The new Captain America: Civil War just debuted, and everyone’s:
While I’m:
That’s not actually true. I’m not Debbie Downering this whole trailer, just the ending. Maybe.
1. Did They Need to Spoil Spider-Man’s Appearance?
OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG you guys! It’s Spider-Man! Everyone’s favorite neighborhood, um, Spider-Man is officially in this movie, and he’s Tony Stark’s secret weapon in the Team Cap vs. Team Iron Man rumble.
Wait. The core audience for this movie already knew that. We’ve known Spider-Man was being added through re-shoots since last August. Casual audiences might have no idea about Sony and Marvel’s deal to share Spider-Man, though. This could be a shocking development for them just as it was for casual audiences who didn’t know Wonder Woman was in Batman v Superman until the surprise ending of the second trailer.
But wouldn’t it have been even more shocking if they had no idea about Spider-Man until they saw Civil War? Does this movie even need to use Spidey to sell more tickets?
Here’s what Forbes argued back in August:
If the fans (and general audiences) are really that excited about seeing a big screen Spider-Man rub elbows with Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, and the rest of the gang, then how about we force them to wait until opening weekend to see what kind of Spider-Man exists in the MCU and how he plays with others?
Just as Warner Bros.Inc. mostly hid Anne Hathaway’s winning performance as Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises, and frankly just as Disney hid just how wonderful Mark Ruffalo was as Bruce Banner in the first Avengers film, so too can a (presumably) crowd pleasing Spider-Man performance (and associated action scenes) be the big buzzy treat that spurs word-of-mouth as a result of being kept under lock-and-key prior to release. But fans can’t tell their friends how awesome Spider-Man was if their friends already have a good idea of how Spidey’s scenes go from the marketing.
Perhaps Marvel feels the pressure to spoil Spider-Man’s appearance because Batman v Superman will beat it to the “heroes fight heroes in superhero movie” market by over a month. Still, the inclusion of Spider-Man seemingly overshadows the presence of Black Panther in the trailer, a character who actually needs far more of an introduction to audiences than Spider-Man.
2. The New Spider-Man Suit Is Hopefully Still a Work in Progress
Spider-Man swings in to take Captain America’s shield, and we’re supposed to pull a Jim Carrey in Batman Forever and shout “joygasm!” However, his costume is a throwback design with some new racing stripes on the boots and arms whereas the rest of the Avengers are all sporting modernizied looks. As such, it’s like a character from a different era of comic book history drops in on the modern Avengers to shout, “This is what we all used to look like in the 70s!”
Of course, that’s an unfair oversimplification. Plus, the Tom Holland Spider-Man couldn’t simply show up in Andrew Garfield’s fantastic Spider-Man suit. They had to change it, but they haven’t quite nailed it yet.
Then again, who cares? It’s Spider-Man! As Devin at BirthMoviesDeath argued:
As for Spidey’s costume: it’s a little Electric Company for my taste. It’s hard to follow up The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which had the perfect, ultimate Spidey costume, and I hope that adjustments happen between now and the new Spidey film. That said – he’s Spider-Man! They didn’t give him a weird outfit or anything. It’s just not the best iteration of the costume.
3. Iron-Man’s Side of the Story
All of the recent Batman v Superman TV spots are pretending this is simply a new Batman movie. However, the official trailers followed a logical progression: the first was about the favored fighter (Superman), the second was about the referee/villain (Lex Luthor) and the final one focused on the underdog (Batman).
If Civil War has a traditional villain it’s holding that close to the vest. Instead, the trailers are similarly dividing attention between the two names in the unofficial title card of this heavyweight bout: Captain America vs. Iron Man. The first trailer was the story of how Steve Rogers’ devotion to Bucky is going to cost him everything, and the second trailer is the story of how Iron Man wants to keep heroes in check and can’t agree with Cap’s position, not after the Winter Soldier tries to shoot him in the face and possibly murders War Machine. We see Tony Stark threatening and then being threatened back by Black Widow just as we see him in an empty prison he appears to have designed for the world’s supervillains and out of control heroes. He’s the one who calls forth Spider-Man just as he’s the one who refuses to end things peacefully with Cap, leading to this fantastic reprisal of “I could do this all day.”
4. Will Captain America Die?
Because we know how this storyline ended in the comics there has been a huge question hanging over this movie since its announcement: will Captain America die?
Whether or not this movie will dare to kill off Steve Rogers remains to be seen. However, if it does what a nice way to tie Civil War into the larger Captain America trilogy by reprising Cap’s First Avengers mantra “I could this all day.” He said it to the WWII-era bullies who told him to stay down, and he said it again to Red Skull. Now he’s throwing it at Iron Man. Clearly, if this is to be his end he will go out fighting.
5. Was that Ant-Man Riding Hawkeye’s Arrow and Jumping Off Of It and Onto Iron Man’s Arm?
Yes. Yes it was, and it was awesome.
Captain America: Civil War brings all of its guaranteed awesomeness into our lives on May 6, 2016
Source: BirthMoviesDeath
