Civil War What you didn't like about Captain America: Civil War - Flaws/Critiques

[Enriquespy]

I'm not sure if they used Vision to his full potential. He seems like a tricky character to use.

Cap's kiss with Sharon seemed too soonish, but the look Bucky and Sam gave him was golden.

Black Panther film is not on cinemas yet. That is something I do not like.

 

[Enriquespy]

Yeah the villain, once again, my biggest gripe as well. As far as motivations go, he has THE most cliché and typical motivations possible. Nor was his alleged Xanatos Gambit all that clever either.

Zemo was serviceable, which is something I give a pass since the film isn't really about him. And yes, the gambit is something us fans saw coming from a mile away. But in my theatre there where audible surprised reactions when it happened. I guess it was a real shock to the GA.

 

[JtheDreamer]

Yeah the villain, once again, my biggest gripe as well. As far as motivations go, he has THE most cliché and typical motivations possible. Nor was his alleged Xanatos Gambit all that clever either.

I have a weird reaction to this film. Objectively, I fully acknowledge it's quality. It's well-shot, well-paced, well-acted, has some cool action, etc. But, my feeling coming out of it was, ambivalence. I just couldn't really get into it because, this is just not a premise that I ever wanted to see, and the ending just made me go "meh." So there was nothing really to latch onto. But that's perhaps just a taste issue, so I totally get why others like it.

This is where I'm at right now. It's been 3-4 weeks since I've seen it and I will be going again this weekend to cement my thoughts, but something about the third act is dragging this movie down for me.

There's some story-telling sacrifices being made to fit all these characters into what was normally the "solo" realm of the MCU. It's becoming slightly distracting for me personally.

 

[divan]

Yeah the villain, once again, my biggest gripe as well. As far as motivations go, he has THE most cliché and typical motivations possible. Nor was his alleged Xanatos Gambit all that clever either.

I have to disagree here. Well it's true revenge is a classic motive for a villain, using him as a representation of the wrath some people may feel agaist these heroes and giving him a justified motive to go after them is not. Nor is giving genuine selfless and humbling qualities.

I mean, in spite of his limited screen-time, you could almost root for him in a Punisher-like way (in fact, this would have been the exact model to follow had the movie been told from his perspective), something difficult to achieve for most villains.

 

[JtheDreamer]

I have to disagree here. Well it's true revenge is a classic motive for a villain, using him as a representation of the wrath some people may feel agaist these heroes and giving him a justified motive to go after them is not. Nor is giving genuine selfless and humbling qualities.

I mean, in spite of his limited screen-time, you could almost root for him in a Punisher-like way (in fact, this would have been the exact model to follow had the movie been told from his perspective), something difficult to achieve for most villains.

You can't root for him. You don't even know what his motivations are until the very end with his throwaway line about his family being killed in Sokovia. By that time the movie is almost over.

 

[divan]

You can't root for him. You don't even know what his motivations are until the very end with his throwaway line about his family being killed in Sokovia. By that time the movie is almost over.

Spoiler

The movie already tells you something's off already when the Winter Soldiers are found dead.

But his conversation with Black Panther (which I personally found very well-done and not just a throaway thing, Brühl deserves credit for that though) casts his actions from before in a new light. You don't need to be told everything right away to understand a character as long as the movie leaves it clear by the time it's over.

 

[JtheDreamer]

Spoiler

The movie already tells you something's off already when the Winter Soldiers are found dead.

But his conversation with Black Panther (which I personally found very well-done and not just a throaway thing, Brühl deserves credit for that though) casts his actions from before in a new light. You don't need to be told everything right away to understand a character as long as the movie leaves it clear by the time it's over.

It's vanilla story telling though. Not to mention convenient. We already got those motivations in AOU from the twins. It felt recycled.

 

[Enriquespy]

I have no idea of what is the point of Morgan Freeman's character.

 

[divan]

What we're led to believe he wants something throughout the whole movie, which is far from his actual objective. That reveal is what tells us things aren't as simple.

It's vanilla story telling though. Not to mention convenient.

To each his own I guess. The movie insists the Avengers seed pain and destruction where they go, thematically it makes sense one of the "collateral" would take things personally. Not exactly vanilla or out-of-context, to me at least.

 

[JtheDreamer]

One of the rotten reviews kind of covered my thoughts at the moment. Mind you I didn't rate the movie a 2/5 - I gave it an 8.5.

Holland is charming enough to make us long for the second Spidey reboot — but there we go again. Now 13 titles in to the MCU, we’ve been trained not to look at what’s in front of us but what’s coming next. They’re perfect films for the current pop culture landscape, in which the articles with the biggest hits tend to be about news of films that will be made, not about the films themselves once they’re cobbled together. Not to sound like someone who’s listened to too much Rage Against the Machine, but these movies reflect and perpetuate a dispiriting trend in the entertainment world, turning nerds into corporate tools who angrily defend the brand against anyone who would defy it.

“Civil War” could have been the one to turn the ship around. Sometimes it almost does. The big brawl is essentially comedic — until, of course, it’s not. The climax isn’t another clangy spectacle in which a metropolis is giddily leveled. It’s a three-way fight between our heroes, with the orchestra mourning loudly at the anguish of it all. No, this won’t be the “dark” one that ends with someone we love dying. One character almost bites it, but s/he is minor and winds up spared. This is no “Game of Thrones” because Marvel isn’t about ruthlessness. Indeed, by the end everything has been cleaned up and we’re back on course for the nine other MCU films en route in the next three years alone. Ultimately even the stuff that thrilled us or emotionally engaged us or maybe even provoked deeper thought turns out to be just that: stuff.

 

[Pokkle]

You can't root for him. You don't even know what his motivations are until the very end with his throwaway line about his family being killed in Sokovia. By that time the movie is almost over.

We saw him listening message from his family way before in the movie.
But it's at the end, we understand everything.

 

[Mjölnir]

I have two minor grips and they are minor

1. The villain is there simply to get the ball rolling and is pretty one dimensional as a character but villains are a flaw for Marvel with the exception of Loki.

2. It would have been nice to see a character cross over from the initial side they choose to show the characters being morally conflicted. To be fair, Widow 'kinda' crosses over. Would have been special if that character was Spider-Man like in the comics.

Like I said, tiny. CW is now my favorite Marvel Studios movie of all time.

Zemo being one-dimensional would have meant that he was only evil and didn't have his sad human side. It was more a case of that he wasn't developed a lot since the focus was on the civil war of the Avengers.

Widow certainly changes side as she's now a fugitive from Ross as well. Spidey changing sides would have been nice in itself, but it wouldn't mean as much in this movie as he doesn't really have as much stakes in the conflict. He's not one who has to sign the accords. At least not where the accords are right now, as they of course could expand to include all enhanced people.

 

[smsvmos]

Entertaining movie but come on, CIVIL WAR??? They should have called it, Captain America: The Fugitive or Captain America: Friendly Dispute.

 

[Enriquespy]

"Captain America: Not that many civilians involved"

 

[smsvmos]

This movie has no real consequences whatsoever. We have a protagonist that should have been called Captain Buddy instead of Captain America. There is even a moment when you start to choose Cap side but then the big revelation and you just wish Tony would have killed them both.

 

[Leo Zelinsky]

I didn't like how Sharon kissed Cap like she was the man

 

[Enriquespy]

I didn't like how Sharon kissed Cap like she was the man

 

[smsvmos]

That's another scene I have an issue with. So Captain *****bag is at his ex-girlfriend funeral and her beautiful niece comes to the podium and Falcon taps him and Captains reaction is like "Well Hello there Beautiful". Really? Really?

 

[Nathan]

I think that was more of a "Look who actually her niece is." They both knew her from the second Movie, but until the funeral didn't know she was related to Peggy.

 

[Jaxon]

Entertaining movie but come on, CIVIL WAR??? They should have called it, Captain America: The Fugitive or Captain America: Friendly Dispute.

The fear going in to this movie is that basically everyone would play nice and that's exactly what happened. Airport scene was just fairy floss.

Cap's motivation just didn't come across, you'd have to stretch your understanding of all previous movies to try and make a leap to get there. Tony's was so easy to get - join the U.N. But Cap's was like "screw the U.N. they have agendas". It just didn't make any sense at all.

Marvel's model is to make all their heroes heroic, and that doesn't work in a movie where you're trying to pit them off against each other, then it just becomes a court room drama, the action is so hollow, and it was. And the set-up to the end was a goddam video where Cap goes "yeah I knew". Then Iron Man decides he's going to take out his friend who has been under mind control and Cap? I mean WTF, even you can accept all the ridiculous coincidence to get them in that room with the video it's just weak sauce.

I'll say it again, WS should have assassinated Rhodey prior to the airport under Zemo's control. That would have raised the stakes at the airport and then have Tony go on a revenge mission with Panther being the one who figures out the truth and stops the fight at the end.


Hugely missed opportunity due to some poor creative choices and the constriction of the Marvel philosophy.

 

[JtheDreamer]

The fear going in to this movie is that basically everyone would play nice and that's exactly what happened. Airport scene was just fairy floss.

Cap's motivation just didn't come across, you'd have to stretch your understanding of all previous movies to try and make a leap to get there. Tony's was so easy to get - join the U.N. But Cap's was like "screw the U.N. they have agendas". It just didn't make any sense at all.

Marvel's model is to make all their heroes heroic, and that doesn't work in a movie where you're trying to pit them off against each other, then it just becomes a court room drama, the action is so hollow, and it was. And the set-up to the end was a goddam video where Cap goes "yeah I knew". Then Iron Man decides he's going to take out his friend who has been under mind control and Cap? I mean WTF, even you can accept all the ridiculous coincidence to get them in that room with the video it's just weak sauce.

I'll say it again, WS should have assassinated Rhodey prior to the airport under Zemo's control. That would have raised the stakes at the airport and then have Tony go on a revenge mission with Panther being the one who figures out the truth and stops the fight at the end.

Hugely missed opportunity due to some poor creative choices and the constriction of the Marvel philosophy.

I understand most of your criticisms and on some levels can relate to them. However, killing Rhodey would be superfluous. Once we found out about Howard Stark's murder in CA:TWS - we knew we were headed down this route eventually i.e. Cap withholding the info from him and Stark finding out.

I will say this. I don't want to see the Russo's use anymore video footage to pull the curtain. They did it in TWS with Zola (which was a really cool sequence), but then we got it again in Civil War with the surveillance footage of the Starks.

 

[Probotector]

1. The new Winter Soldiers. Specifically, I hate it when films/comics undermine established characters by saying 'here are a bunch of people just like them, but even stronger.' There was no need to imply they were stronger than Bucky; the threat of multiple winter soldiers alone would have been enough, particularly as they didn't even end up being used.

2. I didn't think the airport fight worked quite as well as other people did. 6 v 6 is a lot to juggle and I think the film chose to ignore the higher powered combatants or force them to act in uncharacteristically dense ways whenever convenient. A lot of the battle seemed designed to show the effectiveness of the 'tricks' used by Team Cap, but Vision, Iron Man and War Machine - a really powerful air-based trio who should have been a nightmare to deal with - were sold short to achieve this. Spider-Man was great though.

 

[Nathan]

You know, it's kinda funny. When Civil War happened in the comics, I remember how people were complaining about how all these Heroes, who had known each other for years, were fighting each other harder than their actual enemies. Now that we have Civil War on Film, and the Heroes keep pulling their punches, because they are actually friends and don't want to seriously injure anyone, people complain that the heroes didn't fight competently enough and that no one actually died.

 

[Probotector]

Also, although I was really impressed with the rhetorical balancing of the pro and anti accord arguments, I think the film could have been a bit bolder in giving some evidence to the pro-accord side. I mean, for all the talk of collateral damage, the Avengers are never seen to really screw up and cause more damage than would have occurred without their help. The casualty figures for all their major incidents, including a massive alien invasion in the middle of NYC, are shown to be incredibly low. Even the Wanda incident that triggers the debate had, what, 11 deaths? And the figure would have been higher had she not taken action. The evidence just isn't there to support the pro-registration rhetoric.

Cap was then completely right about Bucky and Ross was revealed to more of a sinister villain than someone doing what he thought was right.

I would have liked to have seen some really challenging cases or occasions where the Avengers really did get it wrong rather than the thin evidence we are given for registration.

 

[SwiftFox]

You know, it's kinda funny. When Civil War happened in the comics, I remember how people were complaining about how all these Heroes, who had known each other for years, were fighting each other harder than their actual enemies. Now that we have Civil War on Film, and the Heroes keep pulling their punches, because they are actually friends and don't want to seriously injure anyone, people complain that the heroes didn't fight competently enough and that no one actually died.

Bingo.