

Okay, there are so many things I loved about this movie, but I’m not going to tell you everything I think because that’s where the stories come from! :D But I want to say a few things.

1) The first and biggest thing that impressed me about this film was that I was actually surprised by what happened, which, in this sort of film I am never surprised, because in classic melodramas the good guys wear white hats and the bad guys wear black hats. Here, though, despite what I assumed – that I would be made to side with Steve from the get-go because, hey, it’s a CAPTAIN AMERICA movie – I found to my growing horror that I immediately sided with Tony and in fact sided with Tony for about three quarters of the film. And then that changed, and it changed because they slowly boiled the frog—there was no giant melodramatic revelation that Steve was right, no big speech: instead, we saw it, and we saw it in a creeping way that implicates us. So for example, we go from Wanda being at home to Wanda being kept under house arrest—which, hey, as Tony says, no big; she’s being kept in a palace, basically – and it was well into the film when it was suddenly like, OH FUCK, SECRET PRISONS, and by then you’re like OF COURSE THERE ARE SECRET PRISONS and wow, Steve did use the word “internment” didn’t he? and of course Steve has seen internment camps and prison camps before and of course Tony Stark doesn’t worry about prison because people like Tony Stark don’t go to prison: why be afraid of laws when they don’t ever apply to you? At which point I was like OMG STEVE WAS RIGHT, STEVE UNDERSTOOD THINGS ABOUT THIS WORLD THAT I DID NOT. And I was well and truly boiled! Another example of boiling the frog was the glass boxes: we first see Bucky in one, and I thought—sure, right, okay; Bucky has a metal arm; Bucky’s dangerous! – but by the end of the film, Zemo (who has no special powers) is in one, and Sam is in one, and Scott Lang, and I was like OMG OF COURSE WE ALWAYS THINK THESE ANTI-TERRORISM THINGS ARE GOING TO BE USED ON OTHER PEOPLE, DANGEROUS PEOPLE, but it’s us, it’s always us—or, you know the thing, “by then there was no one left to speak for me.” And it was all subtle as hell. Even Bucky – I mean, they didn’t hit us with a big CLANG about how Bucky was the ultimate example of a supersoldier used by the state without any freedom of choice as to mission or agenda – nor did they hit us too hard that Sharon, bless her (and I liked her more than I expected to! More about which later)—was the other ideal here: a person who, even while working within an institutional context, makes her own moral choices and decisions. I LOVED ALL THIS.

2) The film was wildly and impressively characterized. I just saw on my tumblr saying that Clint was better characterized in this film than in any previous movie, to which I agree: Clint was brilliantly characterized. Everyone was; there were to my mind genuinely no small parts, and nobody who I did not believe in or understand. Clint is the experienced, gruff spy/agent; Rhodey is the veteran soldier; Sam is a firecracker and a tactical genius; Natasha is warm and pragmatic and will follow no one’s agenda but her own; Scott is not afraid of being a criminal; Sharon will follow her conscience even as she continues to work within the system (that’s what makes her Peggy’s niece, it seems to me; she plays an insider’s game.) I didn’t give a damn about Scarlet Witch before this film, I confess, but boy do I care about her and want to write her now. People NOT EVEN IN THE FILM were better characterized than they’ve been in previous films: I recognized a Pepper who’d had it up to here with Tony’s shit; I liked that the films knew that Banner is NOT SIGNING THOSE ACCORDS. I loved that they gave Cap’s big speech about “No, you move” to PEGGY. In terms of new characters, I came out caring deeply about T’Challa and Peter (I also never in my life have cared about Spiderman, not even Toby’s Spidey) and I think they are the keys to the film, actually, to wit:

3) I love how this film both offers and refuses the Batman trope; in fact, I’d say that it is almost more than anything else ABOUT offering and refusing the Batman trope, to wit: a trope in which grief justifies anything. This is an ANTI MANPAIN FILM. I would go so far as to say that the promotional material about the film talking about Cap’s selfishness and willing to burn-the-world-down-ness for Bucky was just plain wrong; what to me defines Cap in this film is that he is NOT undone by grief. He loses Peggy but doesn’t lose his mind; his agenda with Bucky is first and foremost to STOP HIM BEING KILLED BY A VIGILANTE – he doesn’t stop him from being arrested – and then later, he doesn’t recapture him and escape to the Caribbean (though I confess I might have to write a story where he does) but instead of running away the two of them immediately work together to stop the terrible threat of the 6 Winter Soldiers. They are GROWN-ASS MEN, RESPONSIBLE MEN; even Bucky’s final choice—more about which later—is meant, I think, to be seen the grownup choice. In contrast, we see Tony as very trapped in his 21 year old self, and while I actually loved Tony in this and felt it was one of the most complex and interesting Tonys we have ever seen, I think the film wanted us to feel that pathos of him saying, “He killed my mom!” as not ideal or noble—like, okay, yes, but you shouldn’t be making decisions here Tony! Not when your id is screaming! Similar with Zeno: We feel for you that you have lost your family in this war, that it terrible and you deserve your anger, but you don’t get to kill other people over it. The film sides with those who are moving past grief or dealing with pain responsible - Steve with Peggy, Wanda who now works with the Avengers despite her loss, Sam who is dealing with Riley’s death – and against those whose grief perpetuates the cycle of violence (Tony, Zemo, and to some extent, T’Challa.) And so the key figure of the film IMO is T’Challa: in my view, the civil war is over and it’s T’Challa who called it; T’Challa calls the war for Steve by deciding that he will not perpetuate violence on others even though he has been wounded and orphaned. His manpain does not justify further violence. I mean, hoo-fucking-ray. Batman, you are a GROWN ASS MAN. LOTS OF PEOPLE HAVE LOST FAMILIES TO VIOLENCE. That is terrible and needs to be stopped, but it doesn’t make you special and it does not make your pain worse than other people’s pain. (Footnote: this is why we have had to eliminate Robin, because Robin had the EXACT SAME TRAGEDY as Batman and is cheerful and sane and thinks about others a lot of the time.) And in the Robin context, I think that’s the actual importance of Peter Parker: there ARE children in this film, and those children are NOT YOU, Tony Stark! The part of 14 year olds will be played by actual 14 year olds. Just as nobody in their right mind would entrust Batman with a “ward” anymore because Batman’s such a fucking child himself, the presence of Peter (and to some extent, Scarlet Witch) functions as a silent plea for the grownups to be GROWNUPS PLEASE.

4) I think there were two missteps in the film; small ones. The first was “late” on the kiss – I was actually fine with the kiss, partly for the Sam-Bucky reaction (which, as I’ve been discussing with people, works both as dudebro “right on” and also as a Bucky I’ve written a lot: a queer Bucky who always sort of pathetically wants bi-Steve to find love) and partly because, hey, Sharon BROUGHT HIM HIS SHIELD BACK and you know, I’d kiss her for that, I really would. The “late” is tone-deaf both because it undermines the Steve/Peggy which was so beautifully executed, and also because “late” has no meaning in the timeline of Sharon-Steve, and mostly because it trivializes Sharon: Steve should like Sharon, if he likes Sharon, because she is AWESOME AND MORAL AND TRUE. The other small mis-step, IMO, was the eulogy of exposition—not the “you move” but the clunkily executed “this is why I didn’t reveal myself before now” thing—it felt like the exposition it was.

5) Last, okay, if it were up to me as a fanfiction writer, I wouldn’t have refrozen Bucky, if only because it’s the fucking SGA problem all over again: at the end of SGA, they brought Atlantis back to earth, so if you wanted to write post-canon fic, you first had to MOVE THE CITY TO ANOTHER GALAXY. I’m a bit groany that we now have to put Bucky in the metaphorical microwave for three minutes before any post-canon story, but I will say that they gave us no shortage of ways to do that – mind stones, trigger words, advanced Wakandan tech, Scarlet Witch, a Virtual Reality Simulator for dealing with emotional trauma—I mean, fuck, fresh plums might do it for all I know. I’m also thinking that it might be useful to have an “epilogue non-compliant” tag for when you just don’t fucking want to deal with it. THAT SAID, artistically I think it was interesting: first because it bookends the film with Bucky being frozen and unfrozen, second because of what it says about responsibility and choice and not wanting to fight, and the way it bonds Steve and T’challa. But I’d’ve been happier seeing the end of the movie as the end of the movie.

