Captain America: Civil War user review

  • War....what is it good for? Ruddy good comic book movies thats what!!!

    Having loved all the previous Marvel efforts, I think this is my favourite yet. The opening Lagos chase set the scene amazingly, with a frankly stunning piece of action choreography showing how a team really can work together - all moves are not only loving crafted to show a team at the height of their powers, but shot in a way that allows you to follow what's going on.....and its shot in daylight and sunshine too!!! After this breathless opening the well known plot settles down and its incredibly well handled, with each characters motivations always clear (oooooo, I went there, that's right......!) as well as being sensible and logical.

    Making the action personal and dealing with the collateral damage of previous efforts was a clever way of both addressing ongoing criticism of the genre as well as offering a new dynamic for the team, helping keep what is the umpteenth film in a franchise feel fresh and vital. That balance of wonderful set piece and carefully realised plot machination is almost perfect across its 145 min run time, which never felt long or padded.

    Each character got their own little arc and moment, even those not really well served by the script - but that's the benefit of having a Jeremy Renner or a Don Cheadle in your film: they all bring so much character, thanks both to the back story of the multiple films, but also the excellent casting across the whole franchise. And its brought to a head in the amazing airport battle - fun, fluid, witty, amazingly put together, so many superlatives....! - where for 17 minutes you don't draw breath. I was worried when this was over that the remaining 35 odd minutes would be a let down, but then the emotional arc comes to a head and seeing how it panned out was wonderful, meaning that single shot when Cap and Tony come together in battle, you are totally invested and where the brilliance of the film not having a clearly defined right and wrong pays off.

    Ultimately, this was a stunning piece of popcorn entertainment that will be unfairly dismissed by some as being a typical comic book movie.....which while it has all the tropes, its probably the pinnacle of the modern day comic book blockbuster for me, bringing the heart and spectacle together perfectly. I ruddy well loved it.

    The picture quality on this 3D disc was pretty good up to the airport scene - then seeing it open up to the full 1.85 ratio to accommodate the brawl was stunning. Lovely depth and detail was all present in the 3D image, which whilst probably not the best around, was still pretty darn great. Another frustrating lossless 7.1 track from Disney - having listened to two recent Atmos soundtracks (Transformers AoE and Star Trek on UHD), the problem with this track is that whilst its technically strong (lovely dynamic range, nice LFE, etc), it doesn't hit the highs of what a lossless soundtrack can actually do - it was never as deep as AoE or as crystal clear, with the immediacy and presence of the vocals that Star Trek had....so whilst on its own its strong (if again it needed to be turned up louder than other discs), in comparison to the best out there, its just not there.....and for a title such as this, I and many would expect it to be. Extras? Nah. Not for me on this disc, although I may check out the 2-part 45 min making of that's on there.

    Summary - a wonderful Marvel movie and a wonderful action movie full stop. Great action scenes and heart, as well as clear logic and plotting and amazing VFX all add up to a classic 2.5 hours worth of entertainment. Watching it so close to Paramount's Star Trek and I'm reminded of that in terms of its tone, balance, legacy of characters and overall entertainment value - anyone with a pulse should watch and enjoy this.

    Pros

    • Superb piece of action cinema
    • Heart and brawls
    • The IMAX airport scene

    Cons

    • A somewhat lacklustre audio track

    Scores

    9
    10
    9
    8
    7

    Comments

    There are no comments to display.
  • Loading…

Captain America: Civil War

Comments
0
Author
Mark Costello
Review score
9 / 10
Average score
9.5 / 10
Back
Top Bottom