Captain America: Civil War
Director: Anthony & Joe Russo
Talent: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan
Released: 28th April
Ignore the title: Captain America: Civil War is really a direct sequel to last year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, and a far more successful effort at that. The story: after the team’s latest mission ends with innocent lives lost and UN calls for oversight, Steve Rogers (Evans) and Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) find themselves on opposite sides of the debate, finally coming to blows over the reappearance of brainwashed assassin and Cap’s old friend Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier (Stan). Their ideological conflict is little more than an excuse for massive action scenes, but these are expertly staged and the script juggles the large cast well, with welcome new additions in Chadwick Bozeman’s Black Panther and Tom Holland’s excellent take on Spider-Man. Thankfully, the filmmakers have also considerably dialled back on the franchise-building antics that so weighed down previous entries in the series, resulting in a cohesive, satisfying experience that never feels bloated in spite of its two-and-a-half hour running time.
Words: Felipe Deakin
