Steve before he got the serum, it's the closest I have ever seen of a human bobble-head, I understand why and how they did it but yeesh it looks bad at times. The action is decent, the supporting characters was quite star studded and worked well, in particular Tommy Lee Jones. Hugo Weaving as a villain hardly ever goes wrong and the Red Skull prosthetics are delightfully cheesy and yet a bit cool. Let's be honest people, cheesy and silly is imbedded in every facet of comic books whether we admit it or not regardless of the medium. I think it's an okay movie, it didn't strike me as something really good but I don't think we can sink much lower than Iron Man 2. I mean have you seen these utter clowns in Hydra? Sweet Jesus. You would have to pay me billions to do that f***ing ridiculous salute. I know I didn't have all that much to say about this particular entry, but to be honest it didn't give me too much to work with. I give it 2.5 stars, 6.5/10, and apparently the big guns are coming with The Avengers so no doubt I'll have a bit to talk about there. Until then.