Civil War sees Marvel’s favourite Marvel superheroes at loggerheads, but why this rift between friends and colleagues?
The plot is fairly simple. Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is now leading the newly formed Avengers team fighting on behalf of mankind to make the world a safer place.
The film opens with the team in Lagos battling to defeat a band of terrorists led by ex-Shield operative Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo) last seen fighting with Falcon AKA Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) in The Winter Soldier now facially disfigured and under the name of Crossbones.
But saving the World comes at a cost. While battling with the bad guys, innocent residents die.
Political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability for the Avengers headed by a governing body and the United Nations to oversee and direct the team.
This new status quo does not sit well with Captain America and fractures the Avengers resulting in two camps - one led by Rogers and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference and the other by Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.)/Tony Stark’s surprising decision to support government after his guilt trip with the creation of Ultron.
Following Avengers Assemble, Age of Ultron the Iron Man and Captain America stand-alone saga’s the Marvel storylines could have started to turn a bit stale but with the creative direction of the Russo brothers and the writing skills of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely the film rarely lets you catch your breath.
Anthony and Joe Russo also directed the action-packed The Winter Soldier and take this third adventure into darker, and quite violent territory, but that’s not to say it doesn’t have Marvel’s trademark humorous moments.
We have the usual Tony Stark quips but the highlight of the film for many fans is the inclusion of two of the most likeable characters - Ant-Man and our own friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.
Paul Rudd is a wise-cracking Ant-Man, starstruck at meeting his idol Captain America, while south London actor Tom Holland pretty much steals the show after being recruited by Team Iron Man. As Falcon points out to Spidey in mid-fight: “There’s usually not this much talk!”
As an audience, we are left unsure which team to side with as they are broken up with some of our favourite characters in both camps.
After Spider-Man, ass-kicking Black Panther (Chadwich Boseman) is another welcome addition to the cast, though let’s just hope he lightens up for future outings.
Apart from the Civil War going on between old friends there is a behind the scene menace in the form of Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) who has his own agenda and is a kind of Marvel Lex Luthor.
It all adds up to an absolute double popcorn-munching gem to keep you wanting more (Avengers, not popcorn!) and with the Russo brothers signed on for Avengers: Infinity Wars 1 and 2, there is plenty more where that came from.
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