Accountability of superheroes and precarious conflicts

Rating: 8/10 (16 May 2016)

Ultron was Tony Stark's innovation that was meant to withstand future onslaughts from the threats of the Universe. However, due to the maligned nature of Loki's sceptre, the Age of Ultron wreaked havoc on Sokovia, while the Avengers scrambled to prevent collateral damage as the city was raised to the skies and yet, not everyone could be saved. Nations become suspicious of the unchecked powers of Earth's mightiest heroes and those who lost their families due to their actions, seek to avenge them. Thus, 'Civil War' is partly an aftermath of 'Age of Ultron' and partly a follow-up to 'Captain America: Winter Soldier' mainly due to Bucky's presence. The Russo brothers enter the 3rd phase of MCU and stick to the formula that has worked wonders for Disney/Marvel in keeping with a brighter, entertaining tone.
We start in 1991, with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) being sent on a mission to retrieve a serum from a car. The driver of the car isn't revealed quite yet but that proves to be quite a twist at the very end. Current day in Nigeria, a group of Avengers disrupt Brock Rumlow's (Frank Grillo) attempt to steal a bio weapon. Their encounter leads to Rumlow detonating an explosive under his vest and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) directing its effects away from the busy marketplace. Unfortunately, it leads to the death of several humanitarian workers from Wakanda who were in the building nearby. Meanwhile, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) reveals his impressive sample of future technologies to M.I.T. students and generously offers to fund all of their research projects. There, he meets a grieving mother who lost her son in Sokovia, reminding Stark of the failures and uncontrolled powers of the superheroes.
Too much damage has been done even with their best intentions and efforts. Accountability was thus proposed by a United Nations panel through the Sokovia Accords that would control their actions. US Secretary of State, Ross convinces them of no other way but to sign in its favor. Tony agrees due to his bad decisions and experiences, Captain (Chris Evans) disagrees because of his suspicion of those who rule with agendas. One prefers accountability by external authority while the other prefers the freedom to act as he assumes that the safest hands are still their own.
The Accords themselves weren't much to quarrel over since the scenario was inevitable but it's the explosion at the UN Conference in Vienna that really tears them apart. The Wakandan King, who was a strong proponent of the Accords, perishes in the attack and his son T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) is determined to bring the suspect to justice. The suspect being the Winter Soldier. Automatically, Cap saves his bro-friend Bucky on every attack from the government, Ironman and T'Challa's mysterious form of Black Panther. This exciting introduction of a powerful warrior expands the might of the Avengers in general with his formidable abilities and skills. Thereafter, it was upon Stark and Cap Rogers to recruit new members and convince existing ones to take a moral stance in their favor. To make things even, we have Spiderman on team Ironman and Ant- Man on team Cap. Their action sequences are immense fun and Tom Holland's teenage Spider-boy is nimble, agile although quite talkative like his character in the comics. Paul Rudd's Ant-Man takes up some surprising form and plays a big role in the airport fight. This seemingly half hour-ish sequence at a German airport is certainly the film's highlight and showdown of the two teams that is regarded as Civil War.
The plot drags on further as Stark investigates the actual events that transpired before Cap's escape with the Winter Soldier and his findings reveal a deeper ploy by Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) to divide them even further. His revelation of the 1991 incident involving the Winter Soldier opens up traumatic wounds for Stark and it leads them into a more serious combat that breaks the trust between Cap and Ironman. The heaviness of a divided team of superheroes only bears down on us thereafter and it took the Russo brothers over 2 hours 20 minutes to convince us. The motivations for many of the characters remain a bit casual for them to really take sides and stand against their fellow Avengers. Scarlett deserves a Black Widow movie but she's losing the grip on her audience as Natasha doesn't have much influence over others. Black Panther's only reason for joining Ironman is to take down Bucky and Boseman is a brilliant T'Challa. Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) is just inconvenienced with all this while Falcon (Anthony Mackie) gets adventurous in his second outing with the Cap. War Machine (Cheadle) represents the Government's interests and is close enough to Stark to influence his decisions. Vision (Paul Bettany) spends the entire airport sequence trying to keep Wanda away from harming anyone and without his superhero suit, looks quite weird adorning a sweater. Spider-Man is just stoked to be called upon by Mr. Stark and Tom Holland portrays the excitement to showcase his powers and the fear of Aunt May discovering them, quite naturally. Ant-Man is just happy to be among his heroes and Paul Rudd brings the credibility of a common guy honored to be working with his heroes. But again, this theme has worked well for Marvel and shall continue to do so because the general audience prefers the levity with the action.
'Civil War' does less to lead up to the upcoming Infinity Wars and more to introduce new characters and reboots. In the absence of Thor, who is busy with far greater threats, the stakes aren't high enough for the Avengers right now but they do need to keep themselves in check, even if through an international panel and they must resolve their unsettled differences if they want to be the Earth's mightiest heroes.
8.588 on a scale of 1-10.