As an MCU fangirl, I’ve obviously been looking forward to Captain America: Civil War. As a Whedon fangirl, I’ve always enjoyed group dynamic he brings to the Avengers movies. Civil War, however, with the Russo brothers at the helm, may have topped either of the Avengers films in terms of character interaction and character development.
One criticism of the Avengers films had been that the writing sacrified the personalities of the individual characters to the larger community needs. Despite Captain America: Civil War being titularly a Cap movie, the story revolves around relationships to such an extent that it truly acts more as an ensemble piece. Joe and Anthony Russo amazed me in the way that their nuanced writing clearly defined each character’s personality. The characters were equal parts humor and pathos. The tight dialogue meant that each word had to clearly represent the character in order to create the sense of individuality within the team cohort. The Russos did this quite well.
NOW for the spoilers (ish – if you don’t mind knowing what to look for, this will be fine. Nothing is so specific as to give away any plot points but they’re nice moments that I thought did a great job making the movie fun and interesting and brain exercising).
Did you look away?
Now is your last chance…
8. For you Community fans out there? The Dean of Greendale has a pretty perfect little cameo.
7. The text Steve gets. At one point, Steve gets a text and needs to process what he’s read. It’s two lines of text, but the moment made my stomach drop. I liked the way that in the same way Steve has to process, so did the audience. You knew what it was about, but the lack of overtness made the moment poignant for us as viewers.
6. Vision’s conversation with Scarlet Witch about fear, knowledge, and control. One of the strengths of Captain America: Civil War’s writing was that the hints and through threads were clear but also contextual to the narrative itself. When Vision sits with Wanda and talks about needing to learn more about himself, it’s obvious that the conversation is foreshadowing a future movie. However, the context was perfectly appropriate to Civil War without feeling forced.
5. The real introduction of Spider-Man (aka Underoos). All I can say is that Tony Stark with a tea cup? Priceless.
4. Stan Lee’s cameo. They’re always good. But this one? I’m not giving this one up anytime soon.
3. Natasha and Clint. As we know from the trailers, they’re on opposite sides of the war. Again, where the writing in Civil War excels is that it manages to keep each of the characters intact and their histories (both individual and combined) intact. At no point did I feel that the characters were changed to fit the movie. In addition, I never felt that the relationships, albeit strained, ever deviated from their basic foundations. The scene between Natasha and Clint exemplified this perfectly. It’s short, beautiful, and really underscores the whole theme of the movie.
2. “I’ve got something kind of big, but I can’t keep it up for very long.” If you don’t love this line, I’m not really sure we can be friends anymore.
1. Our first view of Wakanda. You’re gonna love it.
“For you Community fans out there? The Dean of Greendale has a pretty perfect little cameo.”
Thanks, I actually did cheer a little reading that!
There is SO MUCH too look forward to with this movie. I hope we can actually get out to see it sometime soon.