CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR and Antony (from the pages of Antony and Universe.)

                I stepped inside my apartment, smoke wafting around the balcony behind. It was 6pm on a Saturday night so it was the perfect time to merge into my couch to watch a film. Tonight's film would be the third in a trilogy; Captain America: Civil War.
                 I had seen this film once before whilst in a drowsy state during my cross-Canada road trip. During that viewing I was more in awe about the forty-minutes of bullshit before the film than the film that followed. However, I distinctly remember enjoying it particularly the well advertised air-port sequence.
                I sunk into the couch and pressed play. The first bout of action trapped me. Fighting off an existential crisis I viewed the films moving parts individually as if the fourth wall had been removed. Gazing at these parts I was drawn to the costumes the most; bright colours and surprisingly bulky for such agile characters as well as a certain lack of cleanliness like all our heroes did their laundry before each fight. I enjoyed Captain America's stealth/spy costume again although I would've liked to see the return of the first avenger's costume again. There were new Iron Man and War Machine armours which is always fun to see. Ant-Man's new look was obviously a highlight, because Paul Rudd is ridiculously charming and likeable. I had problems with Cross-bones who felt very generic. Black Panther looked very artificial, like it was entirely CGI, even if it wasn't, it just had the movie sheen that stopped me from accepting it. Finally, the vision, I struggled with as a concept but that could've been entirely up to what I had been doing beforehand.
                As for camera work and special effects they were pretty non-descript, nothing that detracted from the film too much other than the camera was a little shaky at times and the CGI was a little noticeable but when you're dealing with magic and giant men that really can't be helped.
                When I thought about characters and actors besides thinking (for a weird amount of the time) about their make-up, the actors were all great in their respective roles. Although the raspy 'bad guy' voice that Frank Grillo does as Cross-bones detracts from his over-all menace. However, Daniel Brühl as Baron Zemo does a great job in fleshing out the dark nature of his character, giving Baron Zemo a real personality which is a nice change from Marvel's standard villain who would usually appear twice then in the climactic battle scene.
                And that is where Captain America: Civil War stands out, although the action is great, the airport sequence especially, the tension truly comes from the characters and their motives which gives the smaller scale climax more weight than just another giant battle sequence with an unidentifiable army.
                I may have begun the film in a state unfit for the consumption of this brand of fictional media but by the end I was fully captured by it, wonderful, fantastical characters and all. My partner however, was at constant awe at all the meetings, because seriously when there isn't someone punching someone else it's just a different type of meeting in a different location -- and really, isn't that what all stories are. Meetings after meetings of people just talking to each other, then they punch for a bit, the more meeting. Just so many meetings; the Avengers and general Ross, just the Avenger, Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff...... and it keeps going man.


- Antony.

You can read more of Antony's barely coherrent thoughts and writings at his website: http://madayarts.weebly.com/