I remember when this was announced and being quite concerned. I am a HUGE fan of the original Civil War comic line. Even if people disagreed about Cap and Tony being on their respective sides, I was fine with it. I was very skeptical that they could do it justice. At the time it was announced, we only whomever was in Age of Ultron. So I was like....how the hell are they going to do this massive story justice with such a tiny cast? You need the FF. You need Spider-Man. You need The New Warriors. You need dozens and dozens of characters for the registration to even make any sense. How are they going to sum up what takes months in the comics into a 2-3 hour movie? I was not thrilled.
But then time went on. Spidey joined the cast. Black Panther joined the cast. The character development leading up to it was taking more shape. Then we saw the story they decided on, which is not even a little related to the original Civil War. And I loved it. If they had tried to make it more comic accurate, it would've been awful. They made the character arcs be a perfect extension of what we've seen so far. We knew exactly why Tony was where he was. We knew why Cap was where he was. We knew why their teams joined them. It all made sense. The bad guy wasn't just a big guy to punch, he was trying something Marvel had never done before or since. He tried to out wit them only and didn't want power or anything evil at all.
On top of that you got an amazing intro to Spider-Man. I remember being in the theater and the crowd erupting when QUEENS showed up on the screen. Doubt the mention of Queens will ever get an applause like that ever again. How they handled his entire origin/catch phrase in a minute or two was just brilliant. Can't say enough about that. Of course the into of Black Panther was so damn cool. The chase scene between him and Bucky was just insane.
On top of all of that you have the incredible action, topped off by the obvious and now famous airplane scene. I am not even going to discuss it since we're all aware of it and all know how good it is.
But yes, the movie is Avengers 2.5 and I have no problem with that. It's incredible and I love every minute of it.
The great thing about Zemo is that he was a big stepping stone in the thru-line that led up to Thanos succeeding if you think about it. He drove the Avengers apart, and because of the division, they weren't united against the coming threat of Thanos. Of course, that isn't to say Thanos might not have won even if the Avengers were assembled after Civil War, but the odds would've been better for them.
But if you *really* think about it, Zemo wanted revenge because the Avengers kind of destroyed Sokovia (accidentally), because Tony Stark accidentally created Ultron, which was a response to Tony's paranoia and fears from the Battle Of New York when Loki invaded with the Chitauri, which was facilitated by Thanos. Everything just kind of worked out between what happened with/to Tony and Thanos, which makes their confrontation in Infinity War even more compelling. They were set on a path from 2012 onward that led them there, and the events of films like Age Of Ultron and Civil War were big stepping stones for that plot to advance. I love that it all makes sense now, in retrospect.
Amazing start for the franchise, my only nit-pick is Stane being able to use the armor perfectly without any test runs or anything. Especially because he's not a genius like Tony.
This is one of my pet peeves: villains getting the same powers as the hero and instantly being able to stand toe-to-toe with the hero that has a lot more experience using said powers. Zod in Superman is another example. Yellowjacket in Ant-Man, too.
Regarding Yellowjacket, while he had a similar suit, it did drive him insane, so it's not like he was AS competent as Scott Lang, though, to be fair, Scott wasn't as competent either, and I'd argue Darren had just as much experience as Scott leading up to their confrontation. At least Darren had been researching Pym particles for awhile, whereas Scott had only just heard of them for the first time in his first film.
The same might be said about Stane, who was an older, more experienced engineer and war monger (har har). While he might not be a genius like Tony, I think he definitely knew how some things could work with regards to Stark tech. He also had dozens of other Stark employees helping him develop the Iron Monger suit as well, so it's not like he stumbled upon the tech and bumbled his way into villainy, like the bad guys in Spider-Man: Homecoming - yes, even Vulture, who, while a great villain, surprises me that a demolition contractor was able to master a VTOL-flight suit with wings in a couple weeks' time. At least Sam Wilson was a trained military soldier with specific training in his flight suit gear.
As for other foes with "same powers", I'd say Killmonger also makes sense given that he was a military soldier of fortune. He's got the experience and combat knowledge, so being paired with a vibranium suit only helped his skills go further. The same might also be said about Blonsky, the Abomination - another soldier (god, there's a lot of these between Killmonger, Zemo, Bucky for a time, etc) who was pretty strong and skilled already, but the serum that turned him into the Abomination only helped him make himself stronger. He even says so in the film - if he had his younger body with his current mind, he'd be an unstoppable warrior.
I'm glad the MCU has been moving away from "the Villain has the same power-set as the Hero" trope for awhile now, unless it makes thematic sense (Doctor Strange fights another sorcerer because it's a sorcerer's conflict, Shang-Chi fights his dad with the ten rings because it's a family fight).
-Marc.
Topic: Official MCU film ranking thread--AND THE WINNER IS... (Read 12426 times)
