Splatter: on FILM

Cap’s pal Buck is back and Winter soldiering on. Only the Captain believes there is good in his friend, and Cap can keep his fists up all day.The world demands accountability for the collateral toll taken during city battles. As long as there are Avengers, there will be conflicts challenging them. Circular reasoning, but the stats back it up. Unfortunately, a few bad guys with vengeful vendettas know that the best way to break up a team is from within.Make them fight themselves, and as it says in scripture, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”The team, indeed, divides over political issues and faces off only after acquiring a few more helpful fighters on each side. They recruit Ant Man, the beautiful Black Panther, and a fresh new Spider-Man for the front lines. They seem to put civility back into Civil War, as it begins in a glass meeting room with kind conversations between our two power houses. It builds to what seems like a fight for fun, a wits-to-fists stand-off until it gets personal.

Knowing it can’t end well if they keep it up, Widow walks the fence to bring peace.The action to exposition ratio feels even and seamless in this the best Avengers series franchise film yet. It’s well written as characters continue their own arcs in character development, and remain consistent in both dialogue and story.  This film is also shot beautifully, often putting viewers at hip and fist level so we step into the shoes of different Avengers as they fight. This empathy may help maintain viewership for what is already being called the biggest film in the world. Perhaps the world will seek, as the each of the Avengers eventually do, redemption and reconciliation too.