Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Laugh It Up with "Captain America: Civil War"

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Evans as Captain Ameica

“Captain America: Civil War” Marvel Comics’ Funniest Yet

By Skip Sheffield

“Captain America: Civil War” is the funniest Marvel Comics movie I have ever seen.
This is a good thing, because I never took seriously the Marvel universe of super heroes. “Civil War,” directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, has a whole mess of them, but the two main characters are Steve Rogers, aka Captain America (Chris Evans) and Tony Stark, aka Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.). Scarlett Johansson enjoys quite a bit of screen time as Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, and we are the better for it.
The plot by screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, is overly complicated, which lends to the film’s bloated 147-minute length. It boils down to a battle between Captain America, who feels the Avengers should be free of any government control, and Tony Stark, who thinks they should cooperate with the United Nations, FBI and various governmental agencies. But before the big showdown happens we are treated to a travelogue all over the globe, with furious fights, hair-raising car chases and amazing stunts. Able support is provided by Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, aka Falcon, who has concealed wings that unfold in time of distress; Don Cheadle as the ever-serious Lt. James Rhodes, aka War Machine; Jeremy Renner returning as the archer Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye; Paul Bettany as the red-faced Vision, and new guy Chadwick Boseman as T’Chall, aka Black Panther. Sebastian Stan plays the villain, Bucky Barnes, aka Winter Soldier.

There are more, many more characters. As I said, this movie’s main fault is that it is over-stuffed. But for pure, mindless entertainment it is hard to beat. I still don’t care about the Marvel Comics universe of people with super powers, but darned if I wasn’t pleasantly surprised and thoroughly entertained by this biff-baff-boff romp.



No comments:

Post a Comment