Anyone suffering from superhero fatigue is unlikely to be released from their stupor by this new instalment in the never-ending Marvel Cinematic Universe, although compared to a certain other similarly themed comic book blockbuster of recent months, Captain America: Civil War is at least a good deal of fun, even if it does sometimes feel like a placeholder for a bigger story.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR
Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey jun., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Tom Holland, Daniel Bruhl, Frank Grillo, William Hurt
Rating: (M)
Three stars (out of five)
To be fair, you don't really walk into a Marvel film expecting a strong, self-contained movie experience.
More like the first episode of a TV show's latest season, you get a continuation of the action and a teaser for upcoming volumes, with questions answered and new ones posed, and this chapter, more than any other, is aimed squarely at the millions of fans who have been tracking every development and plot twist for the past eight years.
Mostly it's Avengers-lite, with the pared-down supergroup split into opposing factions after being pressured into signing a UN accord that would limit its powers, culminating in an exciting and well-staged fight-to-end-all-fights on an airport tarmac.
Add a plethora of international locations, some new faces, and a few good old-fashioned moral dilemmas into the mix, and you have some pretty entertaining masked mayhem.
- Jeremy Quinn
