Like most people who saw Batman vs Superman I was pondering whether or not to chuck myself into a pit full of rabid wolverines. However Captain America Civil War managed to lift my spirts enough that I’ll postpone it until the Justice League movie comes out.
Civil War really shouldn’t work. It’s based on a rubbish crossover mega event, crams every last character short of Cosmo the Space Dog into what should have been Cap’s movie and ties itself down by introducing two major new players in the form of Black Panther and Spiderman. And yet somehow it all all comes together.
Sprawling as the narrative might be the Russo brothers keep things centred by keeping it anchored in the friendship between Steve and Bucky. This ensures that for all the theatrics the films retains a very human and relatable emotional core. Indeed this film made me realise just how much the whole trilogy has been a great platonic love story between the two. Even back in the first film it was Steve’s choice to rescue Bucky from Hydra that lead him to become Captain America. Civil War cleverly brings this full circle as he now puts his friendships, life and career on the line to save Bucky again.
The most striking aspects of the movies is how it deftly balances its tone. Age of Ultron blundered ungainly between glib, flippant wisecracks that killed any sense of genuine suspense and danger and melodramatic, portentous ruminating that never gelled with each other. The Russos by contrast know when to be serious but also don’t shy away from having a bit of fun, especially in the brilliant airport fight where Tom Holland’s delightful Spiderman steals the show (As this is a battle between friends the jokiness works much better here than in Ultron where the cast’s flippancy in life and death situations slaughtered any sense of genuine tension). However this sense of fun highlights the bitter tragedy of the film’s finale where we see the people we’ve grown to love over dozens of movies literally tear each other apart. However, it’s the movie’s weighty themes that prove both its greatest strength and weakness.
Civil War draws attention to the limits of just how much franchises such as the MCU can truly examine themes such as power and its abuse. It can’t realistically examine the realities of unchecked vigilantism and uses of power as the worst sins it’s willing to lay at the feet of the Avengers are a handful of mishaps where there good intentions lead to unintended collateral damage. The harsh truth is that in real life the misuse of unregulated power as nowhere near as benign.
For instance, in early 20th century Japan the nominally elected government had no control over the armed forces, a privilege that was the sole dominion of the Emperor. The military took advantage of this to spearhead an invasion of China that would set their nation on a path of conquest, mass murder and rape that cost the lives of tens of millions of Chinese, Indonesians, Vietnamese, Indians, Burmese, Americans and their own countrymen. When the Black and Tans were given minimal discipline and oversight they abused these powers by torturing and murdering ordinary Irish citizens for laughs.
The problems is that Marvel simply can’t show the ugly reality that the above abuses of power demonstrate. For all their flaws and neuroses the heroes of the Marvel universe are ultimately exceedingly, good, noble people. Those very virtues are after all what makes escaping into their world such a wonderful escape from the ugliness we see every day on the 10 o’clock news. But it also means that we can’t have Ant Man and The Hulk bowl down the Eifel tower and have a piddle in the wreckage. Steve’s arguments fall apart as soon as real people enter the equation. Consequently the film ends up tilting the scales in favour of Cap’s side as it has to avoid the realistic excess that such power without any oversight would engender in the real world in order to let the Avengers remain sympathetic.
‘Governments have agendas.’ Steve says. Apparently in the world of Mr Rogers vigilantes are nothing but level headed, rigorously ethical fellows. Do the letters KKK mean anything to him?
Despite this the film does leave room for genuine moral ambiguity, with both sides having genuine strengths and weaknesses. The supposed threat to world stability that supposedly justifies Steve’s unilateral shenanigans turns out to be a red herring, calling into question the validity of his actions throughout the film. Indeed the whole climax cleverly toys without expectations, wrong footing the viewer into assuming that Tony and Steve will patch up their differences and unite to take down generic Marvel movie villain Number 100. Instead we’re left with a bitterly raw, personal final fight and the revelation that the aforementioned villain Zemo was no cackling supervillain but the just a broken victim with nothing left to live for but revenge.
Since I’m now sounding like a pretentious numpty I’ll just insert the following sentence: bums, bums, bums, bums, pooh, pooh, wee-wee.
Civil Was is an all round smashing film even if it does raise the unfortunate reality that in real life superheroes would be a really, really bad idea.
