REVIEW: Captain America: Civil War

Plot, plot, plot.  Sometimes you never even really notice it as a movies leads you through twists and turns, and other times it can really hurt your head.  When you take a second to think about the plot structure of some films it can be like eating every morsel of chocolate from a Snickers that has sat on the dashboard of your car on a hot and humid July afternoon.  No matter how hard you try, you may not be able to get everything off the wrapper, and you will be making a mess of your hands and mouth.

Captain America: Civil War has both of those.  The film moves at a brisk pace with fun action scenes and entertaining dialogue, but if you dare take pause to dissect the story you will end up with the same frustration as trying to solve a Rubik's Cube in the dark.  We are talking about a scale of convolution that is reminiscent of Skyfall.  But, much like the James Bond blockbuster, there is enough of a flow to the film that can distract you from the reality of what you are watching.

In the movie we find our heroes facing scepticism and outrage over the collateral damage of their crime fighting antics, with the world wanting them to be held accountable.  This is not something too crazy to ask, and the team is divided over whether or not it is a good idea.  Scriptwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely do a great job at allowing the audience to see both sides of the argument, which goes a long way in justifying why rifts begin arising between The Avengers.

When a nefarious plot (enter the convoluted nature of the film) begins unfolding, the divisions grow even more.  Captain America (Chris Evans) does not believe events at face value and feels there must be more to what is happening.  Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) is more hard lined about it all, and the team finds themselves picking sides.  Eventually there is a showdown where many super powers are wielded, and audience members looking for a sensible pee break are out of luck for a good long while.

This division among the superheroes was to me the most entertaining and fascinating aspect of the movie, and I felt that it was handled very well.  The increasing tension and stakes at hand played into it well, and directors Anthony and Joe Russo handle the material with precision.  We find that there are personal reasons for each of the heroes to act and behave in the ways that they do, and nothing really felt forced to me.  This is the hallmark of a great film, when we can connect with differing stances.

Captain America: Civil War also marks the re-launching of the Spider-Man franchise.  He is recruited to assist in the happenings, although (thanks to the convoluted plot) we never really know how Tony Stark is able to figure out that Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is the web slinger.  I was ever sceptical over having yet another Peter Parker on cinema screens, but, and this is confession time, Holland may be my favourite Spider-Man yet.  He was nerdy and insecure without the suit, and overly talkative and happy-go-lucky while in it.  It was a bright and colourful addition to the film, and added a lot of humour.

From a technical standpoint, there is a lot to praise with this film.  The sets looked great, the action sequences were tight and fun to view, and the score went a long way in building the excitement.  While I was a big fan of how it looked, I would have preferred to see it in 2D.  There was not a lot of reason for the 3D screenings in this one, as it did not use the third dimension as a story telling technique, relegating it to the ranks of many other films that seem to do it just because.

With all of the enjoyment, come the end I could not help but realize just how messy that damned Snickers was.  In the final climax that had been masterminded by the villain Zemo (played well by Daniel Bruhl) I could not help but continually think of just how silly it was that the plan worked out and the coincidences that got us there.  I should not have been thinking about it, but there I was with chocolate all over my hands and/or face.  It really was a mess and I found that I could not get into the climax in the way the filmmakers intended me to.

Still, that's not a huge drawback from the film.  The rest of it was golden goodness.  You just really need to shut your brain off to enjoy this movie.  Even with mine working at full speed, it was still well worth the price of admission.

Rating - 3 out of 4 stars

The Fifth Estate

This past weekend was a very tough one for me.  If you follow the blog semi-regularly, you may be aware that I have some struggles with anxiety.  For the last week I have been just so drained by it that the smallest things are sending me into anxiety attacks, from my wife tickling me to my normal Saturday breakfast being put on hold a few hours.  When one is in such a point of depletion, we really want something to uplift us.  A story of triumph, of the little guy taking on the giant conglomerate, or hope and victory.  Those are the kind of movies that can really change the outlook one has for a few days and add a breeze that fills the sails for long enough to turn the ship towards friendly shores.  On Friday night I saw The Fifth Estate, and it did not do shit for me.

I don't want to be a bully and really try to nail this film from all sides in order to make myself feel better, but I do want to be honest.  Honesty in this case is saying that this is a boring movie, and it is not worth your time.  It is the story of Julian Assange and the creation of WikiLeaks.  The source material is what helps make this movie become so disappointing.  The source material leads for dynamic characters and a story that left an important mark in history, but what we ended up with is a docudrama on 5 Hour Energy.

There are some times when I am watching a war movie, scenes that have explosions and soldiers flying everywhere, and the use of a hyperactive camera (fast zoom ins, fast pans, shaky cam) feels a little too much.  If it can get distracting on the front line, imagine what it would be like in the offices of a newspaper?  Director Bill Condon really wanted this movie pumped up to the extreme, and the over active camera work was not only distracting but embarrassing.  Mix in an overdose of techno music, and you have The Fifth Estate, a film that does not seem to have confidence that its script or its actors can bring the appropriate amount of energy and tension.

They were right to have a lack of faith in the script.  As I had mentioned, the movie was boring.  We get very few interesting moments, and a lot of filler.  There was a whole story line around characters played by Stanley Tucci and Laura Linney that ended up having no consequence to the story.  The dialogue that we did get gave us characters that we don't really adopt any kind of emotional connection to and whose actions we may not really care about.

Thrown in the mix was a huge art-house feel that Condon was aiming for.  We had a symbolic room which represented WikiLeaks and all of the work done through it.  I understand the visual that he was aiming for, but in this film, and the way in which it was done, it just did not fit at all.  As well, there were some scenes where characters were typing and narrating at the same time, with the words they were typing floating across their faces.  I like it when people try different things and attempt visuals that enhance the story in an artful way, but this was not executed properly at all and became agonizing to watch.

The saving grace of the film were the performances by the leads.  Julian Assange was played by Bennedict Cumberbatch who is known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in BBC's Sherlock.  Cumberbatch may not be a very well known actor right now, but he will be very soon.  He will be the voice of Smaug in the upcoming Hobbit movie, and also has roles in 12 Years a Slave and August: Osage County.  This man will be gunning for Oscars before we know it, so keep a keen eye on him as he has a great screen presence and an Alan Rickman style voice.  Playing the role of Assange's WikiLeaks teammate Daniel Berg is Daniel Bruhl, who was actually the protagonist of the story.  Bruhl is coming off of a great performance as Niki Lauda in Ron Howard's Rush, and is another actor who has some great potential.

In the end, it is the acting of the two leads that keeps the star rating in a reasonable location.  Take that for whatever you may, but you still don't need to see the film.  Just understand that I am saying these are great young actors and they have good, fresh content in theatres as I type this.  Go see those movies and appreciate their abilities, and, at most, mourn the loss of opportunity to make a high caliber movie, about high caliber source material, with high caliber actors.

Rating - 2 out of 4 stars