Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: Civil War is thankfully not called Captain Am3rica despite being the third one.
One of the things I particularly like about (some of) the Disney-Marvel films is how, despite being "childish comic book shite", they don't shy away from considering complex ethical or political issues.
This is one of those films.
The film starts off with an action scene, making excessive use of shaky-cam. I would also be struggling (and possibly arrested) were I chasing after Scarlett Johansen as fast as the camera-man was. The team are chasing after a group of terrorists stealing a McGuffin (that literally never gets explained) and there is some collateral damage.
Due to this, and the Avenger's previous adventures, they are deemed by the world at large to be too dangerous, and thus they are asked to become controlled by the UN or to retire. That's right, it's not the "superhuman registration act" in this.
This is the one of the main plots of the film (there are a few plots going on concurrently) - lines are drawn with some characters wanting to sign up to UN control, and others disagreeing with it on the grounds that politicians have agendas and are temporary (even if they are just now, their successors might not be)
As you might expect, Captain America is on the side of freedom, rather than politicians.
The second primary plot involves Cap trying to track down the Winder Soldier, with the film taking a surprisingly long time to reach the teaser scene from the end of Ant-Man.
There is also a third story running alongside (and occasionally rubgy-tackling the two) about Black Panther, a member of royalty from the fictional African nation of Wakanda, and who is simply fantastic.
There are, of course, multiple action scenes over the course of the film, which have the habit of getting steadier (and therefore easier to process) as the film goes on.
This is largely because they become more and more CG focused as the film progresses, and you know what? It works!
The best demonstration of this is a fight between all of the heroes in an airport, which looks utterly convincing. Of course, people can't fly, or change size, so conceptually you might not be able to suspend your disbelief, but the actual graphics used are utterly fantastic. So much so that many people, including myself, were surprised to learn that it was entirely green-screened!
In fact, throughout my viewing, I was completely immersed, until a point very close to the end, but I think that was due to my sitting quite close to the front, making my neck hurt. Were I further back I think my immersion wouldn't have broken throughout the entire film.
Spiderman does make an appearance, and was actually handled very well in my opinion. He was very talkative, rather than witty, but I felt that improved over time, as if his becoming witty is itself part of his character development. So he was slightly grating at points, but got better.
Overall, I really enjoyed this film, despite it's faults, and the Captain America films continue to be a high point of the MCU.
4 skeins of wool out of an alpaca.
One of the things I particularly like about (some of) the Disney-Marvel films is how, despite being "childish comic book shite", they don't shy away from considering complex ethical or political issues.
This is one of those films.
The film starts off with an action scene, making excessive use of shaky-cam. I would also be struggling (and possibly arrested) were I chasing after Scarlett Johansen as fast as the camera-man was. The team are chasing after a group of terrorists stealing a McGuffin (that literally never gets explained) and there is some collateral damage.
Due to this, and the Avenger's previous adventures, they are deemed by the world at large to be too dangerous, and thus they are asked to become controlled by the UN or to retire. That's right, it's not the "superhuman registration act" in this.
This is the one of the main plots of the film (there are a few plots going on concurrently) - lines are drawn with some characters wanting to sign up to UN control, and others disagreeing with it on the grounds that politicians have agendas and are temporary (even if they are just now, their successors might not be)
As you might expect, Captain America is on the side of freedom, rather than politicians.
The second primary plot involves Cap trying to track down the Winder Soldier, with the film taking a surprisingly long time to reach the teaser scene from the end of Ant-Man.
There is also a third story running alongside (and occasionally rubgy-tackling the two) about Black Panther, a member of royalty from the fictional African nation of Wakanda, and who is simply fantastic.
There are, of course, multiple action scenes over the course of the film, which have the habit of getting steadier (and therefore easier to process) as the film goes on.
This is largely because they become more and more CG focused as the film progresses, and you know what? It works!
The best demonstration of this is a fight between all of the heroes in an airport, which looks utterly convincing. Of course, people can't fly, or change size, so conceptually you might not be able to suspend your disbelief, but the actual graphics used are utterly fantastic. So much so that many people, including myself, were surprised to learn that it was entirely green-screened!
In fact, throughout my viewing, I was completely immersed, until a point very close to the end, but I think that was due to my sitting quite close to the front, making my neck hurt. Were I further back I think my immersion wouldn't have broken throughout the entire film.
Spiderman does make an appearance, and was actually handled very well in my opinion. He was very talkative, rather than witty, but I felt that improved over time, as if his becoming witty is itself part of his character development. So he was slightly grating at points, but got better.
Overall, I really enjoyed this film, despite it's faults, and the Captain America films continue to be a high point of the MCU.
4 skeins of wool out of an alpaca.
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