Thursday, December 29, 2016

Civil War

The Marvel Movie machine can be counted on for good movies. Some are better than others, but that is true of the comics as well. I always liked Iron Man more than I liked Thor. One comic I never got into too much was Captain America; he always seemed too good. It was the same issue I had with Superman, Spider-Man, etc. I was always more of a Wolverine/Batman fan.
Despite my meh attitude to the Captain America comic book character, I find that Marvel's best movies are the Captain America ones. Steve Rodgers is still to good, but in his current movie version that is what makes him compelling. He is an uncompromising Boy Scout, but instead of making him bland, it makes him more complex. He knows he is a man out of time, and some times out of step with the morality of the now, but he is willing to take it to the mat for good old fashion loyalty and the belief in the basic goodness of individuals.
In each of the three solo Captain America movies, we see Rodgers fighting against a corrupt, or at least, poorly working system and proving that one man can make a difference. He is truth to power.
In Winter Soldier we saw how systems can be corrupted. In Civil War we see Rodger's resistance to allowing that to happen again. The question is never as simple as "should enhanced soldiers answer to a centralized power". Of course they need to be accountable; the question is can a centralized power be trusted to do the right thing. It is a question that should haunt the halls of power in any free democracy. It is the founding principle of America's bizarre tri-power structure. Organizations can be corrupted or ineffective.
Anyway, This was by far the best of the Marvel movies that I have seen. It has all of the big, smashing fights, but also provides the audience something to think about.

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