Captain America: Civil War
Film
Review
by Kam Williams
Avengers
Split into Adversarial Factions in Clutttered, Over-Ambitious
Action-Adventure
After
overkill during an Avengers mission gone horribly wrong in Lagos,
Nigeria exacts a terrible toll in terms of collateral damage, the
U.S. Secretary of State (William Hurt) calls the team of superheroes
on the carpet. He proceeds to chew them out for behaving like
vigilantes with unchecked power, before suggesting they agree to be
supervised in the future by a United Nations panel.
While a
remorseful Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) is willing to submit to the
Anti-Hero Registration Act, Captain America (Chris Evans) is much
more suspicious of these Sokovia Accords ratified by 117 nations.
Next thing you know, the Avengers have split into factions over
whether or not they should abide by the governmental regulation.
What ensues
is a visually-captivating battle royal in which the
allies-turned-adversaries inexplicably fight each other rather than
resolve their ethical differences civilly. What does that tell you
about whether they might need to be reigned in?
Among those
siding with Iron Man are Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), War
Machine (Don Cheadle), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Vision (Paul
Bettany) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland), And Captain America's freedom
lovers include Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Falcon (Anthony
Mackie), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and
Ant Man (Paul Rudd),
Fans of the
franchise are certain to delight in seeing so many of their favorite
superheroes together in the same episode. Regrettably, that is both
the primary strength and weakness of this 13th installment in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe series. For, co-directors Anthony and Joe
Russo (Captain America: Winter Soldier) have cluttered the screen by
introducing and then failing to develop over a score of prominent
characters, unless engaging in combat counts.
Too bad
they couldn't come up with anything more interesting for the
shattered, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. confederacy
to do besides battling each other. Clocking in at 2 and 1/2 hours,
even the eye-popping special f/x-tend to gets a little tedious once
the wow factor wears off.
An
underwhelming exercise in sound and fury strictly for brains on pause.
.
Fair (1
star)
Rated PG-13 for extended sequences
of violence, action and mayhem
in English, German, Russian,
Romanian and Hausa with subtitles
Running time: 146 minutes
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
To see a trailer for Captain
America: Civil War, visit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKrVegVI0Us
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