Introduction: Being my first blog movie review, I would like to start with the most anticipated movie of the year - Captain America: Civil War. The movie is directed by the Russo brothers(Anthony Russo & Joe Russo), who also directed the classy and entertaining, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The movie also brought back screen-writers from The Winter Soldier - Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely. It also features an ensemble cast of Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Chadwick Boseman, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Sebastian Stan, Tom Holland, William Hurt, Emily Van Camp, Martin Freeman, Daniel Bruhl, Frank Grillo, etc., Does the movie live up to its hype and expectations? Let's find out. 

As I mentioned earlier, the below review contains


The Plot: First and Foremost, this movie is by-far one of the best screenplays this year. Hats-off to the screen writers team for that. There's a lot of sub-plots within the main plot and all of 'em were left hanging, for the knot to be tied, only in the climax which is a brilliant piece of writing, that too in a movie based on a comic. Last time such a movie I've seen is Watchmen by Zack Synder. This really shows the inventiveness of the writers. Jumping on to the main plot - The Government is unhappy with the way, The Avengers are functioning and hence they decide to set-up a regulatory and advisory committee overseeing them. Tony Stark/Iron-Man sides with the Government on this, whereas Steve Rogers/Captain America completely disagrees with this. Each have their own concrete theories on the Government's plan which causes a friction within The Avengers camp breaking them in to 2 - Team Cap and Team Stark and the subsequent conflicts that ensues as the movie progresses with each event widening the gap

First Half: As mentioned earlier, the movie has a lot of sub-plots - One with James "Bucky" Barnes/The Winter Soldier in 1991 where-in he was tortured, brain-washed and controlled by some code words from HYDRA's henchmen ensuing in a hit-job in which the victims weren't exposed. Another with a man named Zemo, who has an agenda of his own, wants to find The Winter Soldier and control him. Zemo finds the whereabouts of the chief HYDRA henchman who was experimenting on The Winter Soldier in 1991, kills him and takes up his stuffs. There's T'Challa/Black Panther, whose father, an UN leader, gets killed in a terrorist bombing during the bill signing ceremony by the Team Stark, which the media showcase as the work of The Winter Soldier and he wants to take revenge. All these lead to The Winter Soldier being the target of The Government, The UN, Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Zemo & T'Challa, with the first half ending with The Winter Soldier caught by the Government officials to be contained in a secluded location.

Second Half: The second half begins with Zemo gaining access to the location, provokes The Winter Soldier and unleashes with the same code-words as HYDRA's henchmen, posing as a therapist. Meanwhile, Sharon Carter, who was the neighbor Agent 13 to Cap, who also happens to be the nephew of Cap's love interest Peggy Carter, arranges for an escape of Cap. There's an awesome fight that ensues with Cap escaping with Winter Soldier & Falcon. Bucky, after regaining consciousness recounts the hit-job in 1991 to the Cap who also learns he wasn't the only Winter Soldier out there and there are 5 others as well and Zemo wants to control all of them. Cap plans a trip to Serbia where the facility from 1991 is available, to stop Zemo. Meanwhile the Government gives Tony Stark, a 36 hour time-frame to capture and contain Bucky. The stage is all set for Team Cap Vs Team Stark and it happens with each team adding some new folks, assembling on an air-port for the "fist of fury!", which happens to be the highest point of the movie. 17 minutes of sheer fun! Despite all the fight, the Cap manages to escape with Bucky, with the help of Black Widow. From a news, Tony Stark learns that Zemo was the one who framed Bucky and decides to go help Cap & Bucky by learning their whereabouts from Falcon who along with all from Team Cap, imprisoned in a maximum security facility in the middle of a sea. Black Panther follows Stark's trail. Meanwhile in the facility @ Siberia, Cap & Bucky are encountered by Tony who apologizes to them for the misunderstanding and they go in search of Zemo unknown of the fact that Black Panther is trailing them. Zemo meanwhile hides in a chamber, who has already killed all 5 Winter Soldiers, screening to all 3 of them, the footage of the hit-job from 1991 where The Winter Soldier is actually seen killing Mr. & Mrs. Stark taking away a secret formula from them, for the remaining 5 Winter Soldiers. Tony becomes furious and asks the Cap does he know about it. When Cap answers positive, Tony unleashes on both Cap & Bucky resulting in one of the most intense hand-to-hand combat.  T'Challa learns from the conversation that Bucky wasn't the one who blew up the UN building in which his father was killed and Zemo only did all these to avenge the death of his dear ones during the Sokovia incident. The fight ends with Bucky losing his hand and Tony's armor badly damaged. Cap & Bucky leave immediately. Also Black Panther saves the life of Zemo who tries to commit suicide by handling him to Government officials. The climax arrives with Tony after reaching to The Avengers HQ goes to look into his friend Rhodes who was badly injured in the air-port fight and receives a letter from Cap stating that each of them took decisions that each of them believed to be right and that was that. He also receives a cell-phone which Cap states in the letter that he is always ready to come to his aid with a phone-call from him which he'll always await. Cutting back, the Cap rescues all his team imprisoned in the facility under sea, as the movie cuts to black!

End Credits Scene: Bucky is shown to be frozen in a facility of Black Panther, with Bucky's consent, as Cap & T'Challa watches

Positives:

  • Black Panther
  • Spider-Man
  • Ant-Man
  • Screenplay
  • Stunt Sequences(Special Mention: AirPort Stunt)
  • Dialogues

Negatives:

  • Lack of menacing Villain
  • The Vision is under-utilized
  • Slow-paced at times

Conclusion: The Avengers might be a great movie filled with tons and tons of action that kick-started the MCU Phase II but Captain America: Civil War is an awesome movie that's completely filled with a lot of drama than action which gives it a very realistic feel rather than a comic movie. Phase III of MCU has kicked off in style indeed! In my opinion, as many say this  should've been the follow-up to The Avengers rather than Age of Ultron.

My Rating: 8.5/10

Reaction after the Movie: