Fully aware we’re wandering into a nest of vipers in a pair of shorts with only a torch for protection, we’re here today to discuss a topic that will make us even more popular among diehard DC fans — the many ways the latest Marvel film, “Captain America: Civil War” (read our review here) is better than “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (read that review here) Look, neither is “Ikiru,” but the similarities in plot and theme are so striking that the gulf in quality between the two is all the more noticeable and comparison is more or less inevitable. It’s an unflattering one if you’re in the Zack Snyder camp for many reasons, 11 of which we’ve listed out below. And below that is our comments section/peanut gallery where we’ve chained an intern in stocks at whom you are invited to throw your decaying vegetables at your leisure. Obviously, *SPOILERS AHEAD*
1. It’s possible to “go dark” and introduce weighty themes without becoming simplistic, and still have some fun too.
There’s been a lot of talk about how “dark” a comic book superhero property should be allowed to go, and whether both comics giants have crossed that line: DC in their cinematic direction since the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy closed out, and Marvel with their Netflix TV shows, particularly season 2 of “Daredevil.” So it was something of a relief to find that for once, the right balance was struck in “Captain America: Civil War.” This is because — arguably like “Daredevil” season 1, and certainly like “Jessica Jones” — the distinctly darker (for the MCU) ‘Civil War’ feels like it has thematic substance. In contrast to ‘Batman Vs Superman’ it’s not just a superficial facade of grit and grimness to make the simplistic antics seem like they have Importance (here’s a piece we wrote about the problem of tone in superhero properties).
Both films represent their respective universes dealing with internal division amongst the “good guys” (and that seems overdue in the context of the wider popular culture, having passed saturation point with the repetitive good-guy-vs-bad-guy-with-all-humanity-at-stake narrative about four summers and 589 comic book movies ago). And that of course means a more nuanced approach to superheroics, because suddenly heroes are not unalloyed good, instead they’re pitted against one another in ideology. In both cases this happens extremely literally, but while in ‘Batman vs Superman,’ it amounts to a lot of philosophically muddled speechifying about Gods and False Idols, in ‘Civil War,’ the literalism doesn’t come at the expense of nuance, or at the expense of humor (though noticeably less than in other outings, and what jokes there are tend to be a little more pointed than just throwaway wisecracks).
In fact the Tony vs Cap schism remains pleasingly ambiguous throughout, with neither one entirely right or wholly wrong. They may have an advantage in that there is a pre-existing friendship there that adds a frisson to their encounters, which Batman and Superman do not have. But then again that could have been a huge disadvantage, as the Russo brothers therefore have to stage fights between the two in which it’s clearly understood that neither’s actually willing to kill the other (or anyone) because that would contravene everything we know about them both — so that fight at the airport is like a sports game rather than a to-the-death showdown. And so if anything, Zack Snyder et al had freer rein in how to interpret a tale of differing approaches to heroism, which makes it all the more disappointing that it ended with one blockish granite-jawed lug thumping away at another until a bigger, uglier lug showed up to, sigh, threaten mankind.
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2. Care about your supporting characters.
‘Civil War,’ even with the notable no-shows of Thor, Nick Fury and our beloved Hulk, juggles a massive cast, adding new heroes into the mix that occupy those vacant slots and then some. But no one ever really feels extraneous (except arguably Jeremy Renner‘s Hawkeye again, but that’s been an issue with that character for a while, and even then he gets a couple of decent moments). Everyone gets their due and the new Spider-man (Tom Holland) gets such a stellar introduction that it’s achieved the impossible and actually made us kind of look forward to the re-re-reboot. However long or short their screen time, the smaller characters are coherent personalities, both in action and in character (and it’s very good at character-through-action).
‘Batman Vs Superman” reduces Lois Lane’s character to a baffling bath moment and “looking for a spear”; Superman’s Mom has two settings — “supportive” and “menaced”; while Pa Kent shows up in a dream for no reason. And let’s not even get into the pointless shoehorning of The Flash, and the cursory glimpses of the other heroes (though the news that “Aquaman” is running into problems perhaps adds a certain poignancy to his six seconds of fame). It’s no wonder we all embraced Gal Gadot‘s Wonder Woman as much as we did. She may have about three scenes but seeing her in both sexy evening wear and warrior-queen armor means she’s essentially the most rounded supporting character in the cast.
3. The world doesn’t have to be threatened with an apocalypse every single time.
The stakes are low in ‘Civil War,’ but they don’t feel low. There is no universe-collapsing extinction-level event in the offing, no ginormous troll thingie summoned up by Lex Luthor’s inexplicable juju out of the Kryptonian ooze. There isn’t even anything as obviously button-pushing as a character’s mother being placed in peril by a dastardly baddie. In fact the stakes here are almost all psychological or emotional, and it shows how invested we were (and we’re pretty disinterested viewers in this sort of thing as a rule) that our attention didn’t flag at all throughout. As opposed to ‘Batman vs Superman’ during which the ever-escalating potential casualty rate was background noise to mental laundry lists and a worry over whether the light jacket we’d worn out was going to be warm enough for the trip home.
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‘Civil War’ even has a little fun teasing the idea that that is where they’re going (Daniel Bruhl‘s bad guy is going to unleash the supersoldiers to wreak havoc on the world!) only to pull the rug out in an almost insolent manner (no he’s not! He’s shot them all in the head!) Here, investment in the psychology of the characters gives the story a climax that should really be anticlimactic if judged on the modern formula, but it isn’t (and to be fair, the overblown, CGI-heavy destruction climax was also one of the worst elements of the very inferior “Avengers: Age of Ultron“).