'Captain America: Civil War' Wins Crown For Best Pure Superhero Movie Review

Captain America: Civil War review roundup as film hailed 'Marvel's finest yet'

Summer box office season officially kicks off May 6th, when the biggest genre in the world sees the arrival of what could turn out to be its absolute biggest entry to date. Marvel will attempt to prove the superhero genre isn’t remotely in danger of suffering from audience “fatigue,” and that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is prepared to elevate the genre’s fortunes to a whole new level when Captain America: Civil War storms into theaters the first weekend of May. How high it climbs, and what that means for superhero cinema as a whole, depends on several factors — all of which seem to lean heavily in Civil War’s favor.

Image courtesy of Marvel

Let me take a moment to offer an unfortunately necessary note here: I’ve been accused repeatedly and falsely in recent weeks of being “biased” in favor of Zack Snyder and DC Comics, of being “paid” to give good reviews and defend Batman v Superman, and all sorts of other ignorant, rude nonsense. I take my work and my work ethics very seriously, and so I’m not amused when some angry and resentful person makes false, absurd, uninformed accusations of that sort simply because I (gasp!) dare to like a movie they dislike. Luckily for me, many of you readers were kind enough to defend my integrity against those ridiculous accusations, and many of you shared my love of the film Batman v Superman.

So I would ask all of you who defended me, and who rightly denounced the ugly accusations that I was “paid” to give a positive review to that film, to remember how it feels when you see such negative attacks on films you love and on reviews you agree with, and to avoid doing the same sort of thing toward reviews about Civil War. My assessment and review here are based on my firm beliefs and analysis, and my personal feelings about the film and its box office chances, plain and simple, as are all of my reviews. Anyone who thinks I’m biased is right — I’m biased in favor of good films, good ideas, good acting, and good storytelling. I am also certainly biased in favor of superhero genre movies in general, since I love this genre and the medium it adapts, and I don’t remotely apologize for that bias. Nor should I, nor should any of you who are biased in favor of comics or superhero films, or in favor of whatever particular tastes you have.

Captain America: Civil War World Premiere

We should all remember that, and apply those standards not only for ourselves, but for everyone else. Including, by the way, when it’s hard to do so – if we want to elevate the discourse, to move beyond petty insults and squabbling among fans about one company or the other, and if we want people to respect our own preferences and tastes and treat them seriously, then we have to behave the way we want everyone else to behave, even when the other people aren’t doing so. That’s the only way things change, and the only way we deserve respectful treatment ourselves. If we don’t, and if we get down into the mud to wrestle and argue and insult other companies and groups of fans with accusations and claims that reviews are “paid for” and so on, then we have no business being angry if our favorite films and our opinions are treated in the same negative fashion.

Image courtesy of Marvel

So, with that in mind, let’s have a serious and honest discussion about Captain America: Civil War!
I think it’s very possible Civil War will wind up with the largest opening weekend gross in Marvel Studios history. North of $200 million is likely, and I’d not be surprised by something in the $220 million neighborhood. I expect the final worldwide cume will almost certainly approach Avengers levels or exceed them, but at the very least we should expect a minimum performance (if in theory it got only average reviews and okay but not stellar audience reactions) of maybe $800-900 million and more likely — get ready, here comes that number again — $1 billion. But here’s the big call, are you ready? I’m going out on a limb to say Civil War might possibly become the first Marvel movie to do as much as $2 billion.

Let me explain why…

Yes, this is a Captain America movie and a sequel to The Winter Soldier. That film did $714 million two years ago with an April release date, and received widespread critical and audience acclaim to the tune of a Rotten Tomatoes score of 89% and a Cinemascore of “A.” The same creative team return for Civil War, and deliver a film even better and more emotionally resonant than the previous one, so that alone should give it a bump above the prior box office tally.

However, as much as it’s a sequel to a Captain America movie, this is undeniably also an Avengers film — literally, because it’s about the Avengers and has the Avengers in it, in a story linked directly to the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron; and figuratively, because the ensemble cast, marketing, and concept all add up to a loud-and-clear message that audience can and should expect this to play as an Avengers sequel as well as a Captain America sequel.

Image courtesy of Marvel

In that regard, Civil War feels very much like all of the fun, re-watchability, and large-scale summer “event” blockbuster of 2012′s The Avengers, distilled through the filmmaking sensibilities of The Winter Soldier. So take the good will and coattails of Cap’s previous sequel movie, and imagine how that would translate into box office bang for an Avengers sequel that is the true heir to The Avengers’ throne.

Now add in the finest big-screen adaptation of Spider-Man to date, one instantly capable of making you forget all of the previous Spider-Man movies (which are great, don’t get me wrong here). Spider-Man sells more merchandise annually than Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman combined. He is a massive global brand, even when his cinematic shine has lost some luster in the eyes of the public — and to put it bluntly, $700+ million is the worst-case of what it looked like when Spider-Man “looses some of his luster.” So putting him into an Avengers-Winter Soldier sequel mashup will pay huge dividends. Even without him, Civil War was going to have a strong chance at hitting revenue levels on par with Avengers, so with Spider-Man I think the odds strongly favor a final worldwide box office total of $1.5+ billion, the ceiling being $2 billion (surely a sky-high prediction, but this is the first time I think such a number is even possible to contemplate for a superhero film).

Image courtesy of Marvel

Make no mistake, if it takes anything north of $750-800 million, then it’s still obviously a huge success. If it does $1 billion, then it’s a new era for expectations at Marvel when it comes to their solo franchises. And if it winds up taking less than Age of Ultron — say, for example, maybe $1.3 billion — then it still becomes a gigantic hit with few peers in the genre. So $1.5 billion isn’t a bar for success, it’s just the level I firmly believe this movie will play at and in fact exceed if everything lines up right for it.

Captain America: Civil War Review

Part of things lining up will be getting strong critical praise, and I think that’s a given. The film might wind up with the best overall critical reviews of the MCU releases, although Iron Man’s 94% at Rotten Tomatoes from 2008 will be tough to beat since even The Avengers fell a tad shy of the mark with its 92% score. So far, Civil War enjoys a 100% rating, though that’s destined to fall as at least a few negative reviews are presumably inevitable. The final score will probably be in the 90+% range, and I cannot fathom a score lower than perhaps 85-89% as the lowest end of realistic estimates. And I do not remotely believe audience will give it anything less than an “A-,” and more likely an “A” or “A+.”

That’s the sort of buzz and positive word of mouth that points to a massive opening weekend and long legs, which is precisely why I think it will finish in the Avengers tier of box office performance. But does the film live up to those expectations and buzz? Read on for my full review and find out!