‘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)

‘Only Lovers Left Alive’

“Only Lovers Left Alive” is the eleventh film from Jim Jarmusch (“Broken Flowers,” “Coffee and Cigarettes”), and this time he takes on the vampire genre, blending it with his own strange, idiosyncratic, minimalistic style, and delivering a stylish and poetic interpretation of the vampire myth. The elements are familiar, but what he does with them is unlike anything we may have seen before on screen.

To start, these vampires are not snarling creatures of the night, nor are they sparkling boy-toys with perfectly coiffed hair and painfully tepid, soap opera dialogue (*cough*”Twilight”*cough*). Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton) have lived and loved each other for centuries. When the film opens, they are living an ocean apart. Eve lives in Morocco and spends her time reading, dancing to music in her apartment and hanging out with her blood supplier, another vampire named Christopher Marlowe (John Hurt).

Marlowe was a late-16th century playwright and poet who greatly influenced “that illiterate zombie philistine” Shakespeare — Marlowe’s words in the film, not mine.

Adam lives in a rundown house in Detroit where he spends his time recording music on antique music equipment, which he purchases from fellow music-head Ian (Anton Yelchin), and mourning humanity, which he considers to be doomed. He refers to humans as “zombies,” has a wall of literary and musical heroes, and gets his blood from a blood bank contact codenamed Dr. Watson (Jeffrey Wright).

As with previous Jarmusch films, “Only Lovers Left Alive” is less narrative driven than it is character driven. It’s more mood than plot. Adam and Even decide early on to reunite for a spell, and a few story threads are woven from their reunion, including an unwelcome visit from immature, fanged moocher Ava (Mia Wasikowska), that leads the lovers into a long, troubled night of nightclubbing and body disposal.

But for the most part, the film is a relaxed, intimate meditation on the probable boredom and exhaustion of (nearly) eternal life. It’s a slice of life portrait that captures a few days in the life of the undying, as they comfort each other, argue about the downfall of civilization, discuss art and music, and experience the highs of blood drinking and the lows of withdrawal once their plasma sources start to run dry.

Pitch perfect performances all around, sharp writing and direction from Jarmusch, brilliant cinematography by Yorick Le Saux (“Julia,” “I Am Love”) and stunning psychedelic music by SQÜRL allow the film to feel whole, like a complete experience.

Something that all of the best “vampire movies” have in common is this: Even if you take away the supernatural element, they still manage to communicate to us an involving, identifiable story. Jarmusch essentially uses it as a device to explore how people deal with fairly universal problems, internal and external concerns with which most of us can identify.  “Only Lovers Left Alive,” like Tomas Alfredson’s “Let the Right One In” and Kathryn Bigelow’s  “Near Dark,” works on that level exactly. Jarmusch has crafted a clever, introspective new entry to a genre that has, in recent years, taken on far too much dead weight (*cough*”Twilight”*cough*).

★★★1/2 (out of four)