After the disappointing reviews from the viewing public for “Batman vs Superman”, comic book movie fans were highly anticipating the latest release “Captain America: Civil War”.
With that being said, resident CiTLR comic geeks Mike Madison and “Smitty The Brawler” tackle this latest installment from Marvel Comics as only they can, CiTLR-style!
Mike Madison
Smitty!!! Is Captain America: Civil War best MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) movie to date?
Smitty The Brawler
Absolutely…….. not. In my MCU power rankings, two movies remain atop. “Guardians of The Galaxy”, and “Captain America: Winter Soldier”. “Civil War” however does crack my top three and it may also be the most purely entertaining movie MCU has produced to date. What say you, Sport?
Mike Madison
“Guardians” is still my number #1, but this may have edged out “Winter Soldier” for 2nd place. It’s really splitting hairs at this point though. Best fighting scenes they’ve done so far and the storytelling is top notch! One of the few times I’m glad they went away from the comic book. What are your top two highlights?
Smitty The Brawler
Number #1 is certainly the airport scene. Unbridled superhero fighting equals DORKGASM! Everyone “got their shit in”. It was MARVELous. Easy pun intended.
Number #2 would be the execution of “everyone getting good their shit in”. A movie with this exorbitant amount of heroes has no business successfully pulling that feat off. If you talk to ten different people they may all choose a different hero as their standout from this movie. Your 2?
Mike Madison
Easy, but clearly Spider-Man’s debut. Imma go full geek here and say that this is the essential Spiderman here. Not the older one Tobey and Andrew, but the “ultimate” version where he was just a high schooler with unbelievable powers that the adults couldn’t ignore and needed beside them. Tom Holland’s Spidey is gonna end up being the definitive Spidey but most importantly his Peter Parker is ice cold. They nailed the casting perfectly.
Secondly, the debut of Black Panther was vainglorious!!! Finally, an alpha dog non subservient black hero that answers to no one!!! His fighting scenes with Bucky and Cap were awesome. Chadwick Boseman was great casting. Idris was my first choice, but he is in the Thor world so no double dippin!!!! LOL
OK, so here’s the big question. Who did you side with? Stark or Cap?
Smitty The Brawler
I was on the side of Captain America. Previously, I found Cap dull. Wasn’t much of a fan. But he turned me. I sided with his viewpoint, and greatly appreciated his loyalty to those close to him. His leadership is uncanny. He got pushed to show a serious side of himself that was quite refreshing. Going forward, I am a Cap guy, through and through. Let me guess, you being a douche and all, Team Iron Man had to had been your guy, right?
Mike Madison
LMAO!!! Nah…well, the comics made it an easier choice, but the movie made me side with Stark and after seeing the movie twice I’m on the fence. Like, with Banner & Thor off the damn grid, who police them? Shouldn’t it be some kinda accountability when they do what they did in NY & Sakovia? On the other hand, Cap brings up the point of government control which can never be a good thing, but what happens when the Hulk goes apeshit? Loki controls Cap or Iron Man? Then what? Caps a soldier so he’s coming from the “casualties are a nasty but necessary part of war,” and Stark definitely coming from a civilian’s perspective. The movie makes is far more grey than the comic does.
Smitty The Brawler
Point taken. Any negatives for you in Civil War?
Mike Madison
Negatives? Not really. I’d like to have seen Banner and Thor but I get that Marvel has bigger fish to fry with them. I want Marvel to explore Hawkeye and Black Widow in a solo film. I feel like they can do a Bourne-type of spy movie that somehow plays into the MCU. Their characters should be fleshed out more.
What about you? Any gripes?
Smitty The Brawler
Word I’m getting from my internal sources over at Marvel Headquarters is that Hulk will be involved with Thor in ‘Thor Ragnarok’!. So fret not, my man. Meanwhile, I had three slight issues here. First up, it feels as if both Scarlet Witch and Vision can’t be properly portrayed. They are being “dumbed down” if you will. These two heroes possess the powers to literally destroy every other character in this movie. So as a result of trying to balance that, the two characters seem to disappear quite a bit.
Second issue was I felt that with the seriousness of the conflict, as well as the fact that you have freaking SUPERHUMANS trying to destroy one another, there should have been more severe ramifications. As in a Death! Now we did see a character seriously injured as a result of the battle, but I thought that was kind of taking the easy way out. Lastly, I just felt that the setup of the great final plan by the movies antagonist was very convenient.
I don’t buy for a second that he’s that much of a mastermind that he foresaw this very meticulous plan playing out the way it did step by step. Specifically the final battle. But hey, what does little ole Smitty know?
With that being said, overall in my book, this was a bona-fide blockbuster movie. I’m looking for merely a reason to go and take it in a second time.
9 out of 10!
Mike Madison
“Dumbed down” is definitely the correct phrase. Scarlet witch is what they call “Omega Level” mutant, so basically she’s a beast. One time at the death of her brother she simply whispered “no more mutants” and literally every mutant lost their powers. Just like that. So yeah, I agree that characters like that are scaled back but the same could be said about The Hulk, Superman, and more. I like to call them the cheat code of comics. In a lot of instances you’ll see the top powerful characters going through more internal battles than the external ones.
But agreed. Overall 9 out of 10! Doc Strange is next on the docket, Tough Guy! Until then, excelsior!!! LOL
