Is this what you call war???

Rating: 5/10 (8 May 2016)

They were not kidding when they said this was a Captain America movie. Aside from the occasional pompous Tony Stark stealing the spotlight, every actor in this film had minimal screen time. Those that had descent amount of time in front of the camera where quite forgettable. This is one of the biggest downfalls of the franchise thus far. It might just be too much of a challenge to keep track of that many story lines and characters and there is also no denying how shallow the actual script in this film is. Not to mention the franchise has failed to really bring a memorable villain to this universe. The villain here, without going into too much details and spoilers, is some self righteous victim of the Avengers deadly carelessness out for revenge...really?
As far as the actual story line it is as predictable as any other Marvel films in the past. I would find it surprising if anybody who watched the film saw something they weren't already anticipating. The "plot twists" were more like plot reroutes and were nothing unexpected. I was also yearning for a lot more depth in the dialouge and interactions between the characters, yet I was sorely disappointed when they chose to go with the long tedious action sequences instead. You would assume that the highlights of the film were the already mentioned confrontations between these super heroes yet, they leave a lot to be desired. At a certain point it almost becomes pointless to see these heroes relentlessly pounding on each other without any real consequences. We get they're nearly immortal with all of their abilities but at some point during the film you will feel guilty for demanding some actual blood to be shed. I almost feel that the main audience of the film were children and non comic book fans. Not that this is bad in any way but their material was not as transcendent as Guardians of the Galaxy, for example.
My biggest problem with the film was with the one dimensional characters scattered throughout the two hours. None of whom really grasped my attention. We all knew what each characters motives were which pretty much took out all of the intrigue. We live in a time where we demand "gray characters", in a manner of speaking. We want flawed characters that seem more human....characters that we can truly relate too. A warning for you movie "critics", do no expect that from this film.
Having said all that the film was descent and was watchable. There are moments when the film went with very realistic and mature themes such as, weather who should regulate the activities of such powerful beings....which was something to really ponder. There were also elements of the film that were intriguing such as the mass casualties of the Avengers excursions. Ultimately, however, the film fails to really make us believe there is an actual war going on between the Avengers. In the end it will seem like a minor disagreement which they will all scrapbook about and laugh of over a plate of shwarma. Perhaps I just had really high expectations which lead to my unpleasant disappointment. Or perhaps the standard for comic book films is lower than any other type of film. Whatever the case may be, the film is worth the viewing even with all of it's flaws.