Film Review - Captain America Civil War (2016)

Captain America Civil War is the latest Marvel Studios film and the story here sees Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) and Captain America (Chris Evans) torn as the UN Security Council has had enough of the Avengers tearing up the world and causing death and destruction so they draft the Sokovia Accords and Cap just can't bring himself to sign them knowing what he'll trade away to do so but Stark is more than willing to do so and loyalties quickly become divided.

I am very very mixed on this film and I my mixed feelings fall into the old and the new:

- First off the new stuff is great and right at the top of that list is Tom Holland as the new Spider-Man, he's only in the film briefly but I just LOVED!!! every moment he was on screen and as a long time Spidey fan it just warms my heart to no end to see that character finally done justice on the big screen, hopefully next year's Spider-Man Homecoming film will continue the trend.

- Secondly Chadwick Boseman as the Black Panther is also great and makes the most of every moment he's on screen, first as the noble King T'Chala of Wakanda and then as Black Panther and his physical action is a real highlight to watch in the film, I'm definitely more keen to see more of his character in the solo Black Panther film.

- And third I liked seeing Paul Rudd again as Ant Man and he has a great part to play in this film, I liked him last year in the solo Ant Man film and he's becoming a real highlight of the MCU for me.

But as for the old:

- Firstly the storytelling here feels a tiny bit unfocused at times in terms of bringing in Spidey and Black Panther as well as the villain plot and the ideological conflict between Cap and Iron Man and at times they feel like they're fighting their own Civil War for space on the cinema screen, it also didn't really do that much for me as once again Marvel Studios continues to give us another dud villain.

Now do not get me wrong Daniel Bruhl is a great young actor and he does make the very most of it he can but his motivation simply didn't add up as I just went "What oh come on this is Lazy" and as a result part of me wishes he hadn't been in this film at all then you could've had that central Cap/Stark conflict be more of the beating heart behind this film but unlike Paramount where Marvel Studios first set up camp, I doubt very much that Walt Disney Pictures would ever let a Marvel film be like say an X-Men film or one of the DC films.

- Secondly I thought the action in the film whilst fine in bits and pieces there was too much of it, every 15 to 20 minutes it felt like we get an action sequence just so the people in the back rows of the cinemas don't start falling asleep during the talky bits and after a while I felt action fatigue which culminated in the much talked about Airport battle which is great fun to watch but it went for too long and the hand to hand fights have great physical stunts but are badly edited, again some will be happy with this but I wanted something more behind that action.

- And lastly I thought Evans and Downey were pretty flat this time around, Downey in particular just sounded bored throughout the whole film and whenever he was on screen I was partially pulled out of the film which isn't good, Sebastian Stan was fine as Bucky, Anthony Mackie was the same as Falcon but Paul Bettany is wasted as Vision and Elizabeth Olsen doesn't really get to do much at all as Scarlet Witch which is a real shame.

And so that was Captain America Civil War, the new is great but the old bored me a little so its a classic 2 and a half out of 5.