The next day Ty was in town for dinner and he wanted to go see it. I try not to say no when my kids ask me to do stuff and I'd really enjoyed the movie so I went again. We saw it in 3D.
A tip: 3D adds absolutely nothing to this movie. I actually forgot about it a few minutes in.
Like a lot of fans, I had seen enough trailers to have a vague idea of the plot. It seemed clear that for whatever reasons, Capt. America and Iron Man are on opposite sides of an issue and the rest of the Avengers chose sides.
Come on.
In the Avenger world, whatever the issue is, if you are opposed to Captain America, you are on the wrong side.
That was my stand going in.
SPOILER ALERT; stop reading now if you don't want to know what happens.
The issue that splits the Avengers into factions is whether or not they should submit to the control of the United Nations.
The story starts with an episode in an African nation in which the Avengers are trying to prevent a terrorist attack. They succeed but not without civilian casualties. The governments of the world (just like in the Incredibles) are fed up with these unsupervised superheroes trashing their cities and getting innocent people hurt and killed, all in the name of 'protecting' them.
Got that?
It's actually pretty close to real world politics. Apparently, terrorists aren't the problem; fighting them is the problem. You don't have to look past the Obama administration to see where the writers got their inspiration.
So the Secretary of State, played by William Hurt, shows up and tells the superheroes that unless they're willing to submit to oversight by the UN, they'll be considered international vigilantes, threats to society and treated accordingly.
Under normal circumstances, we could expect Iron Man et al to tell the UN to piss off, they'd continue to fight threats both inner and extra terrestrial and just try to stop them but circumstances aren't quite normal.
It seems Iron Man is an emotional mess because Pepper Potts has left him.
Last time we saw her, Potts had just acquired some super powers of her own, so she had a lot to deal with and a high maintenance punk like Tony Stark was a bit too much at the moment. I'm left wondering how she ever fell in love with him in the first place. Its not like he just became overbearing, obnoxious, self centered or arrogant.
I really have never had any patience with women who 'fall in love' and then spend the rest of their days trying to change what they fell in love with. No wonder so many are unhappy.
The point is that Tony's an emotional mess and into that mess steps a woman whose son was accidentally killed when a building fell on him while the Avengers were saving the world from extraterrestrial monsters. She doesn't blame the monsters; she blames the Avengers.
This too, is in keeping with modern life. If an Imam claims something outrageous in the name of Islam and Mark Steyn quotes him, the Canadian Human Rights court sues Steyn for Islamophobia, not the Imam for saying whatever he said. You can look it up (I haven't figured out links on this system yet).
Bottom line, Tony is consumed with guilt. That's where his decision comes from. He acquiesces to UN oversight.
Not so, Capt. America. Cap knows that every single thing they did was the right thing to do. He feels terrible about the collateral damage and always strives to minimize it but Steve was and is a soldier: he knows that in battle, you can't control every little thing.
He knows that you have no control who lives or dies. All you can do is stay focused on the outcome and do your best.
He also knows better than to trust the UN.
That's right: Capt. America doesn't trust the entity that allowed Saddam Hussein to continue to profit from oil exports even while sanctioned; the entity that trafficked in underage children in Africa under the guise of 'peace keeping'. He doesn't trust those guys to always know the right thing to do.
So Cap refuses to sign on with the UN and becomes an international criminal.
The Avengers who go with Tony are driven by guilt, fear and a misplaced trust in government.
Those who go with Cap are driven by loyalty to friendship and trust in Captain America.
Let me just say this: in the world in which Capt. America exists, there is no better judge of when and where the Avengers should step in than Capt. America. All the reasons he became Capt. America instead of the Green Goblin are all the reasons why his lead should be the lead you follow.
By the end of the movie, half the supers are interred in an underwater prison built especially for them. I have to believe that was the UN's plan all along. Control of the Avengers was only the first step to the incarceration of the Avengers. That's leftist SOP: control leads to confiscation.
There's even a scene where Vision regurgitates the liberal view of the Cold War: the only reason the bad guys are out there is because we're so strong we've scared them. It was bullshit in the 70s and its bullshit now.
Although I doubt it was meant this way, I couldn't help but see this movie as a metaphor for what's going on in our country right now with the police and Black Lives Matter.
Who profits when the police aren't allowed to do their job?
Hint: not the law abiding citizens.
Moral of the story: Captain America is incapable of going off the rails. Therefore, if you decide your moral judgement outweighs his, you're the one who's gone off the rails.
The fight scenes in the beginning are manically filmed so its hard to follow the action. I found that annoying but eventually realized that was deliberate: battle is fast, messy and confusing. The fog of war is real and the way those scenes are filmed helps the viewer understand how mistakes are made when survival is on the line.
I still like the first Avenger movie best but this one was excellent.