The Cap faces his toughest choices yet in this incredibly well-made follow up to The Avengers: Age of Ultron in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Since Disney bought the rights to the Marvel franchise, many people were expecting their movies to become a little more “soft” and that they would be a lot more comical in their layout. If The Winter Soldier was anything to go by, then this movie had a lot of hype to live up to, and after the slightly disappointing movie that was Age of Ultron, certainly it seems someone at Disney’s headquarters has heard a lot of fan feedback and has crafted a hugely impressive film in terms of both script and special effects, which (as you would expect) are in abundance.
Joe and Anthony Russo have worked tirelessly to make this which is, in my opinion, the best of the Marvel movie franchise to date, and it all stems from them taking a lot more inspiration from the comic books they are derived from.
The story, in a nutshell, is that the Avengers are causing too much destruction and devastation across the world, and people have finally had enough after the Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff inadvertently causes yet another big city calamity that leaves hundreds dead and wounded. The world council sends in a high ranking officer with Iron Man/Tony Stark grovelling at his heels to plead with his fellow Avengers to conform to a set of rules and regulations to govern where they should go on missions and how they must behave, because, as Tony says, “if we have no rules or guidelines, then we are no better than the bad guys”. A true statement, but one that Captain America/Steve Rogers disagrees with, as he wants to be able to spot a bad situation and go in to save the day.
After some heated arguments, a few impressive gags and a huge convening of the world leaders to support a bill known as the Sokovia Accords or Anti Hero-Legislation, whichever way you like, to ensure that future atrocities never happen, we can clearly see who is for and who is against this idea. The Cap goes on the run with Falcon to find his old pal Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier to try and prove his innocence, the problem being that while he might believe he’s the good guy, the old villains Hydra appear to have done more damage than is noticeable on the surface.
Thus ensues a rather interesting game of cat and mouse, and the cat part is quite appropriate as a metaphor, as this is the first time we get to see the newest of 2 heroes joining the fray, in Black Panther/T’Challa. He is a super cool character in this movie who has a completely blacked out suit made with a vibranium weave that makes him near indestructible (like the Captain’s shield) whilst also being a complete badass when performing some impressive kicks to various bad guys.
The second of the new recruits, this time for team Iron Man, is the latest incarnation of Spiderman/Peter Parker. The moment I saw the second trailer with his one liner introduction, I knew that fanboys the world over were going to fall instantly in love with him, and thankfully the trailer was the tip of the iceberg on a fabulous performance that left most people in my local cinema in stitches of laughter and in all out awe of how well they portrayed his character. It’s way more like the Spidey of the cartoon series (a lot closer to the real comic book character than the Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield incarnations were, sorry guys) and because of his youthful voice and cheeky puns, he fits the bill wonderfully.
Basically what you get is two sides of a superhero mega-fight consisting of Captain America, Falcon, Bucky, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye and Ant-Man facing off against Iron Man, War Machine, Vision, Black Widow, Black Panther and Spiderman in a kind of “I’ll hit you first”, “but I’ll hit you harder after” type scenario.
There’s an interesting and quite heartfelt story as to why this titan-esqe fight occurs in the first place, but I don’t want to rob anyone of the satisfaction of the gasps and “OMG”s that arrive at the end of the film, because quite simply, it had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I laughed, I chuckled, I even found myself going “woohoo” at one point thanks to a beauty of a punch landed by Spiderman, and a lot of cringing moments as Iron Man, Captain America and Bucky dueled it out in the closing melee.
I almost guarantee that Ant-Man will have you giggling when he appears, but for those of you interested in seeing a great action movie then add this to your lists of Must-See movies of this year. For those who won’t make the trip out, then add this to your Blu-ray collection upon release immediately.
Author: Andrew, Eton store
Great review Andrew – not seen it yet but there was never a doubt I would. Good to get some real enthusiasm & background jnowledge shining through as well