Captain America: Civil War

Excellently filmed, almost as good as Winter Soldier, just with a whole load of extra frills. Perfectly balanced characters, clever story and a villain who...wins? Civil War is probably the most ambitious comic movie at the finale, but the most important thing is that it doesn’t disappoint. It doesn’t fall apart and it manages to stick to the skeleton of the original storyline (in the first version it planned just a small role for Iron Man, no huge battle of superheroes) which it then wraps in nutritious action. (05/04/2016)

Where are the times when I approached every new superhero movie with humbleness and I respected Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man. Then I waited half a year for X-Men to appear and in between some B-rated superhero movies appeared here and there, like Daredevil and Elektra,that didn’t play at anything because they knew perfectly well what stories they were telling. However, modern time is different and movies based on comic books are experiencing a boom. The boom is so big that the producers let the Russo brothers spend so much money on a movie that combines something that was incompatible until recently; they offered the role of Spider-Man to a third actor and wrapped it all into a typical, wannabe funny and digitally advanced package that pretends to be very expensive and cool but unfortunately is also reflecting todayʼs time. In reality, it is a mix of nonsense that combines The Avengers, Spider-Man, Captain America, Ant-Man, and Iron Man and there is nothing good about it. I find rather sad what is perceived to be the pinnacle of cinematographic pop culture. A cheap combination of comic book heroes with uninteresting characters and a mediocre story. (01/05/2017)

Marvel filled the hero cloning device and then turned on the uniformity generator. When these heroes, profiled long ago, spend the first hour verbally tapping each other to find out how much they prefer diplomacy over muscle, you somehow end up buying it, even though we know their motives and have an inkling of how and why they make their choices. Yet the action at Leipzig airport perfectly defines what's wrong with the MCU. The protagonists, who have stood together until recently, are suddenly about to face a massive battle and... nothing. Where's the personal drama when they manage to tell each other they're still friends between their fists landing on each other? Every move is predictable, every action guessable. The Siberian anabasis also misses a second chance in the same vein. True, in the individual aspects - the partial action moments, though none of them reach the Winter Soldier's momentum, the Black Panther, the Bourne-esque feel of the first half - it is strong and proves that the Russo brothers got it right, but as a whole, it’s absolutely draining, unsurprising, and you forget about it in a few days. Given what the film earned, there’s no reason for them to change anything for years to come. (05/05/2016)

Marvel was almost a write-off after their sterile, same old superhero movies, Civil War is a hit and a significant step forward. It plays on a dark emotional chord within reason, opens up interesting questions of international security and laws, goes against itself, and introduces the viewer to new fighters in a very elegant and unobtrusive way. It's almost similarly entertaining to the first Avengers, it just took that tiny little half-step forward, because after all, in those four years we've seen at least five major comic book movies that were all still on the same page. There is of course the traditional stuff like riveting action – it has the clarity from the second, but even better – and the chemistry of the main characters, and even though it's still as simple and without digressions, it's very entertaining because you just don't see that many parametrically interesting and diverse characters on screen. However, by far the only most interesting and emotionally truly fleshed out character remains Bucky, the Winter Soldier. (05/07/2016)

A new Marvel era begins with Civil War. Not only because the film introduces new players to the stage with unusual ease, but also because it definitely opens the door to a dimension left completely aside in the first, and partly also in the second Avengers. Civil War closes the gap between the "down-to-earth" series Daredevil and the escapist blockbusters, while at the same time showing DC and Warner quite indiscriminately what a careful character and story build-up is for. There may be cliché in the middle of the story, but Brühl, as a mysterious mover, is an unusually civil and believable (semi) villain. At the same time, Captain America is definitely finding his role as Captain of Inconsistency - a character so faithful to the original heroic idea of the comics that in the time of relativization, everything actually becomes a subversive element. His clash with Stark is much better motivated and, most importantly, much more meaningful than Batman v Superman. The intimate and unexpectedly impressive finale is an imaginary breakthrough. In this world, nothing will be as simple and clear as before. Marvel overwhelmingly won the battle with the competition and with itself. After Civil War, you may be wondering if you're more on the side of Team Captain America or Team Iron Man. But it's hard not to be on the side of Team Marvel. Who would have thought back in 2012? (05/05/2016)