The film may have made over $1 billion for Marvel and Disney this year, but the man who wrote the comic on which its based – Flickering Myth’s friend Mark Millar – felt the film was too bleak.
“Civil War had a good opening twenty mins, but then I honestly can’t remember what the movie was about,” he wrote on his blog. “It’s interesting the Russos have a background in comedy because it’s really missing in these otherwise well-made pictures and very, very missed. I really hope this bleakness doesn’t extend into their two Avengers pictures because what made that first Avengers work was the light as well as shade and I’ll be sad if that’s all lost like it was in this picture.”
Millar also didn’t like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Ghostbusters, but did find a space in his top 1o for Doctor Strange. “Marvel’s genius is the casting and like Hemsworth and Downey Jr, Cumberbatch holds this movie together with his terrific presence,” he wrote.
“[Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice] I think we should just leave alone,” he wrote about DC’s output. “Like Suicide Squad, WB has just decided to go a certain way with these movies and their logic is that they don’t want to look like Marvel films. It’s not how I feel these characters work best and sadly my DC-obsessed kids (I’m a DC guy way more than I’m a Marvel guy) can’t see their favourite characters in the cinema. Their TV and animation departments are working beautifully. I’d love to see some of that same light applied to their theatrical division.”
Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” finds Steve Rogers leading the newly formed team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. But after another incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability, headed by a governing body to oversee and direct the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers, resulting in two camps—one led by Steve Rogers and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference, and the other following Tony Stark’s surprising decision to support government oversight and accountability.
Captain America: Civil War sees Anthony and Joe Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) directing a cast that includes Marvel Cinematic Universe veterans Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America), Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Falcon), Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton/Hawkeye), Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier), Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch), Paul Bettany (The Vision), Don Cheadle (James Rhondes/War Machine), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man), Emily VanCamp (Sharon Carter), Frank Grillo (Brock Rumlow/Crossbones) and William Hurt (General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross) alongside new additions Chadwick Boseman (Get on Up) as T’Challa/Black Panther, Daniel Bruhl (Rush) as Baron Zemo, Tom Holland (The Impossible) as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Martin Freeman (Sherlock) as Everett Ross.
Originally published December 19, 2016. Updated November 14, 2019.
