Jason Watches CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

The Marvel Cinematic Universe rules still hold: For pure fun, see the new character introductions (ANT-MAN, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, etc.) For fan service, see the Avengers titles. And to actually move the universe forward, see the Captain America movies.

Also, it's becoming increasingly clear that as much fun as they are, the main motivation to see these movies has become fear of not knowing what's going on in the next one.

Now I want to make this clear: I enjoyed this movie. In many ways it's the bravest of the MCU, challenging the audience with political/philosophical questions about hero-hood, oversight and responsibility. And the new characters (Black Panther and Spider-ManBoy) are introduced well and given their time to shine. In fact, everyone is given their time to shine, in an even more balanced and interesting way than either Avengers movie.

But none of that can overcome the fact that the entire plot--the plot of the villain as well as the movie--relies on both Iron Man and Captain America acting completely out of character. It would make much more logical sense if Cap was willing to place oversight over the Avengers and Tony was the wild card who believed in himself above all. And they're given reasons--good reasons--to act as they do, but it still bugged me...if not in the moment then at least a couple of weeks later when I wrote this.

And finally...am I wrong to be somewhat underwhelmed by  the new Spider-Man? I'll wait for his stand-alone movie to come out. And I'm not saying Tom Holland was bad. But I'm just perplexed by people gushing over how we finally have a "good" Spider-Man. I'm not saying Andrew Garfield was great, but I did like Tobey Maguire...at least for two movies (I'll admit part 3 went off the rails.) I don't know, maybe that's just me.

Running Time: 147 minutes
My Total Minutes: 429,322