The Marvel Cinematic Universe has a lot of beloved movies and one of the fans' favorites is Captain America: Civil War. Full of great action scenes, the movie is class A spectacle in the mighty MCU manner, but does it really deserve the praise? While the concept of the movie is sound, there's a lot about it that doesn't make sense. On the first watch, that's not very apparent but it becomes more apparent with repeat watches.
The MCU makes a lot of mistakes and some of those are on display in CA:CW. There is a lot to love about the movie but that doesn't mean it isn't overrated.
10 Why It's Overrated: It Never Actually Feels Like A Civil War
For a movie with the words "civil war" in the title, it's rare that the movie ever really sells that. Sure, there's some conflict between Iron Man and Cap, but that's mostly over Winter Soldier. For most of the other heroes, there feels like there are no personal stakes to the whole thing and they're just arbitrarily choosing sides.
Compared to the comic, where the conflict got very personal very quickly, this felt really weird and it's just one of the many ways movie spits on the source material. There's even a scene in the big fight where Black Widow and Hawkeye, who are on separate sides, joke around with each other. It completely kills the concept of the movie.
9 Why It Deserves The Praise: Tom Holland's Spider-Man Is Almost Worth The Price Of Admission Alone
One of the strong suits of MCU movies are the characters and this movie introduces one of the best MCU characters- Tom Holland's Spider-Man. The third actor to play the character, Holland immediately made the character his own. He was able to capture the nerdy Peter Parker of the character and the quippy Spider-Man side expertly.
He's the highlight of every scene he's in and the reveal of him in the costume is well worth it, even if it was given away in the trailer.
8 Why It's Overrated: It Doesn't Really Need A Villain
One of the things that made the comic Civil War so special is that there was no traditional villain, no evil manipulator waiting in the wings to pop out and declare it was all part of their master plan. This was a bold choice and it paid dividends, as the battle between the two sides was about the situation at hand and what they actually believed in.
By introducing Zemo into the mix, the movie completely missed the point of its source material. Instead of it all being about the ideology of the heroes, it turned into a cliche villainous mastermind plot. This took a story that could have been an interesting exploration of heroism and made it into standard MCU fare.
7 Why It Deserves Praise: Zemo Is A Good Character
However, even though his place in the movie makes it a less interesting story, Zemo actually works well as a character. While his plan does depend on everyone but him being unintelligent, his motivations are sound, and he's a pretty good character. On top of that, Daniel Bruhl is a joy to watch every time he's onscreen.
Zemo may have only been put in the film so there was a villain to the story and that Iron Man wouldn't look as much as the fascist traitor of his friends as he was in the comics because he's the MCU's most popular character, Bruhl did a great job with him and the character would get even better in the future.
6 Why It's Overrated: The Intended Depth Simply Fell Short
One of the great things about the comic is that it gave readers a lot to think about- what is the definition of a hero? Is trading freedom for security worth it? Is being a superhero even the right thing to do? How far should one go to win? CA:CW didn't do any of this. There's nothing to think about because the whole thing is a con set up by a villain who wants revenge.
The movie asks no questions because the point of it isn't to make the audience think- it's to be an efficient action scene generating machine. While it does a good job of that, the movie could have been so much more.
5 Why It Deserves The Praise: Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther Is Amazing
Chadwick Boseman was one of the MCU's greatest actors, completely inhabiting his character and bringing him to life in a way that few others were able to with their characters. That was in display in CA:CW- his character, much like Holland's Spider-Man, was a highlight of the film. Boseman made the Wakandan monarch something special from the word go.
His amazing performance in CA:CW left fans begging for more. He was great in every scene he was in and his personal stake in the conflict made sense, elevating the conflict beyond its one-dimensional roots.
4 Why It's Overrated: It Makes Cap Look Very Bad
Everyone points to how far Cap was willing to go for Bucky as proof of how great their friendship is but there's a massive problem with that- it's him putting his personal feeling above doing the right thing. The Winter Soldier is a mass murderer, regardless of the circumstances, and bringing him to justice is the right thing to do.
Cap could have brought his friend in and worked to prove why none of it was his fault. Instead, he does the exact opposite, going on the run and making himself look bad in the process. It's not only out of character, it is literally the most ill-advisesd move he could make.
3 Why It Deserves The Praise: It Brought A Lot Of Changes On The MCU
One place where CA:CW definitely delivered is how much it changed the MCU. By the end of it, the Avengers had been effectively sundered, Wakanda and Black Panther were now major forces, and Spider-Man was put into play. Captain America was in his hiding, with some of his side joining him and others accepting plea deals.
The MCU was in one place when the movie started and ended in a completely new one by the end. It set things up for the next phase expertly.
2 Why It's Overrated: None Of The Story's Immediate Effects Mattered
While it did change some things, in the end, none of the changes really mattered very much. The ending itself illustrates that- Cap's message to Iron Man saying he'll always be there if Iron Man needs him takes the sting out of the story. Any personal dimension the story tried to play up in the conflict was killed by that message. It rendered the entire movie moot.
Everyone knew the Avengers were going to get back together at some point but making it so easy to happen just robbed the movie of any of its narrative heft. The ending is everyone forgiving each other even though they were just at each other's throats a day before. It soiled the entire premise of the movie and showed why ultimately, none of it mattered at all.
1 Why It Deserves The Praise: The Action Scenes Are Pretty Great
While it eschewed the deeper subject matter of the comic to efficiently generate action scenes, it did an amazing job with those action scenes. CA:CW has some of the best fight scenes in the MCU, with the airport fight being the biggest fight in the franchise until Infinity War and Endgame. The end fight between Cap, Bucky, and Iron Man was hard-hitting and emotional, as well, even if the ending totally undercut all of that.
While it would have been nice for the story to have more meat to it, the action scenes made it an exciting movie and that was a lot of what fans wanted out of it to begin with.