Marvel beats DC at its own game

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Captain America’s team runs to face off against Iron Man’s team in “Captain America: Civil War.” The film’s action centerpiece manages to show off the abilities of each individual hero without confusing and overwhelming the audience. The battle spans everything from hand-to-hand combat to magic energy manipulation.

In a studio system filled to the brim with mindless and lazy action movies, it is always refreshing to see the rare movie that is both a fast-paced thrill ride and encourages its audience to ponder moral issues. This movie is “Captain America: Civil War.”

Right off the bat, the comparisons can be made to the inferior superhero flick from earlier this year, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” These comparisons are not only valid, but vital in the investigation of why “BvS” was such a disappointment.

Critic Paul Tassi from forbes.com said, “…the two actually share a central storyline, heroes turning against each other. Only Civil War is a roadmap for how to do this kind of thing correctly, and it serves to show precisely how Batman V. Superman mangled the exact same concept.”

Both Civil War and BvS revolve around two sets of ideologies regarding the death and destruction heroes cause from different superheroes that eventually lead them to battle each other. Where the DC heroes’ motives were unclear and hypocritical, there were clear and sympathetic motives in Civil War.

Critic Jack Shepherd from The Independent said, “Why did it work better? Because we were invested more in the characters motivations. We’ve seen Iron Man without a governing body (leading to the creation of Ultron) and we’ve seen Captain America struggle with authority. With BvS, we don’t have that level of investment or understanding.”

One of the most important things Civil War did seamlessly where BvS spectacularly failed was the universe expansion. In BvS, it was obvious that they were shoehorning in characters just to set up “The Justice League,” and it came off forced and artificial. Civil War manages to introduce several major heroes into its universe without making the film seem bloated.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, screenwriter Steve McFeely said, “We learned with Civil War that you can have different stories that rotate around a central question. So when we have people all of the universe, relating to one central thing, it is going to cohere more than having five separate strands that you are hoping will bang into each other by accident.”

If you are looking for the best superhero-fights-superhero movie, look no further than “Captain America: Civil War.” Not only will you be entertained, but you will be engrossed.