As shooting begins for “Captain America: Civil War” we should probably start by asking “are you in the movie?” Because, even if you’re not, just about everyone else is. For those familiar with the storyline of the Civil War (we already know the movie is going to be different from the comics), questions have been raised by many regarding how they intend to tell a coherent story within the limited time available to them. It would probably be difficult to do in two movies, but seems to be an Asgardian task to try to cram all that into one movie. The plot won’t be the only issue struggling for enough screen-time. Now, as Marvel has released the cast list and the synopsis for the movie, we’re left wondering just how in the France are they going to include all of those characters in a meaningful way. And that’s before we note that Spider-Man is also joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe for this one (thank you Sony!). One thing…if you happen to click the link to their article, we apologize for their font and formatting. And we thought our articles were hard to read…
For a brief note on the plot, “‘Captain America: Civil War’ picks up where ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ left off, as Steve Rogers leads the new team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. After another international incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability and a governing body to determine when to enlist the services of the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers while they try to protect the world from a new and nefarious villain.”
***POTENTIAL SPOILERS IN CAST/CHARACTER LIST***
We’re going to mention the characters in the upcoming movie, and given that some of you may not have seen “Age of Ultron” yet, we don’t want to spoil who lives, and who dies. So if that’s you, stop reading. Seriously. No really, I won’t be held responsible for spoiling anything, it’s all on you now, buddy.
So the new movie will obviously feature the titular Captain America as well as Iron Man, and they will be joined by Black Widow, Bucky Barnes, Falcon, The Vision, Hawkeye, War Machine, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, Black Panther, Agent 13, Crossbones, General Thaddeus, and several mystery characters (one of whom is played by Martin Freeman). We also know, as I said earlier, that Spider-Man will also be involved (he played a fairly central role in the version from the comics).
***END SPOILERS, BEGIN UNFOUNDED SPECULATION***
As many of you probably remember, in various forums I have said things along the lines of “Marvel can do no wrong.” Well, I hope this isn’t their chance show my confidence is misplaced, but I have no idea how they can do this right. I don’t intend to say I have a lack of confidence in them. My concern is that I don’t think it is possible to tell that story in the space of one movie. I don’t think it’s possible to give enough screen time to that many major characters in one movie (and certainly there will be more central figures required to carry the plot). The Marvel schedule was already cram packed before they brought Spider-Man back from his increasingly abysmal spell with Sony, but they’ve had to shuffle things around to account for his stand-alone feature. I hope they split this up. If they don’t…well, it’s been a long time since I’ve hoped this hard that I’m colossally wrong. Penny for your thoughts. What say ye?
