Another let down if not action-packed

Rating: 6/10 (6 April 2020)

After the success of Winter Soldier, the Russo brothers return for the third installment of captain America's adventures. Only this time they didn't quite seem to have their finger on the pulse in my opinion. Let us hope they get their act together quickly for the next Avengers film as Whedon will be sorely missed in the directors chair.
The writing duo of Markus and McFeely also return having written the two previous films and that could been seen as good or both depending on you look at it. You're mileage will vary here but for me the writing on show here is on a par with The First Avenger and nowhere near the quality of The Winter Soldier. As with the russo's, let's hope they also pull their finger out for the next Avengers film but right now, I'm not entirely optimistic about it.
So onto The Winter Soldier: Part 2, we open to the frozen plains of Siberia and see a little more a secret facility used after the war. We see Bucky (Stan reprising his role) locked into a mechanical contraption where we (now already know) he was brainwashed. A red book with a star on the cover is being used to give him trigger keywords and phrases in order to indoctrinate him for his next mission.
Back into the real world of the present day, our hero Steve Rogers (Evans) is communicating with Romanoff (Johansson), Wanda (olsen) and Falcon (Mackie). The Institute for infectios disieses is being targeted and stormed by soldiers who are after a bological weapon. Steve and his team jump into action and unfortunately innocents are killed by Wanda which causes worldwide conflict regarding the actions of the Avengers and whether or not they should be held liable for damages.
The United nations come up with the Sokovia Accord (basically a hero registration act to be finalised in Vienna, based upon the destruction in Age of Ultron) which will basically be a ruling body for the Avengers. Naturally this doesn't sit exactly well with some of them causing internal conflicts and a rift within the group, fracturing them to the point of disaster. Stark is all for signing while Rogers wants nothing to do with it. Unfortunately an act of terrorism on the UN building sends things sprialling out of control.
And that is the crux of the movie moving forwards as we deal with two teams of Avengers (those for and against the Accord) with a major side story involving Rogers and Bucky. I personally found Rogers going completely rogue to save a brainwashed bucky was a little silly and just not something I can see him doing even for a friend (who tried to kill him remember) and this really should have been called The Winter Soldier 2 rather than Civil War as that is what the film really comes across as. It's a strange mish-mash of a direct sequel to both Ultron and Winter Soldier. Great for continuity I guess but not so great as a film in its own right.
Having already mentioned the screenplay and having touched upon the direction, this really is a let down when compared to the films it is trying to continue with. Effects and photography are not bad (this is Marvel after all) but there is nothing really special to get excited about or thrill you. In fact with regards to those, the blurry close up cam is very annoying this time around especially during fight scenes but thankfully it does improve somewhat towards the middle before becoming annoying again. And bearing in mind there is only really two big set-piece action scenes, this does detract from viewing enjoyment.
Running with the Winter Solder: Part 2 theme, the whole controlling bucky to wreak havoc and chaos has also been done to death in The Winter Soldier, why go over it again as it really wasn't needed. Simple convenient plot point to me to move the story forward with a 'villian' who really doesn't have enough screen presence and how he 'orchestrates' his whole master plan of destroying those who destroyed what he held dear himself is rather laughable really and quite feeble storytelling. It could have been done so much better, or better yet, a completely different storyline would have helped.
If you have been watching the WHiH webisodes then you know about General Ross (William Hurt) becoming the Secretary of State and he makes a brief appearance purely for continuities sake. We also get our first appearances of Black Panther (good casting with Boseman) and more information regarding Wakanda, as well as Peter as Spider-Man to lead to future films and stories. Ant-Man, Paul bettany as Vision along with Cheadle and Renner (as War Machine and Hawkeye respectively) also make appearances and we finally say goodbye to legendary Agent Peggy Carter.
We get more hints that Black Widow may actually know Bucky (which may or may not lead into the stoyline regarding the long rumoured Black Widow solo film) and the only other real talking point is the teams. Interesting personally because as much as love Iron Man and Black Widow, Rogers has been growing on me (prior to this film at least), plus he has Scarlet Witch, so it's a tick for team America here for this critic. Though in the reality of the universe, it should be such a one-sided fight that it isn't even funny. Team Iron wins every damn day. Film wise, it is an excellently directed and choreographed fight scene with some nice comedy thrown in.
As for that Marvel trademark wit, it is largely missing here and only really starts with the introduction of our favourite web-slinger. Most of the comedy revolves him along with Ant-Man (who isn't around that much at all either). In the end unfortunately this is a little like a very dull Avengers film with all the good key elements of Joss whedon missing. Not a bad film by any stretch but certainly not up to Marvel's, or the previous Captain America films standards.

The Sage's Rating: 6/10