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Captain America: Civil War - Review

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Review

IMDb provides this one-line description; "Political interference in the Avengers' activities causes a rift between former allies Captain America and Iron Man."

On Twitter it's "#TeamCap vs #TeamIronMan."

Is it really that simple?

I am generally not a fan of action movies and would not have seen this one except that close friends invited me. They are fans and have seen the entire series. And they were able to relate the necessary back-stories from the first two episodes.

Ok, I get it. Captain America and the Avengers are the good guys and the terrorists are the bad guys. And everyone has super, I mean, "enhanced" powers. So this should be a straight-forward good vs evil story with lots of stylized violence in which the enhanced human heros somehow survive; time, after time, after time.

But it turns out the governments of the world are unhappy with all of the collateral damage caused by stopping the bad guys and want to control the Avengers. I can see their point, after all, the property damage caused by stopping the bad guys must be in the Billions of dollars. Not to mention the human toll.

More than 100 countries agree to force the Avengers to agree to be subject to the authority of the United Nations.

Accountability is, generally, a good thing.

Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, is for it, and convinces most of the Avengers.

Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, disagrees. He is concerned about government agendas and their tendency to change. He wants the freedom to choose to do the right thing.

The disagreement between Stark and Rogers comes down to the tension between law and liberty. Both are gifts from God and both are incredibly important.

In CIVIL WAR we see that human nature corrupts both law and liberty.

Government oversteps its God ordained limits and regulates things it shouldn’t. Civilians take advantage of their

liberty and trade personal responsibility for lawlessness.

Rogers and Stark both want liberty and law. They just disagree on which one is more important. The movie introduces us to the conflict but, unfortunately, does not help us resolve it.

When should we submit to authority? And when is it right to rebel against authority?

If you are looking for, "Bubble gum for the brain," as my friend calls it, you will enjoy CIVIL WAR.

But the movie does raise questions about authority, liberty, and vengeance. Some things to talk about after watching.


 

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