By Patrick Clark - October 20th

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Avengers 2.5: Civil War was the catalyst for so much story arc built up over the previous 12 movies. It was the culmination of growing tension between earth’s mightiest heroes, intensified by the events in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Civil War told a beautifully cinematic tale that pit the Avengers against each other and continued the themes established in Captain America: Winter Soldier. If you have not read it, feel free to check out my previous article regarding Winter Soldier for more. In short, Winter Soldier showcased the growing dichotomy
between freedom and safety.

 

While Civil War borrowed these themes, it also expanded upon them. The movie explored two different primary philosophies: Iron Man’s Utilitarianism and Captain America’s Deontology. On its face, Civil War was a clash between these ideas.

 

Freedom vs Safety.

Deontology vs Utilitarianism

But this is not entirely true. Rogers believed that the Sokovia Accords would impact the logistics of keeping the world safe AND keep them from retaining their freedom to act on instincts. Stark believed that a failure to sign the Accords would result in a less safe world because of the lack of accountability AND he saw the government as the solution to preserving their freedom. Both were fighting for the same thing; it is not the direct clash of liberty and a security that it first seemed.

Up until The Avengers, Tony had a serious lack of trust in authority and rarely caredabout what the authorities offered. Once Tony had experienced the events of the Avengers and Wanda had showed him the future in Age of Ultron, a shift began to occur. Tony started to see control as the only option. A suit of armor around the world, watching and waiting for the inevitable. Hence the Ultron debacle, where Tony became too confident, and his worst fears came from his own ego.

Conversely, Steve Rogers, being a WW2 veteran, grew up following the rules of
authority to a tee. When the Army told him what to do, it was his duty to oblige. America was good. Nazis were bad. But after his 70-year stint in the ice, this changed. Suddenly, the line between good and evil became incredibly blurred and the villains (Pierce, Zemo, and Ultron) became more complex, and less overtly evil.

Civil War had one of the most interesting, different, and complex villain of any MCU movie at that point. Zemo was not a traditional villain, he had no superpowers nor any particularly strong fighting skills. He instead used the Avenger's own strengths and weaknesses against themselves. As the adage goes, ‘a house divided cannot stand’. Daniel Bruhl brilliantly introduced us to Zemo and his understandable hatred for super-powered people.
Zemo was not the only new character introduced for this movie. Tom Holland’s
Spiderman and Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther also made their MCU debut, both of which went on to be part of fan-favorite franchises.

The Russo Brothers returned with a vengeance for Civil War, succeeding in following up Winter Soldier with another fan-favorite movie. In this movie, they proved to Feige and the team that they could work on a cross-franchise story, setting them up to direct Infinity War and Endgame.

In all Civil War was a thrilling and wild ride, which not only lives up to its predecessor, but also expands into a massive crossover event. While there are flaws, it has heart, epic action,and an elite cast and crew.

 

The movie took the MCU to a new level without giving future
movies too high of a hill to climb.