When titans clash

Rating: 8/10 (31 August 2016)

Everything flows, everything changes. And the superhero movies are no exception. The times of characters whose human side resorted to a single facial expression are over, now the world wants to see heroes who are more human than godlike.
Steve Rogers, a character I hardly knew before the new era Marvel films, is arguably the most prominent landmark of that switch. He started off as a human, whose humanity was his only strength, and remained a human even after having been turned into that super powerful machine called Captain America. Batman, Hulk or Iron Man are all fancy and stuff, but it's Captain America whose films make it one level deeper and one step further into blending the CGI action and the real drama of human relationships.
Last two times these Cap's qualities were used to fight super villains. Now, when there seem to be no sinister forces on the horizon, Steve Rogers must face a new challenge, coming from within the very nature of the world he pledged to defend, and from the very league of extraordinary gentlemen he's teamed up with to do it. Of course, we are our own worst enemies, so there's nothing new. But when politics starts meddling in, there's no worst thing that couldn't get any worse.
There's no point re-telling the events of CA:CW. However it's clear that Marvel really wanted to push every aspect of the film to the limit, even the smallest details. Because when even for the small episodic roles you cast such solid figures as Martin Freeman and Marisa Tomei, it's clear that you don't want to leave anything to chance. And since the action was always a selling point for the Marvel movies, one can be sure that CA:CW won't fail to deliver.
Yet, while exploring the almost uncharted territories of the questions like whether humans should try to subdue a force that they can't control or whether a public consensus is worth casting aside your personal beliefs, this film treads a bit too carefully, unwilling to burn any bridges leading to the old unanimous days. The antagonism between Tony Stark's corporate ways and Steve Rogers' faith in individual freedom was clearly there from the very first meeting of the two guys, and The Age of Ultron has brought in Stark's overprotective and paranoid delusions. Yet, as the conflict unfolds in a more violent way, no side manages to move it past the point of no return, either by incapability or by unwillingness and forgiveness. Which, despite the fact that our superheroes don't shy away from publicly flashing their bruises and black eyes anymore, is a promise of a happy ending one bit too obvious to be compelling.
CA:CW is without a doubt an excellent and gripping movie, and letting the second echelon of Avengers participate on par with Captain America and Iron Man was a pleasant refreshment which hopefully will lead to their characters having enough depth in the future. And of course thank you Marvel for introducing the new incarnation of Spider-Man, because even though we saw Tom Holland for just about ten minutes, he is already more natural and appealing as Spidey than Andrew Garfield was throughout both of his films.
Yet despite a bit of green in the blue of his eyes, Captain America is still way too flawless, both outlook- and performance-wise. And no millions of dollars in school grants, political approval or traumatized past make Tony Stark's flaws genuinely appealing. So there might be a civil war going on, but when it doesn't induce an inner conflict in yourself, dividing you in half and making you guess which side is the good side, there's only so much engagement such war could provide.