Pretty Underwhelming, it Has to Be Said

Rating: 4/10 (16 May 2016)

Let me start off by saying that I didn't come into this film with very high hopes.
When I heard that Civil War was the next comic book that Marvel was going to loosely adapt, I was concerned. Personally, I hated the comic, simply because it had too many characters, not enough substance and inconsistent characterisation out the wazoo. I was incredibly worried when they announced that this was their next project after the brilliant Age of Ultron (which I absolutely adored) and the surprisingly fresh and inventive Ant-Man. I was also deeply concerned that the Russo brothers were directing. While I did enjoy Winter Soldier, I found the tone to be bit inconsistent and worried that this would be the same.
As it turned out, the tone was perfectly fine, but in the end, I came out of this film feeling...apathetic, really. I wasn't emotionally invested, I wasn't riled up, and I wasn't all that interested in what happened to the Avengers by the end, all of which are a first for me when it comes to a Marvel movie.
Normally, I enjoy anything that involves the excellent Chris Evans and the wonderful Robert Downey Jr combating tyranny and evil with the rest of the team, but here I just felt exhausted. For one, the plot is unfocused. It moves at a break-neck pace with hardly any stopping to breathe, without any real character development (outside of Wanda, Vision, Spidey and Panther) and without real substance. By the end, I was so tired after seeing this film that I felt as though I could sleep for 70 years without any aid from suspended animation.
Then there's the lacklustre villain, Zemo, who gets the generic 'my-family-is-dead-because-of-the-recklessness-of-the-heroes' motivation that is extremely tired at this stage. To be perfectly honest, I don't really understand why this film needed a villain. The comic book didn't have an antagonist outside of Reed, Pym and Tony's recklessness and Cap being blinded by his own motivations. The conflict should have come from within the group, and Cap and Tony should have been fighting due to their ideological differences instead of having this villain lurking in the background. I genuinely feel that it would have been much more fulfilling if it had focused on just the team and their internal struggles, which could have led to fruitful interaction and development of their personalities.
Finally, I really disliked the whole 'he-killed-my-mom' thing with Tony, and the fact that Cap didn't bother telling him this incredibly important information that could have torn the team apart at a later date, as it did here. I understand that Cap was trying to convince himself that he was protecting Tony when he was just protecting himself, but it really bothered me. Despite the fact that Bucky is his best friend, I really don't think Cap would conceal such delicate information from his team-mates. It actually reminded me of him chastising Tony for doing exactly the same thing in AoU in relation to Ultron and his covert creation of the AI.
That said, there were some things I really enjoyed. I loved the introductions of both Spidey (who gets the best quips, IMO) and Black Panther, and especially loved to see Ant-Man and his fanboying over meeting Captain America. Giant-Man's transformation made me beam with delight and the whole airport scene was exhilarating and felt like the event we were promised. I enjoyed the chemistry between Wanda and Vision and Sam and Bucky's bickering over absolutely everything. Plus, I was really satisfied with the tribute to Agent Carter and I loved the quips and subtle nuances of Friday. It feels nice to have an Irish voice among all the American ones.
In the end, however, I wasn't overly-impressed with the results of this film. It was passable, really, and personally I feel it was on a par with Guardians. I'm still looking forward to seeing Doctor Strange and Ragnarok, but honestly, Civil War was not my cup of tea, and really not as good as First Avenger or Winter Soldier.
Still, they can't all be great, right?