Whedon’s more roomy approach, with Civil War, I think their staging has improved immensely from their previous outing with The Winter Soldier. While some decry their usage of coverage in order to splice together an action beat vs. differ a bit from Joss Whedon, beyond just having a much better grasp on Captain America as a character, is how they shoot action.

One of the areas where the Russo Bros.

It’s a hell of a touch, and a far cry from how this conflict was pulled together in the comic event of the same name. They even explain why Tony was back in the suit after Iron Man 3‘s big exploding suit finale, and it’s a pretty fitting bit of reasoning that works terrifically in context.

But, instead, knowing that Bucky is the person that took everything away from him, suddenly Tony’s anger becomes magnified and basically justified because we’ve gone on that journey with him. Without that background, without watching Tony struggle to collect himself in the shadow of his departed father and eventually make peace with who he is, his anger at Bucky and Steve would feel much more hollow.

Watching Cap and Iron Man come to blows in the final sequence is especially heart-wrenching, as we know what a role Tony’s parents have played in the person he’s become thanks to the previous three Iron Man films. For most of the MCU’s run, I’ve thought quite a bit of the set-up films, even up to last year’s Age of Ultron, carried a sense of being an obligation to get to the next beat in the “megastory” without ever feeling like any entry is really playing with toys as they’ve been set up previously, but Civil War tosses that on its head a bit, where the back-stories of previous films and our attachment to each of these characters pays off. Interestingly enough, this is the first time I’ve felt like Marvel’s long-term strategy has been to their benefit.There’s even big white text to delineate each geographical change! I love it! Some may not appreciate this approach, but the wide-scope, richer character usage, and unusual pacing (for a cinematic effort) really helped any sense of exhaustion I’ve been feeling about the MCU as a whole. Between major beats, you can almost sense where the “to be continued” tag might go. In a way, watching Civil War felt akin a reading a really good (superhero) graphic novel, where it approximates the same feeling you get from set of issues that might comprise a really good story arc.

While I won’t sit here and say that Civil War reinvents the wheel, it certainly gives it a few new spokes. Sure, the superficial details are different, but as an exercise in actual screenwriting, those same major beats are hit over and over again. This is of course doubled by just how often we’re faced with these films on a regular basis. Lately, I’ve been extra fatigued with the superhero film three act approach, with the same application of rising and falling action regardless of whether we’re talking about X-Men, Thor, or Guardians of the Galaxy. One of the areas that I found myself admiring in this screening was how narrative was structured.Actually, I’ll give you one more chance, here’s your Scott Lang buffer.

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