CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR - - - best of the super-team movies

  from Marvel’s official summary of the movie . . . . . . . .     

Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” finds Steve Rogers leading the newly formed team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. But after another incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability, headed by a governing body to oversee and direct the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers, resulting in two camps—one led by Steve Rogers and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference, and the other following Tony Stark’s surprising decision to support government oversight and accountability.

Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” stars Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Emily VanCamp, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd and Frank Grillo, with William Hurt and Daniel Brühl.

Anthony & Joe Russo are directing with Kevin Feige producing. Louis D’Esposito, Alan Fine, Victoria Alonso, Patricia Whitcher, Nate Moore and Stan Lee are the executive producers. The screenplay is by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely. Get ready to pick a side and join the nonstop action playing out on two fronts when Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” opens in U.S. theaters on May 6, 2016.

BC REFUGEE’S SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

   Beginning with  THE AVENGERS movie, Marvel Studios has done a consistently fine job of tying together all these characters and exploring the possibilities of long-form story-telling in a cinematic universe.  CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR raises the bar and marks a key moment in Marvel movie magic.  The future of Marvel films looks promising, indeed.

   While we have enjoyed every single film, CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER was our favorite of the bunch.  And now, CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR may just move to the head of the class.  (We need to see it again to see if it holds up on repeated viewings. We expect it will.)  For now, we have no regrets about proclaiming it the “best Marvel TEAM movie so far!"

  In their first film for Marvel, director-brothers Anthony and Joe Russo introduced some of the best designed and choreographed fight scenes in CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER.  The movie held us on the edge of our seats, with fast-paced battles and pleasant surprise after surprise.  Finally, the magic of super-hero comic books was fully realized on the screen.  They really seemed to capture the wonder of humans with super-powers and enhanced abilities and showcased the specific attributes of each hero in special ways.  CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR is a repeat performance of that visual magic.  

   The fight scenes are incredible, and more thrilling than the standard hero versus villain battles, where we expect the good guys to prevail.  Here, it’s hero versus hero.  What makes it edgy and suspenseful is knowing that one of the good guys is liable to get hurt this time.  There is a lot of pain in this film, both external and internal.  The government establishing control over heroes is not the only conflict that separates them by opposing viewpoints.  There are at least two more conflicts to arise before the movie ends, and they are just as critical as the threat of surrounding control to a governmental body. 

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR solves the problem of showcasing a large number of characters without confusing the audience.  Each hero gets a spotlight moment or moments that help viewers understand their different positions, values and philosophy.  This is so much more than a big budget action film.  There is drama, and great character dichotomy. 

   This could have been a very dark movie along the lines of BATMAN VERUS SUPERMAN (which shared themes of heroes needing to take responsibility for their actions), but wisely chose to inject humor throughout.  The light-hearted moments are very well-timed, and none of them came across as cornball or silly.  Heroes make jokes, have funny dialogue exchanges, or funny moments.  The introduction of Spider-Man is a highlight of the film.  Perfectly played by Tom Holland, this is the Spider-Man that we remember most fondly:  a high school adolescent unsure of himself, using wisecracks to bolster his confidence, and reacting to situations in a spot-on teenage manner. The other new character, the Black Panther, is also fully realized and brilliantly portrayed by Chadwick Boseman.  After several movies, both Chris Evans (Captain America) and Robert Downey, Jr. fully understand the characters they are portraying and embody them perfectly. 

   Which side in the Civil War does BC Refugees stand on?  The pictures that we chose to include here tell you exactly what you need to know.

    What are you waiting for?  Go see the movie.