With Captain America: Civil War releasing in most of the world today, and sadly for everyone here, a week later in North America and India, I've decided to do an in-depth preview of the movie, which would tell you what to expect, how the movie has been promoted, and predictably how good it will be.
Captain America: Civil War was announced at Marvel's Phase 3 announcement in October 2014. The story is an adaptation of the 2006-07 seven-issue (although there was a lot more in extended lines) graphic novel series, in which catastrophic events push the government towards implementing the Superhero Registration Act, which would have the government have control over superheroes. Tony Stark agrees, and Steve Rogers disagrees, subsequently dividing the whole Marvel universe (with some exceptions and the Mutants) into an all out war over the matter.
Now, I've decided to start on that, because what a lot of people assume incorrectly is that this movie is going to be an accurate adaptation of the story. It isn't. It'll have the same basis, but it will be different in many ways. While Civil War was a conflict of ideologies, this is going to be personal. Need proof? Watch the first trailer, released on November 25th last year, on an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live.
From this trailer, I knew that we're in for something special, simply because of the heart and choreography of the last thirty seconds. I don't think I've watched a trailer as many times in my life as this one.
There was no other promotional material until February, but I'll get to that later. It should be noted that after all, this is still a sequel to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and it's very evidently so. The movie will focus a lot on the friendship between Steve Rogers and James Barnes, and really, all the government intervention, although related, will take a backseat to this primary story arc, and to be honest, that's a good thing. There can't be a movie that is completely about heroes fighting over a proposition, which in this case is known as the Sokovia Accords; there needs to be something that will grip the audience emotionally. In fact, The Russo Brothers have said this movie is more of a psychological thriller than anything else. From the first trailer, the very opening thirty seconds are about finding Bucky, and that should be an indication of what to expect.
On the same note, even Crossbones is in this movie, who was in the previous one. I won't get into details of him, though.
So if you're wondering why it's a Captain America movie, there's your answer.
All of this serves as evidence for something I've been saying for a long time - The Captain America trilogy may well be one of the greatest of all time. All three movies are completely different to each other, and if this one is anything like what critics are saying it will be, then none of them are bad. Certainly, The Winter Soldier is arguably the best Marvel movie to date, which was a political thriller. The First Avenger was a page-by-page classic superhero story. And this one sees the Avengers go head to head.
Let me put this in context. The Spider-Man trilogy has three movies that are basically the same genre. So does Toy Story. And Iron Man. And many more. Perhaps the Dark Knight trilogy has variety, but certainly not to this extent.
Okay, back to promotion. In February, Marvel released a 30 second Superbowl trailer, which gave us our first looks at Ant-Man and Vision, and a pretty sweet clip with Tony Stark and Bucky.
Around this time, the real promotion really kicked in. Actors were appearing on more talk shows, Marvel were putting together a few more teasers from what we had already seen, but there really was nothing new until March, when the second trailer launched, and set the internet on fire.
Now is the time I start talking about the two major character introductions in this movie. The first one was confirmed when this movie was first announced, and Chadwick Boseman had already been cast as T'Challa or Black Panther. Black Panther was already seen in the first trailer (and was arguably the highlight of it), and even in the second one, there were some great moments featuring him. It's safe to say Marvel are going to handle this character very well.
The second new character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Spider-Man. The deal between Sony and Marvel was made in February last year, and immediately the character was confirmed to appear in this movie, which was in the middle of production. It took a while, but Tom Holland was finally chosen to be the one. It was obvious to me that he won't be in the movie for very long, but I was also doubtful at how he would be handled in such short notice. However, from the reviews I've heard or read, he is supposedly our best Spider-Man yet (on-screen). You'll have to judge for yourself.
The thing about Spider-Man was that we hadn't seen anything with him prior, and there was speculation that he would be revealed in this trailer, and he was. In the same way that Vision was in the third Age of Ultron trailer. The thing that caught everyone's eye was how he looked, and I'm a huge fan of it. It's classic Spider-Man! And the expressive eyes are a good touch. Here's the second trailer.
The two trailers for this movie really had some great contrast between them. The first was much faster paced and really could be called a Captain America trailer. The second one was much more focused on everyone as a whole, and had a slower, more connective pace. The music in both trailers was phenomenal, however.
After trailer 2, Marvel went on an all out marketing madness spree and released multiple clips lifted directly from the film, which could be something good and bad. Thankfully, although a good seven or eight minutes have been released for free, nothing major has been spoiled. Here are a few of those clips.
However, after these four clips, the first reviews for the movie came in, and they were exceptionally positive. The movie currently sits at 8.7 on IMDB and 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. Kristian Harloff from shmoesknow gave it a 4.5 out of 5 and Jeremy Jahns gave it an Awesometacular, which is his highest rating. Reviews like these prompted Marvel to release this TV spot, which also gave us our second look at Spider-Man.
There was another spot involving Spider-Man but I won't share it because I don't want to show too much.
One thing I'm certain about in this movie is that someone will die. I don't know who, though. If the story goes along with the actual Civil War story, then it'll be Captain America. But he is supposedly confirmed for Avengers: Infinity Wars, so one can never be sure. It's certain that it won't be Black Panther, Ant-Man, Vision or Spider-Man because of their future films or relevance, and now Iron Man, because Robert Downey Junior has recently been confirmed to appear in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Could it be War Machine, from what we've seen in the trailers? I can't be sure.
So my final Marvel review (listed on the left) will come out before Captain America: Civil War, and then I'll review the movie itself, hopefully a week from now. For everyone in the world who gets it early, consider yourselves lucky. It's strange because India got Age of Ultron early last year, but we're behind on this.
Captain America: Civil War, don't let us down.
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