It’s little secret I’m not a huge Captain America fan. I’ve let it be known, I’m Team Stark all day, however, Marvel’s latest offering to the cinematic universe did wonders for his character.
While some have been happy to dismiss this as another Avengers movie, as you watch events unfold, you realize this is very much a Captain America film.
For two and a half hours you see, while this film allows for character development for several, it’s more of a focus on Cap’s viewpoint, as, for some reason, during this time period, the world just seems to take a huge shit on him. Then. as if that wasn’t bad enough, suddenly your co-workers are acting like sell outs!
As the movie begins, there is little warm up, you are thrust into the action, we see Cap trying to conduct some on the job training with Scarlet Witch, then, in something that is rare in comic movies these days, our hero is in what feels to be a real sense of danger. This is an ongoing theme, which is with proper reason, as it really drives home the fact that he truly believes in his thought process, and won’t compromise, even as he is knocked down, and hard…on more than one occasion.
As he begins to gain the upper hand on his first encounter with what an enhanced person, a name from his past (pre, and post-frozen) emerges, and he has to deal with it. In the same breath, and as you’ve seen in the trailers, Bucky is out there, and while dealing with that, it’s where we see a bit more of the human side of Steve Rogers, one who isn’t perfect, and we see that, in a moment, as he involuntarily lets his guard down…it changes everything. In the same events, we see a horrible accident unfold which leaves the world wanting accountability.
With that accountability, in an amazing bit of politics and diplomacy, the UN has seemingly overnight written an accord that feels more Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty than it feels like anything else. These people with power, mutants, enhanced, etc… Can’t simply run around unchecked, and now, and for some reason very quickly, the team either has to get on board, or basically become an outlaw.
While I was somewhat afraid of having such a massive cast of super heroes, this film found a great way to incorporate them all in ways where it didn’t really feel forced. Sure, there are a lot of costumes in this film, again, you’ve seen the trailer by now, you know there are a lot of names jumping off the pages at us, many have feared having that many on could be detrimental, but, it never felt that way at all, like I mentioned early on, this is more of a Cap story, all those characters can exist, and on screen, if we just account for them as actors, instead of reminding ourselves that each are super heroes.
The way Spider-Man is brought in, approached, and ultimately executed was perfect. Five minutes in this universe seemingly negates any requirement for a feature length origin story for the 84949 time. Did I mention the kid was brilliant? I’m excited about the next offering and really glad he’s at least partially back home.
Speaking of character introductions, T’Challa? Am I right? This guy also had a lot on his plate in this film, surprised they didn’t dive into Wakanda a bit more, so the casual viewer could know more and understand why what happened was a big deal, but, that’s probably left best for his own film. Side note, if you can find it, BET ran an animated series years ago about Black Panther, worth the watch.
Look, not much point in me rambling on, this is an excellent film. The fight scenes are fantastic, the use of characters was near perfect, the stuff they came up with for some of the fights and team ups is nothing less than brilliant, and we had a lot of character development. Scarlet Witch is my all time favorite character and this film eased any residual fears I had after her initial introduction, we start seeing how powerful she really is.
This movie has a lot in it, we get to explore some areas that you wouldn’t think about normally, we get to see how strong Cap is, and we get to see how vulnerable he is as well. This film really left me with the feeling of “what’s next?”
This film doesn’t rely on a lot of gimmicks, it doesn’t force all these heroes onto you. There is usually a very good reason why Black Widow, Vision, or someone else is on screen, they aren’t just pushed out there to say “LOOK WHO WE PUT IN THIS MOVIE!”. I’m not one to rank and file movies, especially when they are new, but, this may be Marvel’s best outing to date. The scale is just massive and like I mentioned before, you wonder what is next. How expansive is the universe?
I’ll leave the search for Easter Eggs to you guys, and, I can say pretty firmly that there is little point in checking this out in 3D. Don’t forget to watch during the mid and post-credits! Until next time, MAKE MINE MARVEL!
