* Updates: I finally caught the movie again with a prime seat and now finally understand the story build up! Everything made sense hahaa
The movie runs for approximately 2 hours and 20 min. The plot of this instalment centres around the diversion of the Avengers as political, societal and emotional pressure weighs on our heroes.
I hate reviewing shows, I really do. Being an amateur content producer myself, I understand full well the difficulty of producing engaging and entertaining content. Much less one so familiar and so anticipated.
But what I like doing is dissecting and understanding why I like or don't like something. And that's what I'll be doing here. Be warned, spoilers ahead so if you haven't watched the movie yet, don't read on.
Also I must disclaim that these are my opinions as a common film viewer alone. If you're someone who cannot stand the slightest divergent of opinions from your own then do yourself a favour and close this page now. Don't whine or bark in the comments.
The story started in a (i think it is) developing country with the team on a Mission to go after a group of terrorist. After bashing through cars and spilling every merchant's produce in the market, captain America reveals the face of the masked leader. He was one of the hydra soldiers who had a building crushed on him in Winter soldier (if memory serves me correctly. The whole marvel movie universe is now all jumbled up in my brain).
The guy fights fist to fist with Captain and lost and in his dying breath, he talks about Bucky; Steve roger's childhood pal. Upon hearing the name, captain America freezes and wasn't able to detect his intention to bomb himself (and captain America). Wanda (scarlet witch) managed to step in in time to contain the explosion and send it up to the sky. However it exploded halfway and burned into a skyscraper just beside it. Now since I only watched the movie once and I seated on the 3rd row from the screen. Meaning to say my view was pretty compromised (and uncomfortable) and I didn't catch whether that explosion collided into the building or did it go off while passing by the building in transit towards the sky.
Nevertheless, everyone blames Wanda with exception of Captain America who blames himself.
The king of Wakanda steps in to condemn the Avengers and their act of defence and battles that spared no thoughts for the lives of innocence. And 100 over countries came together to come up with this accord thingy which basically is some governance agreement to oversee and control the operations of the avengers. Basically , everyone's really pissed off and angry that the avengers have put so many innocent lives to their end while fighting the so called bad guys. And some people want them to be accountable for the collateral damage. Basically people want a lease on them.
Ionman was feeling guilty about everything he has done. And his guilt was further stirred by a Mother who came to tell him how much she hated him for crashing a building onto the head of her outstanding Son who was volunteering in Sokovia (Avengers 2: age of Ultron).
See, this part felt weird to me. Not the dialogue or the hatre the lady harbours but how they started talking. Tony wanted to use the gents so he brushed all the staffs around him off and slipped to the bathroom. And beside the bathroom was a lift which a lady was standing in front. She didn't even looked at him. But he just noticed her and went up to her to strike a conversation, as if knowing she had something to say. Was tony stark perhaps psychic ? Maybe I should watch the movie again but this part puzzled me.
And so captain America disagrees with having a council above them. Fearing their lack of control would be too much to bear. Asking questions like " what if they send us to places we don't think we should go and doesn't allow us to go to places we think we should go?". A big part of me agrees with captain here though I also sense the danger in his string of thoughts.
Ironman argued that with 100 over countries on the board it isn't going to be like the security council Nick fury reports to in Avengers 1. To which captain America counter argued that councils are made up of people and people have agendas.
To that I kinda agree. While I felt his sense of self righteousness in the previous argument was dangerous, the fact that all those countries have their own agendas too kinda put things into perspective and won me over to #TeamCap hehe. Hey, I mean, if I'm going to risk my lives killing bad guys, I better believe what I'm doing is right. After all, whether there is a council above me or not, those blood sins and consequences will still follow me regardless.
So the team kinda falls out with each heroes believing in their own choice. The fun part of the movie was watching ex comrades fight each other while asking "we're still friends right ?" Haha. I like that the movie showed the different faces of the heroes and the difficulties they face, carrying this much power on their shoulders. However this emo act can get a little dull after a while.
And the black cat, no I mean black panther *ahem*. As a non marvel fan, who knows nothing about this character and cannot be bothered to Google now, I find his appearance a little unbelievable if not unnecessary. I mean, his highness was pretty likeable but there's something unbelievable about a prince that doesn't just undergo etiquette lesson but goes for assassin classes too. Man your highness, you're freakin busy aren't you ? And as the peasant I am, I guess I'll never fathom the resources he has to immediately ship his gears over on top of smelling out Bucky's hide out
The inclusion of Spider-Man and Ant man definitely added spice to the fight scene. The showdown between team captain and team ironman was probably the highlight even though it is slightly messy. But maybe it's just me and my 3rd row seat.
I felt that Wanda wasn't particularly helpful in this fight. Like sure, she helped a little here and there. But I kinda feel like given the nature of her powers, she'd be able to take the whole gang on. I guess they didn't let her because otherwise everyone else would have nothing else to do haha.
I did however, liked how the fight ended. With black widow letting them go because she respected Captain America as a Friend and understanding that his beliefs are just as important as her own. Black Widow stood out particularly in this instalment. Not only do you get to see her as the level headed assassin she always is but also as a sensitive and caring friend. This instalment made Black Widow even more likeable as it shows her courage to not only do what she truly believes in but to also admit she might have been wrong. Not forgetting the part Vision accidentally zapped War Machine. I was really hoping Falcon could have reached him in time but I guess the producers decided a casualty was necessary ;/ Despite my love for happy endings, I'd have to agree that some sort of unhappy consequences is a stronger plot.
I realise this blog entry is getting a little long so I'm skipping to the end.
Im super undecided about the villain this time. While I liked how... for the lack of a better word, simple he seemed. His simplicity also kinda makes him fade into the background. And something about the things he did and how he did it just doesn't gel together.
Wasn't his goal to seek revenge on the avengers for killing his families ? Why did he have to seek out that hiding hydra soldier? Why was it necessary to include the story of him seeking out the 5 enhanced soldiers ? With the societal pressure and the signing of the accord, the team was already breaking apart. But how did he know what he did would bring ironman, captain America and Bucky to where he is? How did he stopped all the cctv when he was alone with Bucky? I know he had an intelligence background and toyed with the survellience system but it still felt a little unrealistic to me. Like wow, you call yourself SHIELD and some Russian soldier just comes in once and managed to upset your entire power system. Never thought of a backup generator or something ? IDK, everything just felt too smooth and too easy.
I guess as the common film viewer, I was expecting a show down between our protagonists and the 5 enhanced soldiers. But I guess if they did, it would weaken the intensity of the final fight between Steve, Bucky and tony.
I finally understood why some critics described it as more a " beginning of something " than a stand off story of its own. Towards the end , you definitely can tell somethings happening and the next story will probably be one of coming together to fix the broken pieces.
Overall I enjoyed the movie but felt a tad bit disappointed. It wasn't the action packed visual spectacle I was anticipating. There wasn't a lot of heart thumping scenes that drives your blood to a boil nor was there any particularly memorable scenes. As a visual learner, I memorise by sight. And it was unfortunate to observe the lack of visually compelling scenes that made Avengers 1 the success it was. This instalment felt like it was trying very hard to tell a story but forgot to deliver it with style.
Still loving Captain and his biceps though ! Oh ! I just remembered the helicopter scene. Ok that was so unexpected and so inhuman but oh-so-cool haha. And how do you get shoulders like that?! Seriously! Another point that was slightly disappointing was the fact that…there was no ‘War’. Yes, #TeamCap and #TeamIronman went all out (actually, don’t think they really did) but that’s far from war.
Have you watched the movie already? share your thoughts with me! Again, I apologise if this review is not up to your standard. I’ll just put it out there that this was never meant to be a review but more a ramble of a film viewer. Peace out!
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