‘Captain America: Civil War’

Those rascals at Marvel — they won me over in 2008 with Jon Favreau’s nearly flawless “Iron Man” and lost me big-time last year with Joss Whedon’s lumbering “The Avengers: Age of Ultron.” It’s been a roller coaster franchise with a lot of other highs (“Guardians of the Galaxy,”  “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”), lows (“Iron Man 2,” “Captain America: The First Avenger”), and middling entries that were decent enough despite their overall ephemeral quality (the “Thor” films, “Ant Man,”).

 Interestingly enough, “Captain America: Civil War,” the newest addition to the Marvel comic universe, feels like more of an appropriate sequel to Whedon’s “The Avengers” than “Age of Ultron,” and also improves massively on that film’s energy, focus, story, structure, humor, and creativity.

Hot off of their taut espionage thriller “Captain America: Civil War,” the Russo brothers (Anthony and Joe) manage to successfully tame and take strong command over this overwhelming smorgasbord of superheroes with some of the finest action directing I’ve seen in recent years. 

In the process of saving the lives of innocent citizens from super villains such as demigod Loki and maniacal robot Ultron, the Avengers have caused a ton of collateral damage including the deaths of several of the innocent citizens they set out to liberate from global (and intergalactic) villainy. The eponymous “Civil War” refers to a rift that has formed between the Avengers over whether or not superheroes should be policed, restricted, and held culpable for said damages.

Heading up one side of the civil war is Tony Stark, A.K.A. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), who believes that the Avengers need lawful limits in order to protect future incidents of innocent bloodshed—he’s joined in this belief by War Machine (Don Cheadle), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), the Vision (Paul Bettany), and newcomers to this franchise Black Panther and Spider-Man (Chadwick Boseman and Tom Holland, respectively). 

Captain America (Chris Evans) believes in the status quo of the Avengers operating as an independent outfit, but in this story cares far more about his former friend Bucky, A.K.A. the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), who was brainwashed after WWII and has since been a volatile sleeper cell for the terrorist organization HYDRA.

The Captain therefore spends far more time focused on the repercussions of his friend’s framing in a terrorist plot than on the proposed U.N treaty to sign over the Avengers operation to the government — regardless, a team of heroes does join the Captain’s side against Iron Man’s, and includes Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), and the Winter Soldier himself.

Of course, there always is a wild card. In this case, that would be terrorist Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl), who has a plan to take down the Avengers once and for all — in my mind, the execution of this plot ends up being the most satisfying, surprising, dark and ingenious thing Marvel studios has ever released, as the final act of this film takes a devastating turn that changes the nature of a few key scenes that came before it.

Despite my attempts to free myself of this cinematic universe, the folks at Marvel keep managing to pull me back in like Michael Corleone. Something just clicks when the Russo brothers, directing a pretty remarkable screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, take control over this material. I call the screenplay remarkable because although they’ve been tasked with the mundane job of having to connect this film with future projects, they have nevertheless managed to come up with spectacular set-pieces and story developments that allow “Civil War” to succeed on its own merit, and not just as a bridge to other events.

That’s why “Civil War” feels like a greater success than “Age of Ultron,” because that film bent to accommodate studio plans for the future, and bent so far that in fact by the end it was a broken effort. “Civil War” bends toward the same ends, but is made from far more pliable and sturdy material so that even as it does make accommodations here and there, it mostly lives and breathes within its own atmosphere without getting too ahead of itself.

The challenge of these Marvel films as a whole has been to not lose sight of the importance of building individual entries that can represent one independent vision, as well as serve as one piece of a bigger puzzle. That’s a tough balancing act, but fortunately “Civil War” does it tremendously well and reignites excitement in the series.

Could it stand to shed some fat? Of course, but is there enough fun and entertainment to be worth the investment? Absolutely. Audiences, assemble!

★★★½ (out of 4)

‘Rush’

In an early scene of Ron Howard’s newest film “Rush,” English Formula One racer James Hunt describes his vehicle as a “little coffin surrounded by high-octane fuel.” What compels Hunt or any race car driver to want to drive up to 170 miles per hour while squeezed inside of a little coffin, all the while and face the possibility of death at any turn? Is there fear?

It turns out, unapparent as it may be, there is fear. And ego, which perhaps is the driving force behind Peter Morgan’s screenplay about a dynamic rivalry that once existed between Hunt and another Formula One racer, Austrian Nikki Lauda, two men who were far from the same, and yet shared so much of their careers and lives together on and off of the race track.

Chris Hemsworth plays Hunt, a playboy party animal whose fervor for the thrill of racing toward potential doom drives him into the arms of the sport. The ecstasy he feels while moving at such high speeds trumps nearly everything else in his life, including his short-lived marriage to Suzy Miller (Olivia Wilde), and when he is not doing the thing he loves most, he loses his sense of purpose.

Lauda (Daniel Bruhl), on the other hand, drives for different reasons altogether. He comes from a wealthy family, and when his father tells him he can either join the family business or get out, Lauda hits the highway and doesn’t look back. But where Hunt ‘s ego rests in the speed and fury of the race, Lauda’s is geared more toward a more intellectual approach to the sport, as he buys he way into sponsorship and, in following one race (which he loses to Hunt), tattles on Hunt non-regulation sized car.

It seems like a cheap shot considering the car only misses regulation size by several eights of an inch, but Lauda has standards and believes in the rules of the game. In fact, despite his reckless hunger for speed, a troubled personal life and, at times, a nasty temper, Hunt’s comes off as a more dignified strategy. So much so that when Lauda, fearful for his own safety, calls for a vote to cancel a race due to a rainstorm and a slick track, no one believes him. They think he just wants to remain ahead in points.

Lauda’s fears come true in a scene of astonishing realism, in which he loses control of his car, crashes is engulfed in flames for what seems like ages, before he is rescued. His life is changed forever.

This is a pivotal scene of the film, and words can’t describe the intensity of Ron Howard’s direction, Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography and Hans Zimmer’s score. Packaged together, these allow for a thoroughly engrossing and blood-pumping series of racing scenes in which minimal CGI and maximum practical stunt driving was used, pushing the action toward its highest potential.

And then there is Peter Morgan’s screenplay, another tour de force that almost matches Morgan and Howard’s last collaboration, “Frost/Nixon,” which in its own way was about the same thing as “Rush” is. In both films, Morgan pierces and explores the egos of its two lead characters, and like journalist David Frost and US President Richard Nixon, Hunt and Lauda share a complex rivalry cum friendship that binds them together even as their lives eventually go into different directions.

As Hunt, Hemsworth, always enjoyable, really does his best work yet. So does Bruhl, whose breakout role in “Goodbye Lenin!” led to his discovery by Quentin Tarantino and… the rest I history. He is one of the most gifted actors working today, the kind of actor who instantly catches your attention somehow just by appearing on screen.

The way these two actors manage to develop this relationship on screen is what elevates “Rush” above most other racing genre movies. When you care about the people behind the wheel, it makes a difference and, strangely enough, you begin to understand why it is they do what they do.

★★★ 1/2 (out of 4)