Captain America: Civil War!!

I did not post a review of Captain America: Civil War when it was released earlier in the month, but now seems like a good time to sum up my feelings about the latest blockbuster Marvel Studios release. Simply put this great movie pulled off that rarest of film trifectas by becoming the first superhero trilogy to actually post a note perfect three picture run.

Man, this flick was equal parts great standalone film, a great next chapter in the overall cinematic Marvel Universe, and yet still managed to also serve as a great setup for fun things yet to come. The newly introduced heroes Black Panther and the latest Spider-Man were truly epic and fun, plus the large cast all shined in exceptional ways. It is weird being a 54 year old fan seeing stuff from your wayward youth brought to life on the big screen! If you have not yet seen the film and by some chance you are familiar with the 2007 comics storyline that this film is based upon, then expect some deviations from that material. For my money, this movies script improved upon many things from the original source material.

Chris Evans and Robert Downey, Jr. each found impressive new depth in their familiar characters of Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, but for fans it comes at a cost of seeing their onscreen relationship fractured by films end. Thematically tying up many threads from the previous Cap flicks and also incorporating incidents from the twin Avengers films surprisingly does not bog things down, a testament to the talent of the Russo Brothers as writers and directors. Jockeying a dozen major heroes plus a number of secondary roles seems to be their forte. In addition to Captain America (Evans) and Iron Man (RDJ) returning cast members include Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow; Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier; Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson / Falcon; Don Cheadle as James "Rhodey" Rhodes / War Machine; Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye; Paul Bettany as The Vision; Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch; Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-Man; Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter; Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow / Crossbones; and William Hurt as Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (from The Incredible Hulk).  If that doesn’t seem like a top heavy cast, we are also introduced to Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa / Black Panther and Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man whose solo movies are set up by this films mid and post credits scenes (might wanna stick around for those at the conclusion). Daniel Brühl as Helmut Zemo provides the main villain of the film in a departure from his comics version, but very effectively done. Captain America: Civil War ranks as one of the best big budget superhero films of all time; hands down (and I didn’t even spoil some of the better moments for fans)!!