Rating of
3/4
"Captain America: Civil War" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 08/13/18
When Steve Rogers’ estranged comrade-at-arms James “Bucky” Barnes is charged with an act of terrorism that costs the life of the King of Wakanda, he finds himself on the wrong side of the law and his fellow Avengers are sent to hunt him down.
Despite the monicker, the third Captain America film is an Avengers movie in all but name. The plot revolves around a schism that forms within the team when the U.N. imposes a new charter which demands oversight concerning their activities, and this conceit works reasonably well as neither side is 100% or 100% wrong making for some nice moral grey areas. It is a shame that the central theme – that of the fact that The Avengers are an unlicensed organisation of vigilantes who wreak mayhem wherever they go with no actual legal authority – is not explored further, which does make it all feel like a bit of an excuse for a super-powered tag team smackdown. Joss Whedon’s snappy dialogue and amusing banter are also glaring in their absence, but the new characters that are introduced – namely the reboot of the rebooted Spider-Man, Black Panther and Ant Man – are put to good use.
On the whole Civil War is another slice of quality popular entertainment from Marvel that doesn’t quite measure up to Avengers Assemble, but is more than a match for Age Of Ultron.
