By Chris Bright

Marvel’s latest offering exploded onto our screens last week, proving once and for all that they are the superior studio when it comes to bringing superheroes to life. While Avengers: Age Of Ultron wasn’t Marvel’s finest few hours, it still pushed the franchise in the right direction, adding a few new characters and setting the scene for Captain America’s third instalment, Captain America: Civil War – very loosely based on the source material of the same name.

The film kicks off where Avengers: Age Of Ultron left us, with Captain America and his new roster trying to prevent an attack of sorts. His newly formed team includes Falcon, Black Widow, and Scarlet Witch, but it’s unclear why War Machine and Vision, who’s arguably the most powerful of them all, aren’t helping out. Things goes awry, as usual, forcing RDJ’s Iron Man to join forces with Secretary Of State Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt, reprising his role from The Incredible Hulk) to introduce The Sokovia Accords – named after the country that Ultron and The Avengers almost destroyed, which requires all “enhanced” individuals to be placed under the control of The United Nations.

The situation only escalates when the UN building is bombed and the prime suspect is Cap’s old pal Bucky, aka The Winter Soldier. Cap doesn’t believe that his friend did it, and he convinces half of The Avengers to help him prove it. The other half joins Iron Man, including Black Panther (who has his own motives) and Spider-Man, to bring both Winter Soldier and Cap to justice. If that wasn’t enough, enter the enigmatic Zemo, played exceptionally well by Daniel Bruhl. Zemo has his own agenda, and is working in the background to uncover secrets from the past that will change everything.

Captain America: Civil War works so well because it has found the perfect balance between intense action, emotional drama, and laugh-out-loud moments. Every character involved, except for maybe Hawkeye and Martin Freeman’s Everett K. Ross (is he supposed to be related to General Ross?), are fairly well represented.

Directors, The Russo Brothers, who already blew us away with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, have raised the bar even higher. They’ve justified having over 15 characters on screen at once, whereas Zack Snyder couldn’t even do that for a measly three in Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. While there are certainly similarities between Captain America: Civil War and Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, it’s their differences that allow us to see exactly where one fails and the other triumphs – which is exactly what we’ve analysed below…

Team Cap are late for their flight...
Team Cap are late for their flight…

THE TRAILER:

Marketing plays such a huge part of what to expect before walking into a film. The thing about the first trailer for Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice was that it basically gave away the entire plot – revealing why Batman and Superman have a beef, what Lex Luther is planning in the background, and even that they all join forces in the end to bring down Doomsday. Apart from a few random sub-plots that felt completely rushed anyway, there were no real surprises in store for viewers.

Captain America: Civil War, on the other hand, showed just enough footage to get us excited, including a reveal of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, but that wasn’t even the start of it. It’s unlikely that anyone would have been able to piece together scenes from the trailers in the correct order, nor understand the significance that certain scenes have on the plot and/or characters. This is largely due to the fact that they removed the actual “big bad”, Zemo, from featuring in almost all of the film’s trailers.

Most importantly, it’s evident that Marvel is smart enough to pre-plan their marketing material well before production. That scene with Cap, Bucky and Falcon, which they featured as the mid-credit sequence for Ant-Man, fit seamlessly into the narrative of Captain America: Civil War. Similarly, they must have shot alternate versions of some scenes to remove clues and characters for the trailers, which makes you realise just how ahead of the game they truly are.

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman
Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman

THE SUPPORTING CHARACTERS:

Ask anyone who’s seen Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice and they’ll likely agree: the most interesting character is actually Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. The worst part is that she’s not given nearly enough screen time or dialogue to sink her teeth into.

When it comes to the women of Captain America: Civil War, they’re all given their time to shine, especially Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch. We watch as her character is trained on the job, deals with the guilt of her actions in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, struggles with choosing sides and even develops an emotional bond with several of her comrades (one in particular, which stems from the comics).

But the biggest drawcard of Captain America: Civil War comes with the introduction of not one but two new recruits, in Spider-Man and Black Panther. Marvel ignored the need to tell their origin stories too, because let’s face it – in the case of Spidey, we’re tired of seeing it. As for Black Panther, they managed to give him an entire emotional arc that’s pivotal to the central story, while still getting us excited for his own solo film. Perhaps the biggest surprise, however, was Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man who, without giving too much away, does something amazing that will have comic fans foaming.

Robert Downey Jr and (probably not) Don Cheadle as Iron Man and War Machine
Robert Downey Jr and (probably not) Don Cheadle as Iron Man and War Machine

THE CONFLICT:

At the centre of both these films is a conflict between heroes, the difference is that one of them makes sense and allows you to sympathise with both sides, and the other is driven by ignorance and then resolved in the most ridiculous fashion.

In Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Batman’s motivation for turning on Superman almost makes sense, in that he sees the destruction caused by this alien and the potential threat to mankind. Superman, however, seems happy enough to sacrifice one life to save another, and it’s only because of their mother’s name that they decide to become super best friends. Side note: This sounds even more ridiculous in writing.

The drift between Captain America and Iron Man is as much about moral conflict as it is politics, which is important because it means that the decision is not entirely their own – and for once, it’s not just in the hands of the American government either, but the whole world.

Perhaps it’s because he’s solely responsible for creating Ultron, the robot that nearly wiped out humanity, but Tony Stark can see the error in their ways. He believes that they need to be put in check, and made accountable for their actions. Otherwise, “We’re no better than the bad guys.” Cap, on the other hand, believes that what they’re doing is right – stating, “The safest hands are still our own”. He too has a point, because when Loki and his minions attacked New York in the first Avengers movie, the American government tried to wipe them all out with a nuclear missile.

The best part is that each of their arguments makes sense for them as characters – characters who have been carefully established over the course of six or seven films. As the audience, we already have some idea of their personal experiences, their loyalties, and their relationship to one another. Cap and Iron Man haven’t always agreed, but they definitely respect one another, and that carries throughout this film – even when they’re beating the daylights out of one another.

Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor
Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor

THE REAL VILLAIN:

Lurking behind both of these superhero stand-offs is a villain with his own agenda, in the form of Jesse Eisenberg’s over-animated and downright annoying portrayal of Lex Luther, and Daniel Brühl’s skillfully reserved Zemo. Once revealed, Zemo has a clear motive, and that theme is reflected again among other characters. Luther, however, just wants to cause chaos, and it’s not entirely clear why he wants to destroy Superman – or what it would have achieved if Superman killed Batman. The one thing that they do both have in common is that in the end, they both appear to be working for higher powers, and there is potentially a greater plan at play. It’s most likely that Luther is referring to Darkseid, especially considering all the other Easter Eggs before it, but Zemo is a little more unclear. He could be working for Thanos, the big bad in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War Parts 1 & 2, but they may even be planning for Marvel’s Phase 4… could it be The Masters Of Evil?

THE FINAL SCENES (INCLUDING MID & END CREDITS):

Marvel are renowned for their mid and end credit scenes, which seem to be getting less and less pivotal to the grand scheme of things. It was a surprise that DC didn’t even attempt to play that game, opting to end it all before the credits with a twist that we all saw coming – honestly, as if they were going to kill off someone already credited in their upcoming Justice League movies!

As for Captain America: Civil War, the mid credit sequence wasn’t really much of a giveaway. We get to see Black Panther in his home of Wakanda, which looks pretty cool but doesn’t really disclose much that we didn’t already know. And for the finale scene, it’s a little more ambiguous. We go back to Queens, at the home of Peter Parker and Aunt May (played by Marisa Tomei) and Peter finds something in his costume – which appeared to be the molecular structure of an element, similar to the one that Tony created in Iron Man 2, which just might have ties to the Iron Spider costume.

Chadwick Boseman (or maybe a stand-in) as Black Panther
Chadwick Boseman (or maybe a stand-in) as Black Panther

THE FUTURE:

While both studios have already mapped out their forthcoming films, it’s obvious from watching both Captain America: Civil War and Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice which of them is heading in the right direction. Sneak peaks of Black Panther and Spider-Man are so much more exciting compared to the brooding shots of The Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman. Not to mention Marvel’s brain-bending teaser trailer for Doctor Strange. Wonder Woman may be DC’s only saving grace, but even then, Justice League has still got to go up against Avengers: Infinity War, which is a battle that they’re unlikely to win.

At the end of the day, they’re both going to make a boatload of money, so we’ll likely see many more films to come…

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