‘Captain America: Civil War’: A Dull Affair to Forget
In an effort, it seems, to be as down and dour as possible, directors Joe and Anthony Russo have crafted somewhat of an enigma in “Captain America: Civil War”. They tell you this is serious stuff and yell at you to pay attention, because lives are at stake, there’s no turning back, this has to be done, etc., etc., yet characters squabble like little children and there are no consequences for anyone.
Easily the most downbeat Marvel outing before “Avengers: Infinity War”, “Civil War” (notice the similar word in the title?), involves heroes facing off against other heroes. Not at all a bad idea, but it has become overused to a point of ubiquity and is arrived at through the most convoluted means possible.
Towards the beginning, there is an incident involving the Avengers team in Lagos, Nigeria. The team, led by Captain America (Chris Evans), is trying to take down Brock, a villain hellbent on obtaining dangerous viruses (why is of no concern). In the process of fighting him, a bomb vest goes off, but is caught mid-blast by Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). She uses magic to move the bomb away from civilians but it goes off anyway, taking out part of a building.
This is the set-up for the Sokovia Accords, an international treaty, signed, we are told, by 117 countries. It is intended to keep the Avengers in check, given all of the destruction we have witnessed in previous Marvel installments (see “The Avengers”, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, and “Avengers: Age of Ultron”).
The problem is that, unlike in the two Avengers movies, there is no human face on the destruction. In 2012’s “The Avengers”, we saw the team save numerous civilians, and saw the people express their gratitude. Here, other than one ham-fisted beat involving one Charles Spencer (why does the number of college degrees and accomplishments one has increase their value?), there is no attempt at human connection. We don’t see people we care about being harmed, so why do we care?
Speaking of harm, the lack thereof is another major issue. The nonexistent stakes in this movie have been written about to great length, but it is made all the more glaring when looking at the MCU movies that came after. War Machine was the only person who suffered any type of injury, and he’s back in action a few movies later.
Nobody dies, and everyone makes jokes. While the Avengers are ostensibly tearing each other apart, they all make quips like, “We’re still friends, right?” “Depends how hard you hit me.” For a movie so self-serious, it doesn’t feel like anything matters. And even without any deaths in the family, there are no lasting consequences. You’d think, after everything that happens here, there would be lasting grudges, or at least some change. But no, in “Infinity War”, everyone’s back at it again.
Even within the movie itself, the Sokovia Accords don’t seem to pull much weight, as nobody brings them up while the Avengers attempt to take down an escaped Bucky on a whim, and nobody wants to talk about property damages when an airport is demolished.
If the movie was at least technically outstanding, than the above problems would only make “Civil War” not a masterpiece. But even in its cinematography, color, and music, “Civil War” falls flat. That’s the best way to describe the Russo brothers’ film, visually speaking. Everything has a cold, gray look to it. From the cold, gray Avengers headquarters, to the cold, gray, government headquarters, to the cold, gray tunnel, to the cold, gray airport, to the cold, gray secret Russian lab. Everything is cold and gray. It seems the Russos must have accidentally tried to make everything look like it was a rainy day.
The shots themselves are dull. Shot, reverse-shot. Shot, reverse-shot. A few nicely composed images in between (the shot of Iron Man blasting Cap’s shield is pretty impressive). But other than a few flourishes here and there, every shot is static. And that wouldn’t be so bad if the whole movie wasn’t people talking interspersed with fight scenes.
Yes, the fight scenes are good. Very good. Excellently choreographed, and eminently watchable, the fights are fun to watch. But there’s no tension in them because we don’t care about anyone because there are no stakes because the only emotion is what people tell us. Film is a visual medium, but the Russos don’t show us a reason to care.
{★½☆☆}