To start off, I think Captain America: Civil War was a great movie. I think the Captain America trilogy will be the benchmark all other MCU series will be measured against. However, now that I have had some time to think about the movie, there were several moments that seemed out of place with respect to the MCU as a whole.
Needless to say, everything from this point on will be **SPOILERS**. You’ve been warned.
Ant-Man
CA:CW invalidates the Ant-Man movie. Think back to the plot of that movie. It can be summed up as, “Henry Pym will go to extreme lengths to keep his shrinking technology out of the hands of anyone he cannot control including S.H.I.E.L.D. and the United States government.”
As I sat in the theatre during CA:CW and saw Scott Lang in a cell on the Raft, wearing his prison blues, all I could think was, “Won’t Pym be happy the government finally has their hands on the suit.” Ant-Man and Black Panther’s suits were the only technologies in the film that the government did not have some sort of control over. We know they wanted Henry Pym’s secrets. There is no way Secretary of State Ross did not ask Tony Stark to figure out the suit’s technology, and there is no way Stark would have refused. Even if Stark didn’t have the time to examine the suit, he would have taken samples of the Pym particle and gotten some techie to get as much data from the suit’s design as possible.
Secretary of State “Thunderbolt” Ross
It would be fair to say that General Ross was a man obsessed in The Incredible Hulk. Ross was obsessed with the Super Soldier Program. That was why Banner became the Hulk. That’s why Ross was so determined to hunt Banner down. That’s why Ross put Blonsky in position to become the Abomination.
But in CA:CW, Zemo’s secret plot is to get at five hibernating Winter Soldiers (in other words Soviet super soldiers). Stark is told about this. Black Widow is there when Steve Rogers first starts putting the pieces together. It’s reasonable that Ross gets some idea of what was really going on at some point, but he is able to put his obsession aside to continue pursuing Captain America.
I cannot help thinking that it would only take a hint at another super soldier program for Ross to start figuring out ways to get at it. Hunting for Rogers and Bucky would be the perfect excuse, but it didn’t happen.
James Rhodes
Rhodes is paralyzed from his injuries at the airport. While team Iron Man were being told the severity of Rhodes’ injuries and that he was not going to be able to walk again I couldn’t help thinking about Hawkeye in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Hawkeye was on death’s door, but Dr. Cho was able to use her technology to save him.
Dr. Cho died in Age of Ultron you say. She was not doing her research in a vacuum. She had assistants, some of whom would have survived if only because they had the day off when Ultron attacked. Cho was also working for a foundation. She would have had notes and reports and articles about her research. Tony Stark would have had the access, and more importantly the time, to replicate Dr. Cho’s accomplishments.
As I write this another solution for Rhody’s paralysis comes to mind. Extremis from Iron Man 3. At the end of that movie Tony Stark understood the technology well enough to reverse what was done to Pepper Potts. It seems obvious that Stark could use Extremis to fix Rhodes and then remove it like he did with Pepper.
Vision
Warmachine was hit by friendly fire during the battle at the airport. He was chasing after Captain America and the Winter Soldier as they were escaping in a quinjet when Vision missed Falcon and hit Warmachine. Then Warmachine fell, and fell, and fell before hitting the ground catastrophically. Iron man tried to save him, but couldn’t get there in time. Falcon also tried, but was too far away. There was a third flyer in the area, Vision.
For some reason he didn’t budge when Rhodes was hit. Sure, Vision was at the Scarlet Witch’s side when she was hurt, but he couldn’t do anything more than comfort her while she endured her injuries. He might have been able to catch Warmachine. Vision’s decision to support the Sakovia Accords showed that he thinks with the logic of a machine. Unless he knew for sure that he couldn’t do anything to help Warmachine, Vision would have tried.
Spider-Man
I think they did a great job with Spider-Man. You could tell he was out of his depth, but still felt he needed to live up to the faith others were putting in him. He is on my list because of the irony of his character. In the comics, Civil War happens because of the Superhuman Registration Act. This law required anyone with superhuman abilities to register with the government.
This was a non-issue in the MCU because no one with superhuman abilities keeps a secret identity except for two people, Daredevil and Spider-Man. I find it ironic that one of the two people in the MCU who keeps a secret identity joins Team Iron Man in the movie. And yes, I know that he did the same thing in the comics.
Scarlet Witch
Wanda Maximoff’s actions are the catalyst that results in the Sokovia Accords. A villain is about to blow himself up to kill Captain America. Scarlet Witch uses her abilities to lift the villain into the air so the explosion does not catch Cap. Unfortunately the explosion does reach an office building and some Wakandan diplomats are killed. It was a bad judgment call. Not as bad as bombing a hospital, but still bad. If she were more experienced or had more time to consider her options, things probably would have turned out better. After all, she uses her powers to contain an explosion at the airport battle.
Tony Stark arranges for Vision to keep her confined to the Avengers compound, for her own protection. Though we and Wanda really know it is for everyone else’s protection. She is unpredictable after all.
This bothered me. Captain America and Falcon were not put under house arrest. Bruce Banner was never put under house arrest, and he was a way more powerful loose cannon than Wanda. Vision, the synthetic person, who was so new that he doesn’t even understand his own reactions was made the prison guard.
With all the problems Marvel has been having with portraying gender equality in their films, fifty percent of the female heroes are sent to her room, but none of the male heroes are.
I know it was to get the most popular Marvel character into the MCU, but when Stark brings in a teen-aged boy to fight some of the most powerful and smartest heroes on the planet, what happened to Wanda looks even more patronizing.
Colonel Zemo
Zemo hatches an elaborate plan involving Soviet super soldiers. He seemed to have a good idea of the Winter Soldier’s past operations. I kept wondering how he knew what he did.
He was an officer in Sokovian intelligence. That could explain his knowledge, but it’s unlikely such a small country would have access to that information. He did say himself that Sokovia was in a sad state well before Ultron.
Maybe he was connected to Hydra. If he was, nothing revealed in the movie supports this.
There is the information Black Widow released onto the internet. This was Zemo’s most likely resource. He had years to research it. But this creates a problem.
Tony Stark discovered his father was very involved with S.H.I.E.L.D. He was curious about the organization, enough that he hacked their computers on a helicarrier in the Avengers. I cannot see him ignoring the wealth of information that was dumped during Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He certainly had the expertise and technology to sift through all that information for data about his father. Anything about how his parents died would be a top priority for him. If Zemo was able to piece together what happened, so would Tony Stark. The movie’s big reveal should not have been a surprise to him.
Tony Stark
If you’ve gotten this far and still have not seen the movie, stop now. Unless you do not care about having the plot’s biggest twist spoiled for you, bookmark this article to finish later.
Zemo’s ultimate plan is to destroy the Avengers. He knows the only way he can do that is by creating an internal conflict. He creates a rift between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers by exposing the fact that the Winter Soldier killed Stark’s parents during one of his missions for Hydra. There are two factors that build the rift: Roger’s unswerving loyalty to Bucky and the fact that Rogers knew what happened and didn’t tell Stark.
I don’t see either of these factors having the permanent effect Zemo wanted because of why Tony Stark is in the hero game. Most people would think it is because of his thirst for adventure. This certainly is part of it, but you can see a deeper reason if you look at what actually happens in the movies.
The pattern can be summed up as, “Stark and his gigantic ego try something. It blows up. He feels guilty about taking things too far. Iron Man has to clean things up.” Avengers is about the only movie where Iron Man is not dealing with the aftermath of something Stark did or how he handled a problem. Stark is his own nemesis.
Tony Stark is driven by guilt. This is why he will not be able to hold a grudge against Bucky or Steve. Steve already admitted that he held back from Stark because Steve is only human and didn’t know how to handle the knowledge. Bucky was never in control during his missions. Now he wants to turn away from his past. If Stark ever wants to be able to forgive himself, he has to forgive Bucky and Steve first. If they aren’t worthy of forgiveness, then Stark is not worthy either.