Out of 10: 'Captain America: Civil War'

The Avengers divide based on ethical issues. Ugh, spoilers. Now you can’t watch it. The posters also spoil that, and so does the title.

Giving detail on every character would take longer than the film — including trailers. It effortlessly deconstructs formula; the cast’s priority isn’t stopping world domination from an unmotivated generically evil megalomaniac. The film successfully interweaves elements of political thriller and gives characters a genuine sense of developed motivation. Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr.’s performances are convincing in dialogue driven scenes and their conflict is wisely shown gradually with undertones of discomfort and reluctance.

The opening is well-paced with inventive and exhilarating character-driven combat. They even almost made Falcon vaguely relevant.

Bless Him

Following the adrenaline, a tense and unexpected scene showing Scarlet Witch’s loss of power ensues. Her actress, Elizabeth Olsen’s, sisters, Mary Kate and Ashley, have the power to maintain a career after that Full House sitcom. They couldn’t really use that in a Marvel film, though.

Scarlet Witch Displaying Her — Whatever Her Powers Actually Are in These Films

The scene refreshingly reverses the formula of an unnecessary action prologue since the outcome is integral. It also gives Wanda an intriguing relationship with other Avengers. The fact that even heroes' actions have negative consequences adds a strong layer of believability to such an obviously fantastical world. There’s also an immersive episode feel thanks to regular geographical changes, well-captured through language and set design. The film also shines in its primary aim of introducing or reusing characters. Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther is an inspired choice with his authority drive and benevolence shown without forceful exposition. He also brings strong, if derivative, motivation with unique finesse with force

He can T'Challa you a lesson (sorry).

Spiderman’s exciting introduction brings energy and a brief conversation with him and Iron Man summarises his entire worldview. He’s been praised already, though, so I’ll leave it there. Spiderman’s never praised me in any of his reviews. Well, not in more than five of them, anyway.

Ant Man is as excitingly re-introduced, and like Spiderman, brings vital and un-distracting relief and relatability, showing two skilled people joyously in awe of other heroes. A small segment that shows the new range of his powers is actually amazing: his believable reactions, the other’s typical responses, and the drama it helps to create.

You’ll notice I praise Ant Man a lot, but he’s apparently praised me in all his reviews; the fonts are either too small or too big to read. He could be lying.

Scarlett Johansson—whose voice I’ve praised too much I’ve singlehandedly stopped it being ‘underrated’— gives a brilliantly understated performance as the conflicted and guilty moral balance of the chaos.

The wall of text is broken again — and so is the 4th wall.

Daniel Brühl — who’s name I found out I got right after googling (you can’t disprove that) — is an interesting villain. He’s given complex motive, believable skills that don’t require a contrived power boost from heroes, compassion and avoids any theatrics that would undermine his relatively real world persona.

The Zemo Split Screen Comparison

This is a departure from the comic’s Baron Zemo, who fits the generically evil unmotivated megalomaniac characterisation I mentioned earlier. Not even intentional (you can’t disprove that).

Now for the Rating

This one’s an 8. It loses the points because there’s an unwelcome sense of safety, especially considering 'war' is in the title. The heroes never feel entirely endangered. This causes the terminal fight, which is the film’s centrepiece, to begin feeling pointless after the most entertaining visuals have passed and any damage it causes is effectively undone. It also occasionally paints Captain America as self-centred and irrational, but this is rectified since his stance is still understandable and one of his most unsympathetic actions is given explanation in Spider-Man: Homecoming. The are also occasionally shaky camera movements in other fluid melee scenes — but it's almost Cinemasins' fault that I noticed.