Anthony Russo, Joe Russo/ USA/ 2016/ 147 minutes
On General cinema release now
Or Cap-Team America: World Police.
After an operation in Lagos, Nigeria results in the death of further civilians to add to the collateral damage accumulated during the two Avengers films, the United Nations publish an agreement that would bind the Avengers to UN governance. This splits the group into two factions. One is led by Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), who is guilt-ridden over deaths caused by his Frankensteinian tinkering in the last film, and the other by Captain America (Chris Evans) who acknowledges that mistakes have been made, but insists that they must remain autonomous to be most effective.
After the lukewarm Avengers: Age of Ultron, it was looking like spandex fatigue was beginning to creep in. However, the success of Deadpool and a massive financial return for Batman Vs. Superman, despite a collective critical shrug, has shown that the audience is still there. CA:CW functions more as another Avengers film than a stand-alone, but hanging the Captain America banner above the credits indicates what side of the superhero schism the audience is expected to side with. It can be seen as an interesting twist that arms magnate and devoted capitalist Iron Man would choose to be bound by international accord, and the upright, slightly dull, Captain America should turn global renegade, but really Captain America, as the name suggests, is all about unconstrained American exceptionalism.
To some degree, the Russo brothers have untangled some of the Gordian Knot Joss Whedon was stuck with in Age of Ultron. There isn’t quite the crush of characters that there were in that film. It even manages to smoothly integrate new ones, Spider-Man and Black Panther, in deft shorthand that negates any need for ponderous origin stories. Both are fine additions. Tom Holland is a very young web-slinger, in total control of his powers while simultaneously acting as wide-eyed fanboy proxy when meeting his heroes. Chadwick Boseman is a proud, taciturn and compassionate Black Panther.
The story is paced at amphetamine velocity from the beginning. A baggy run-time zips past and, as with the other Captain America titles, there is enough thematic depth and moral enquiry that one’s teeth aren’t eroded through pure popcorn. There is a pleasing heft and crunch to the fight scenes, particularly a claustrophobic slug-fest in a tower block reminiscent of Dredd and The Raid, and while the climactic set-to at an airport is fully drowned in a thick layer of CGI, the technology has come on enough that such action no longer feels quite so ephemeral as it has previously.
It rather hammers home the message, repeatedly, of the futility of seeking revenge, but Captain America: Civil War is a brisk, frequently witty, and above all, thoroughly entertaining modern blockbuster with an an enquiring subtext about the constraints of responsibility. A big improvement over the muddled, cluttered Age of Ultron, it’s rather strange that the ostensibly unremarkable Captain America is once again the headliner of a title that scrapes the upper echelons of Marvel’s output.