Post by Axalon on Jun 5, 2016 20:54:13 GMT -5
After weeks of being unable to see it and creeping through the internet to avoid spoilers I finally saw Civil War.
Overall, I thought it was very good. I don't even really have all that many nitpicks, aside from:
Aside from that overall I liked it. Spider-Man was good, though he kinda came out of nowhere, had his two scenes and then was never used again. Humor and romance were MERCIFULLY toned down from the Avengers 2 schlock. Even having freaking Spider-Man in the film gave us overall less corny humor than Avengers 2. Black Panther being on a side instead of being a neutral party (being a sovereign king and what not) made sense in the context of the story. The plot is also mercifully better (above nitpick aside) than the horribly executed Civil War comic story arc which had Tony Stark and Reed Richards building an extradimensional concentration camp for metahumans who refused to cooperate, and even had more Winter Soldier in the plot than the actual Winter Soldier movie, which to this day I feel should've been called Hail Hydra and not Winter Soldier.
War Machine is back, sporting a big bulky suit with lots of things to shoot. May we never see Iron Patriot again.
In the end, I think I would've just preferred this as Avengers 2 over AoU. This was much better.
Overall, I thought it was very good. I don't even really have all that many nitpicks, aside from:
117 nations coming together at the UN to get furious about 274+ deaths over the span of four years. This is a film where a guy can shrink himself to the size of an ant or reverse it to go all Godzilla on people while laughing like a maniac, and even THAT I found more believable than the bureaucratic nightmare that is the United Nations instantly banding together to throw down international laws on a group of people who saved 7+ billion people at the cost of a few hundred--most if not all of which was done by villains like Ultron and the world is just shifting blame to the Avengers because plot reasons.
I'm sorry, but in the US alone 38,300 people were killed in car accidents in 2015. 2,996 people in the September 11th attacks. 274+ over the span of four years is goddamned AMAZING, especially given the circumstances. I feel like the casualties might have been intended to be more steep at some point, but then Man of Steel came out and after the backlash that film received when Zod started leveling parts of Metropolis they toned it down. As such we get ludicrous figures like an alien invasion killing only 74 people. It would take 37 Chitauri-style invasions to come close to the 9/11 death toll. Yes, do the math. 37.
...I really hate the Chitauri.
Aside from that there's the odd continuity issue here or there. Ross. Yeah, General Ross. From the 2008 Incredible Hulk film. Never mind that he's directly responsible for the creation of the Abomination and then having him and the Hulk going to blows in the middle of Manhattan, that apparently gets HIM promoted to Secretary of State and in charge of overseeing the post-Accords Avengers. Somehow.
Then there's Rhodey on his road to recovery. Goddamn it Stark, you perfected the goddamn Extremis virus that fixes all these things back in Iron Man 3. Use it, don't have poor Rhodey limping around like that.
Scarlet Witch's random use of her powers continues. This time by apparently driving Vision to the Earth's core, or something. I dunno, dude fell a LONG way down. Naturally she never does anything half as effective again when the two teams are slugging it out.
To end on a good note, Pepper Potts is mercifully gone and broken up with Tony.
I'm sorry, but in the US alone 38,300 people were killed in car accidents in 2015. 2,996 people in the September 11th attacks. 274+ over the span of four years is goddamned AMAZING, especially given the circumstances. I feel like the casualties might have been intended to be more steep at some point, but then Man of Steel came out and after the backlash that film received when Zod started leveling parts of Metropolis they toned it down. As such we get ludicrous figures like an alien invasion killing only 74 people. It would take 37 Chitauri-style invasions to come close to the 9/11 death toll. Yes, do the math. 37.
...I really hate the Chitauri.
Aside from that there's the odd continuity issue here or there. Ross. Yeah, General Ross. From the 2008 Incredible Hulk film. Never mind that he's directly responsible for the creation of the Abomination and then having him and the Hulk going to blows in the middle of Manhattan, that apparently gets HIM promoted to Secretary of State and in charge of overseeing the post-Accords Avengers. Somehow.
Then there's Rhodey on his road to recovery. Goddamn it Stark, you perfected the goddamn Extremis virus that fixes all these things back in Iron Man 3. Use it, don't have poor Rhodey limping around like that.
Scarlet Witch's random use of her powers continues. This time by apparently driving Vision to the Earth's core, or something. I dunno, dude fell a LONG way down. Naturally she never does anything half as effective again when the two teams are slugging it out.
To end on a good note, Pepper Potts is mercifully gone and broken up with Tony.
Aside from that overall I liked it. Spider-Man was good, though he kinda came out of nowhere, had his two scenes and then was never used again. Humor and romance were MERCIFULLY toned down from the Avengers 2 schlock. Even having freaking Spider-Man in the film gave us overall less corny humor than Avengers 2. Black Panther being on a side instead of being a neutral party (being a sovereign king and what not) made sense in the context of the story. The plot is also mercifully better (above nitpick aside) than the horribly executed Civil War comic story arc which had Tony Stark and Reed Richards building an extradimensional concentration camp for metahumans who refused to cooperate, and even had more Winter Soldier in the plot than the actual Winter Soldier movie, which to this day I feel should've been called Hail Hydra and not Winter Soldier.
War Machine is back, sporting a big bulky suit with lots of things to shoot. May we never see Iron Patriot again.
Some things I loved were that they FINALLY started exploiting the obvious weaknesses. Stark telling Spidey to go for Cap's legs. Cap/WS going for Stark's arc reactor. Now we just need a competent villain to do the same. Zemo was...eh. I dislike that they just made him some random military guy who lost his family in Avengers 2 and wanted revenge, but this continues the overall trend of mostly disappointing MCU villains.
Also, Tony's team defeated Cap's team in the one full battle they had. I'm glad, because there was no way Tony's OP team should've lost unless they wanted to dive into the murky area that is Scarlet Witch HAX. It helps that neither side was giving it 100%.
Any other dislikes were more personal preference than actually something wrong with the film. Tony doing a 180 and kow-towing to the government felt off, but I was glad he was more or less himself again at the end. Likewise with Widow, who at the very least gets immediately called out by Falcon on her 180 after Winter Soldier when she told the government to screw themselves almost as fast as I had thought of it. Tony recruiting a minor (Spider-Man) as muscle in his little Civil War was also a bit iffy. Though like my other point he does eventually draw a line and sends the kid home.
Also, Tony's team defeated Cap's team in the one full battle they had. I'm glad, because there was no way Tony's OP team should've lost unless they wanted to dive into the murky area that is Scarlet Witch HAX. It helps that neither side was giving it 100%.
Any other dislikes were more personal preference than actually something wrong with the film. Tony doing a 180 and kow-towing to the government felt off, but I was glad he was more or less himself again at the end. Likewise with Widow, who at the very least gets immediately called out by Falcon on her 180 after Winter Soldier when she told the government to screw themselves almost as fast as I had thought of it. Tony recruiting a minor (Spider-Man) as muscle in his little Civil War was also a bit iffy. Though like my other point he does eventually draw a line and sends the kid home.
In the end, I think I would've just preferred this as Avengers 2 over AoU. This was much better.
