Now that we have that out of the way: WOW! While I can't say that I left the theater going "Holy shit, that was the best Marvel movie ever!" it was certainly a very good experience and provided a film that I'm really looking forward to seeing again. After "Age of Ultron" it was easy to see that Marvel may have some problems providing a satisfying story when over a dozen superheroes are involved but thankfully the Russo's have figured out the formula.
While I won't praise the film's pace (there are far too many talking bits that feel like rehashed information, or something being spoonfed to the audience) I still find it amazing that a film like this could be made while still very clearly being a Captain America movie. Not once do things feel lost in the shuffle, with the focus going anywhere but the main conflict going on. Even the little side tangents have an important part in the overall story.
One character I was particularly impressed with was Black Panther. This is a character that not many people know about, yet they were able to introduce him, give him purpose, and set up his solo film without feeling intrusive or an organic part of this film. The audience seemed to fall in love with him and I can easily see him being one of the big talking points of this movie. But we all know the person that stole the show...
Let's get to the main event: Spider-man.
While I really enjoy the Civil War storyline from the comics, I really disliked the angle of "Unveil your secret identity or get thrown in jail" because of what it did to my main man Spidey. If you know anything about me, you know that I have been obsessed with Spider-man since a very small age. I had an encyclopedia-level knowledge on the wall crawler, along with his very large Rogues Gallery. I had such an anticipation for the Sam Raimi film that I had difficulty sleeping for weeks leading up to its release (this is after I already spent years anticipating it due to my fanatic film news knowledge at the time). So to say that Spider-man is a big deal to me a bit of an understatement.
In fact, Spider-man was the main reason I was so excited about "Civil War" in the first place. Sure, it was going to be cool to essentially see Avengers 2.5 but seeing those characters didn't really matter to me. I just wanted to see Spider-man. And boy did he ever deliver. While I was a little disappointed that the character is CGI about 95% of the time (the only real suit we see is during a shot of Holland maskless, otherwise it's very clearly a CGI suit), the suit itself looks absolutely great. I love that this is the first "official" suit for him, and his way of obtaining it provides for suit upgrades with every movie from here on out. Costume-wise, we could be set up for one of the greatest runs in all of Marvel film (Sorry Iron Man, you had a good run).
But what makes Spider-man if not for the main behind the suit, Tom Holland. This man completely embodies the role of Peter Parker and provides that exact energy that has been needed in the Spidey role. Garfield's Spider-man was fantastic, with zingers and flowy movement, but his Peter Parker left a lot to be desired, and vice-versa for Tobey Maguire. This is really the first time where we finally have a complete package.
Oddly enough, I feel like I'm going to enjoy "Civil War" even more once I see the massive disaster known as "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" because I'll really be able to appreciate how to handle setting up character's for future films without compromising the current story (a lesson Snyder apparently never learned). While I wasn't completely blown away, I really love the story crafted and the great character moments are what make this near the front of the pack in an already impressive Marvel catalog.
Bring on Doctor Strange!
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