Captain America: Civil War

Action movies are more than just a combination of car chases, sword fights and epic one-liners. Often times the audience find themselves focusing too much on a clash of fists between martial artists or a fast-paced, intense firefight and ignoring the story as well as the characters’ state of mind. Only with a concoction of elements can an action movie truly be enjoyable to all who watches it. Perhaps no action movie ever emphasized the balance between action, story, themes and depiction of characters better than Marvel Studio’s “Captain America: Civil War.”For fanatics of Marvel comics, seeing “Captain America: Civil War” on the big screen was a dream come to fruition. At the same time, it was also enjoyable for those who are just casual fans of action movies. We’ve all seen superheroes banding together to save the world, but just like the old saying goes, “Good friends make the worst enemies.” As the name suggests, the Avengers broke up into two factions and an all-out war started. The war began when the government decided that it could no longer tolerate the Avengers’ independence. As a result of their recklessness in combating the likes of the Norse god Loki and the rogue cyborg Ultron, immeasurable amounts of collateral damage and civilian casualties occurred. With that came the Superhero Registration Act, which demanded that the superheroes work under government supervision. Iron Man was a proponent for the proposition that the superheroes register, as he himself was tormented with guilt after hearing the words of a mother who lost her son when the Avengers were fighting Ultron. Captain America, on the other hand, feared for the lives of the superheroes themselves as all their important information was handed to the government. He believed that this demand violated the core value of freedom and liberty the United States stands for and that the government was not to be completely trusted. The superheroes took their respective sides depending on who they agreed with, and the war began.In terms of the fight scenes, the fight that the two teams had at the airport was arguably the finest action scene in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The balance between quippy as well as emotionally intense dialogue was perfect. For example, the conversation that Iron Man and Captain America had before the actual fight began was a spectacular display of the characters’ anger. Iron Man was nearly yelling at the Captain when he said he was trying to keep the Avengers from falling apart, and the Captain responded calmly but powerfully with the memorable line: “You tore the Avengers apart when you signed the Registration Act.” During the fight, we were also able to witness multiple moments that were incredibly humorous. Whether it was Spider-Man mentioning the movie Empire Strikes Back during the climax of the battle or Ant-Man asking for orange slices while groaning in pain after the fight, it was impossible not to laugh at least once when watching the airport scene.In addition, the fight was amazingly choreographed. The powers and abilities of each superhero were displayed in a stylish fashion. Spider-Man was wall-crawling and shooting webs all over the place and Black Panther’s proficiency with his claws and martial arts gave even Captain America a run for his money. However, the most impressive aspect of all was that this battle did not seem chaotic. People may think that with 12 superheroes fighting each other, the fight would end up being nothing more than a flurry of madness, but the film handled this scene extremely well. The battle was fast-paced, but the transition between different superheroes fighting was not too slow, nor too fast. This is without mentioning how well the heroes cooperated with each other. One example is how Spider-Man trapped Ant-Man in his webs while Iron Man and War Machine delivered punches to Ant-man’s jaw simultaneously. The cooperation aspect was difficult to incorporate because one needs to see which superpowers complement the others as well as which powers are best used against which opponents. Surprisingly, this movie did a good job with all these aspects.While the action scenes were nearly impeccable, the story seemed to have moved towards a different direction near the end. While Iron Man decided that he no longer wished to fight Captain America and Winter Soldier due to their previous disagreement, he found out the truth of his parents’ death when he was a child as well as how the Winter Soldier was involved. In reality, Winter Soldier was brainwashed at that time, so he shouldn’t have taken responsibility for the death of Iron Man’s parents. Despite that, Iron Man proceeded to start a fight with Winter Soldier out of sheer anger. During the final fight, Captain America stood up to defend his friend, and so began the final clash of superheroes. This was where the story was jumping around a bit, for the final fight had almost nothing to do with the previous argument of liberty vs. responsibility. There were many other different things to focus on during the overall story such as the death of Black Panther’s father, the burgeoning love between the cyborg Vision and Scarlet Witch and of course, the truth of how Iron man lost his parents. These things are not unrelated to the main plot, but for some people, especially casual Marvel fans, having too many things to pay attention to may seem a bit overwhelming. However, we need to take into consideration that this movie is about Marvel superheroes fighting each other, and the movie wouldn’t be fun to watch if the roster of heroes was a bit too small. With numerous characters, it is important to have the spotlight on the main characters while at the same time make sure the supporting characters also have a bit of light shed on them.These different parts of the complicated story may be overwhelming, but they also bring about the best aspect of this movie, which lie in the themes of the story and characters. Comic book superheroes may be what teenagers dream of becoming, but the most popular superheroes aren’t always the strongest. The most popular superheroes are often the ones we find the most relatable. Of all the superheroes movies that I have seen throughout many years, none of them captured this better than Captain America: Civil War. The anger that Iron Man felt when learning the truth about his parent’s deaths clouded his mind and interfered with his judgement. Not many people can honestly say that that has never happened to them before. Captain America, on the other hand, displayed his conviction to win and his desire to defend his friend with some of the most intense facial expressions I’ve ever seen in my life. The way actor Chris Evans portrayed it truly breathed life into the character. Lots of us have been through a time in our lives when we wished to defend something or someone we love, and the looks of Captain America’s face reminded me that often times, the reason for our strength is because we have something we wish to protect. The acting was amazing not only in the sense that it was realistic and believable, but also in the sense that it reminded us that these superheroes are more than just ordinary characters. They are more than just figures sketched on pieces of paper, they represent ideals. The reason people felt so enthusiastic about this matchup isn’t because they get to see titans of power face off against each other, but because they have to move beyond the characters themselves and ponder upon the ideals they represent.The Captain stood for freedom, but is that really being responsible considering how the powers of the superheroes can be used to protect people but also bring about destruction? Iron Man chose to accept limitations because he knew how he had to be responsible with his power, but was that really upholding the virtues of justice? What is true responsibility? How does one define justice? These are all questions for us to contemplate on. With these blurred lines, it’s hard to decide which side to support. In the end, I decided that it was improper to pick a side at all. Neither ideal necessarily outweigh the other, but regardless, whenever conflict occurs, there will be people who end up getting hurt, and sometimes even die. It’s like the old saying goes. “There are no winners in war.” Standing up for one’s ideals is not a wrong thing to do, but as conflict rises from disagreement, the strife to defend one’s beliefs becomes a negative thing. The heroes were driven by their beliefs and ideals when they were fighting, but in the end, no one walks away unscathed. Their beliefs were the source of their strength, but their strength was ultimately the source of their suffering.The characters delivered to us in “Captain America: Civil War” were not only powerful and stylish, but they were also capable of reminding us of ourselves. The numerous aspects of the story may have been a bit too much at times, rendering it as somewhat of a flaw, but overall, the story was one of the best I’ve seen in action movies. The story moved beyond the question of “Who would win in a fight?” and focused almost entirely on “Who is doing the right thing?” This breaks the mold of the majority of action film plots, and that’s what makes it so memorable. Overall, this film has a little bit of everything: lots of fighting, a pinch of romance, great displays of brotherhood and friendship, and it allows you to contemplate philosophical questions. Truly, it was a marvel of a film.