Hiccuping Through : Hichki | Review

You’ve seen this kind of movie before, in Hollywood as well as Bollywood. It’s the movie where someone enters the lives of a team of rebelliously careless underdogs to turn them around for the better - Coach Carter and Chak De! India to name a few. However where these movies dealt with a team overcoming their personal shackles particularly in a sport, Hichki gives a larger package which is both inspirational, and depictive of the realities in the Indian education system as well as the class differences that seemingly start to permeate into society from the inception point which is a school.

Naina Mathur (Rani Mukerji) is a young Mumbai woman who has Tourettes Syndrome (Go Google) and yearns to become a teacher more than anything in life, but is rejected nearly every opportunity to do so due to the speech impediment that is caused by her neurological problem. Eventually she lands a job at her alma mater where in exigent circumstances she becomes the in-charge of a class comprising a motley crew of slum kids who despite having gained admission into the school due to the Right to Education guaranteed by the Indian constitution, do not receive the same brand of attention or investment from the administration as their more socially privileged schoolmates, and are considered an extreme liability. The rest of the movie follows the journey of Naina and the kids towards achieving a semblance of success despite all obstacles and biases that come their way through social hurdles or personal misdirected energy.

Hichki is a top notch specimen of a commercial Bollywood film out to generate a social discussion while sensitising the audience with something new, which here is Naina’s Tourette’s Syndrome. It deals with class conflict that seemingly starts to establish itself from the nascent days of school; the concept of privilege and the resultant opportunities, both of which are probably not at par for 2 given people; the system of segregation of students into classrooms based on their academic performance – and packages all of them into a flowery Yash Raj product that despite a flurry of cheesy filmy instances, hits the sweet spot.

Neeraj Kabi and Shivkumar Subramaniam as Mr.Wadia and the school principal

The film does well by putting good actors in good roles too. Rani Mukerji gives an earnest performance as Naina Mathur, which might seem a bit too-sweet-to-be-true at times, but effective overall. Neeraj Kabi does a splendid job as Mr.Wadia, a polished co-teacher with Naina who is a stickler for orthodox methodologies of teaching and acts as the pseudo-antagonist of the film. Young talent that will blow you away are Harsh Mayar and Sparsh Khanchandani (Uttaran fame) as Aatish and Oru.

Verdict – 3  and a ½ out of 5 toots

Hichki isn’t absolutely hiccup-proof. It works on a familiar format, gives a familiar ending, but leaves a sensitive mark owing to a strong choice of subject and cast.   

Black Panther: Marvel's most grand product or Marvel's First Sociological Thesis?

Anyone feeling a bit nostalgic for some Magneto-Xavier love? Don’t worry! Marvel comes to the rescue packaging the good old X-Men fight-between-ideals story in a more world-relevant issue and throwing in a bit of monarchy and a whole lot of Africa into the mix. And wait, there’s a bit of James Bond and the Phantom as well (those who know it will see the connection).

And really though, it’s not at all bad. It might just be better than expected.

Wakanda as shown in the film.

So Marvel’s much awaited Black Panther came out this week, with a nearly all-black cast, with the exceedingly revolutionary concept of Afro-futurism, where we get to peek into life at Wakanda, a hypothetical and fictional African nation which is way more advanced than the rest of the world that shares a common Imperialist history, due to the availability of a resource (the metal Vibranium) that allowed them to leap - technologically and societally - ahead of other civilisations by several decades. To maintain their superior status without getting involved in the world’s chaos, this nation uses special technology to hide in plain sight and disguise itself as a third-world country, disconnected from world politics since the beginning of the Time of Man.

_________________________

             ...Black Panther is a principally commercial film from the Marvel banner with cliche’ film troupes sprinkled all over it – a monarchy in trouble, a fight for the throne between warring relatives, and the entire world somehow in danger; many might even find some fleeting similarities with The Lion King in terms of the general plot movement.

But that doesn’t mean that the film doesn’t have its merits...

_________________________

The film follows straight after the events of Captain America: Civil War, with Prince T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) gearing up to take over the Wakandan throne as well as the mantle of the Black Panther, a superhuman Wakandan protector, after the death of his father King T’Chaka. In the process of apprehending an old enemy from Civil War - Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) – he comes across Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) a claimant to the throne with a radically different idea on how Wakanda should exist and what it should strive toward.

Black Panther is a principally commercial film from the Marvel banner with cliche’ film troupes sprinkled all over it – a monarchy in trouble, a fight for the throne between warring relatives, and the entire world somehow in danger; many might even find some fleeting similarities with The Lion King in terms of the general plot movement.

But that doesn’t mean that the film doesn’t have its merits.

Erik Killmonger (Right) challenges T'Challa (Left) for
the Throne of Wakanda

Unlike the typical fight-for-the-crown stories, there is no unilateral device of good v. bad in the movie, like the X-Men films. Marvel does a repetitively good job with the character development of its villains (except for a couple of 2D villains in the past (Obadiah Stane in Iron Man, that elf guy from Thor 2, Blonsky and General Ross in The Incredible Hulk)) and it shows here again with Erik Killmonger. The audience gets to sympathize with both the antagonist and the protagonist based on their respective back-stories and no character is an absolute shade of black or white. Shades of Character! CHARACTER!!

The film is not flimsy, and has it’s layers. Other than a good villain, we see the development of a king and the soon-to-be newest addition to the Avengers in their fight against Thanos in the upcoming Infinity War. The film starts with exploration into T’Challa’s relationship with his late father, the seemingly all-good, benevolent Mufasa-like king who taught his son the ropes of being a king, seemingly so benign he could be called a god, but as the film advances we see a deeper spiritual connection between father and son, through which the new king gets to learn that his seemingly great father made mistakes too, mistakes that could seemingly shatter the pedestal on which he placed his father, and mistakes through which he learns that however big or great the position of a man may be, in the end he is still a man, who must stay as close to the ground as any other. We see a mirror image of the same in Erik Killmonger who, though fighting for an arguably noble cause and possessing the elements of a far-reaching king, might not eventually possess the elements befitting a good man. Also the film reasonably answers audience’s questions regarding the source and reach of the Black Panther’s superhuman powers, which had been left unanswered in Civil War.

__________________________________                ...Marvel does a repetitively good job with the character development of its villains  and it shows here again with Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan)...

__________________________________

In Black Panther, we get to see an amazing conceptualisation of Afrofuturism and get to imagine how the African continent might have turned out as a society with a similar or greater kind of advantage over their Imperial oppressors, and we see this take effect in their clothes, architecture, symbolism and it’s anything but spectacular. We see a good connect between the design of these elements in the film and the contemporary comic book depictions, and hats off to the entirety of the film’s costume and VFX team for providing this visual feast.

Clockwise to Center - General Okoye (Danai Gurira),
M'Baku (Winston Duke), Ramonda (Angela Bassett),
Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), Shuri (Letitia Wright),
Zuri (Forest Whitaker), Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o),
W'Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya) and T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman)

Then we have the biggest thing to speak about – the all black cast! For probably the first time, we have a film that builds upon and moves forward from its roots in the ‘blaxploitation’ subgenre, showcasing a story with a total of two white characters, and an advanced, rich society where blacks are not a minority but the superior people; not the criminal on the run, but the police force chasing him, complete with their own MI5-ish intelligence organisation and cool gadgets and their own king for a James Bond; and yet succeeding as both a mainstream universally awaited comic book film - catering to the millions of Marvel fans the world over by providing a neat standalone entry into the MCU’s continuity with an extremely likeable and kickass superhero – as well as a sociological concept that sets out to tap into a completely new audience who get a major superhero/action hero that they can actually relate with, after nearly a century of filmmaking history.

Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue

Coming to the performances, before we move on to the principal cast, we must concede to the energy-ball that is Andy Serkis. Serkis in playing Ulysses Klaue provides a haunting yet comically entertaining rendition of a South African black-market arms dealer, and easily one of the most welcome performances in the film, with a neat South African accent and a dangerously eccentric personality. As for the remainder of the cast, it was a commendable performance from the entirety, especially from the principal leads i.e. Boseman, Jordan, Wright, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia (T’challa’s ex-lover and a Wakandan warrior) and Danai Gurira as Okoye (the leader of the Dora Milaje). We could have expected better from Angela Bassett who plays Ramonda, the queen-mother of Wakanda, and somehow fails to shed her American persona completely and sound more locally African like her co-stars.

VERDICT: 4 () out of 5 toots of The Bugle

Black Panther seeks to be much more than a simple cliche’d popcorn flick with an all black-cast. And despite all the familiar elements, there is eventually something new and absolutely lovely. 

P.S. - Throwback to the time we saw Black Panther first in Civil War

Crush and Throw: Death Note | Review

Death Note had taken the anime world by storm when it released way back in 2003. Quickly gaining a cult following, and a massive approval rating of nearly 99% on nearly every review aggregator website, it was about time a film adaptation was made, and if its to gain international viewership, who better than America to produce it, and who better than Netflix to distribute it? And who better than a seasoned viewer to <YAWN> through the entire thing? Yeah, you get my drift.

Borrowing from the original story of the Manga/anime series, a genius high school student and recluse by the name of Light Turner finds a book titled ‘Death Note’ dropped by Ryuk, a Shinimagi (Japanese demon of death) with which one can kill anyone on the planet by just writing his name and mode of death on the book. Having misguided yet seemingly noble intentions, Light adopts the identity of Kira, and goes on a murderous spree, killing everyone and anyone he deems to be ill-fitted to exist in society, safely from the comfort of his desk. He enjoys his anonymity for some time, until an enigmatic detective ‘L’ takes up the challenge of revealing Kira’s true identity.

The original Death Note manga 

A good, just thing to do when evaluating such a movie, is to see how well it connects with a viewer being introduced to the story for the first time, and hasn’t seen the original manga, because an adaptation is rarely successful in keeping up with the standards set by the original and accordingly expected by the fanboys.  Death Note falls flat on its face, either way. Too much story has been tried to be cramped in between 1 hour and 40 minutes of runtime, and the result is a speeding train missing nearly all points of coherence. I know I said we should do otherwise, but if we talk about the original series, there is enough creative content to stretch out to at least 2 well engineered movies. The way the original manga skirted along the thin line between good and evil, moderate and extreme, eventually making us side with the conflicted murderer, is completely absent from the movie.

Nat Wolff as Light Turner

Nat Wolff, known for his performances in Paper Towns and The Fault in Our Stars plays the angsty teen, Light Turner. Where playing a good-natured, normally behaving boy seemed right up his alley, playing a self-righteous murderer doesn’t. Most of his performance is plastic, and he seems like the stereotypical weak teenager who’s angry at his father, gets beat up by bullies, and speaks at a flat single scale unless acting out, and there’s a LOT of acting out. Weird, random acting out. Rather than the genius his character was supposed to look like, he comes off more as a meticulous, socially awkward boy trying to find kicks in murder.

Ryuk, voiced by Willem Dafoe 

Willem Dafoe voices Ryuk, the Shinimagi who is the antagonist of the film and the series. A bored demon of death, he passes on his notebook to anyone and merely enjoys the show. Dafoe is probably my favourite choice for a negative character – the man’s voice has this natural creepy touch, it couldn’t work more perfectly. And he was the only redeeming factor in the character of Ryuk, a cheap CGI rendition of the original saga’s primary villain, who turns out to be more of a Sesame Street stock character, than the demon apathetic to any concerns of man and his world.

One aspect the film does fine is its cinematography and establishing the mystique around the detective ‘L’ played by Keith Stanfield, who appeared last in the Jordan Peele-directed film ‘Get Out’. He does fine. Just fine.

Verdict: 1 and a ½ / 5 toots of the bugle

You don’t need a Death Note to be able to passively kill someone. Show them this movie, and boredom will do it.

Revenge of Birdman! - Review of Spiderman Homecoming

“After the blazing success of Birdman, Michael Keaton returns to don the wings and become the

feathery super character once more, with this sequel...”

“Wait, what is this?”

“What? It’s the review for Birdman 2.”

“There’s... no such movie. What’re you smoking?”

“But Michael Keaton plays this winged bird-like character, in New York City? So I thought, naturally... Birdman, you know...”

“It’s Vulture, goddammit!! And it’s the villain in SPIDERMAN: HOMECOMING, a SUPERHERO film in the MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE!! Get your head out of your bugle! Sheesh!”  

“... My bad.”

 

So Kevin Feige presents us with the 16th installment under the MCU with a completely new film on a superhero we’ve... seen before. 2 of them, as a matter of fact.

So... what’s new and improved over the predecessors?

EVERYTHING! <almost>

Like we all know, Peter Parker is a high school student who was bitten by the radioactive spider and became extra sticky and whatnot, and eventually dons the red and blue to prevent crime in New York City. But being a high school student in the 2010s, especially in the super-advanced Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character and his world needed some upgrades. Technical, and cultural. Being a millennial high school student, Peter Parker has finally been tailormade as one.

The film starts with the video chronicle created by Peter Parker (Tom Holland) while fighting #TeamCap in Civil War, self-bragging about his adventures after being temporarily being recruited by Tony Stark, up until the point where Tony drops him home in Queens with a high-tech spidey suit with the veiled promise that he ‘might’ be called upon to be an Avenger. The rest of the story covers his journey as a high-school student who must try and fit his alter ego somewhere between his ordinarily complex life.

Being one of the most successful superhero names of all time, and the company mascot for Marvel, AND being a original member of the Avengers, it was about time that Marvel inducted the character into their current Avenger universe. Where Spiderman: Homecoming rises above its predecessors, is realising and poking fun at some of the most obvious questions that have been asked by the prudent fans since a long time, such as –

·         How effective a superhero would he be in the suburbs, where there is an obvious lack of tall buildings to swing from?

·         How effective a superhero would you be on a boat, WHERE there is an obvious lack of any structures whatsoever to swing from?

·         How the heck is he able to avoid all sorts of nosey questions about being missing without explanation from crucial social situations?     

The most commendable feature of this movie is that at no single point, does it dwell. Like I said, it starts off by the video chronicle by Peter, and the rest of it is told in the same way as a teenager verbally recounting his far-fetched experiences after an exciting day, and though the same tends to get boring, it works extremely well here because we’re able to grasp the visuals of that story, with no unnecessary extra detail, and moving on with rambunctious energy toward the next sequence. Sometimes this pace is too fast for comfort, but it works mostly.

The narrative and the characters are like a sitcom at so many places, they could actually rename this movie as “Spidey and Friends”. Marisa Tomei as May (no more ‘Aunt’, because younger and hotter), Zendaya as Michelle Jones and Tony Revolori as Flash Thompson provide quick, random and wacky comic relief reminiscent to the side characters in some television sitcom.

Fans get introduced to a new side of Tony, who seems to be nurturing a mentor-protege relationship with Peter, who he can’t simply drop back into his world upto his own devices, after using his help in Civil War, and knowing the possibilities and extent of Peter’s Powers, and the situations the latter could find himself stranded in without the proper training and guidance of a veteran (not that Tony himself is a golden example, but anyhow).

Getting to the new Spiderman, Tom Holland, all praises fall short to express the good time that this guy provided as the titular character. The young English actor and dancer completely drowns himself into the character Spiderman, quite literally, performing nearly all the stunts and action sequences himself, and having fun at his job with boisterous, energetic and youthful appeal. To be able to steal the show surrounded by a cast of industry veterans is a feat that requires no validation.

Speaking about the villain, Birdman... sorry, ‘Vulture’ who is quite aptly named, considering the fact that he literally lives off the alien and robotic scraps from the battles involving the Avengers in New York (Avengers, 2012) and Sokovia (Age of Ultron, 2015) that he salvages and sells as high-tech black-market weapons (to street thugs?), Michael Keaton looks good as the same. Though his performance more-than-often verges on textbook-comic-book-supervillain, he possesses a natural element of intimidation that works pretty well, particularly in the scenes involving him and Peter. His characterisation is quite spot-on as it combines the stereotypical comicbook sense of evil, but lacking the megalomaniacal attitude, and having the grounded reasonability of Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn (Spiderman, 2002).

Additional talent includes Jennifer Connolly who voices Karen, the Artifical Intelligence in Peter’s suit.

<FUN FACT: Jennifer Connolly is the wife of Paul Bettany, who voiced J.A.R.V.I.S. and played the Vision>

VERDICT: 3  and a half/5 toots of the bugle

Keep hangin' in there, Pedro!

Marvel Studios maintains its impeccably premium track record with Spiderman: Homecoming. With a wee bit room for growth.

P.S. As is usual with any Marvel movies, you don't want to miss the end-credit cookie by Captain America! At. Any. Cost. 

Suicide Squad: A Lesson in genius marketing, and suicidal storytelling

When you – hell, the whole world - wait for something for over a year, you expect it to be sky-blazin’ amazing. Suicide Squad was riding on a zeppelin of expectations. Shame, that it had to crash and burn the way it did. Time for an autopsy of the most highly anticipated comic book film of the decade.

Let’s start with a disclaimer - Suicide Squad is actually a decent time spent at the theatre. It has all the elements of a quintessential summer action flick – a looming apocalypse, high octane gun-toting action sequences, a hot girl, Will Smith and general Hollywood stupidity. Plus, it has cameos by Batman and the Flash to boot. But then again, this isn’t some brawny ‘Murican film we’re talking about here, because if we wanted that, Bruce Willis is still alive and kicking ass all Yippee Ki-Yay. Director and writer David Ayer has written stuff like 'Training Day' and 'Fury'. But then he even wrote the farce that was 'Sabotage' starring Schwarzenegger, so my bets weren't really on him.

Frankly, if the movie could be described in 2 words, they’d be ‘Stupid’ and ‘Superficial’.

The film starts off post the death of Superman in Dawn of Justice. There’s little that the trailers left to the imagination of the viewers with regards to the plot – Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), a high-ranking U.S. government official assembles a covert team of ‘Bad Guys’ (like there’s actually a category like that) called Task Force X to execute dangerous life-threatening missions where if successful, the members would be given time off of their sentences. However, if they fail or try to escape, they’d be killed through ‘nanite explosives’ implanted in their necks (Hence the name Suicide Squad). The members are Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Digger Harkness a.k.a. Captain Boomerang, Killer Croc, Enchantress, El Diablo, and Slipknot led by Colonel Rick Flag.

Apart from the Joker and Batman, this is the first time any of the characters are appearing on screen. So one would actually expect some introduction into their pasts, something more than a two-line snippet, something DC botched up grandly to save up on the length of the movie, and something which if shown a bit more in detail, could have provided much more depth to it. 

I suppose this is how the studio decided upon the intro sequence -

“This is Harley Quinn. Used to be a psychiatrist, fell in love with the Joker, went dangerously mad. Now candidate for Task Force X.”

“Okay. How’d she fall in love with that psychopath? Could you show a bit more of..”

“No we ain’t got time. We got 4 more to present here. NEXT.”

“No I know that, but still, you could offer some detail into their...”

“NEXT!!!”

Without their proper story, the star attraction of the film, i.e. the bad guys that are going to do some good, just fall limp. The film trailers were more sympathetic to their identities rather than the film itself.

Without giving any spoilers, I can say that the entire film was actually about Amanda Waller sending in this Squad to cover up for some major ‘oopsies’ she pulled along the way. ‘Oopsies’ that could well result in global destruction. And it’s actually fine. It’s a pretty spot on portrayal of the ambiguity of the intentions that people in power profess.

Speaking of power and supervillains, where were the likes of Batman and Wonder Woman all this while? It would have been pretty sensible if they’d bumped into the Squad in the midst of this entire charade. But no, not one Batarang flying anywhere close to where it was actually and reasonably expected.

That was about the story. Coming to the characters, special appreciation is due to Margot Robbie for her maniacal portrayal of Harley Quinn. Be it the crazy laughs, the unpredictable insane antics, or the PDA with the Joker, she pulls it pretty much down to a T. But even she gets suppressed in the general noise of the movie and the lack of a solid back-story justifying her character transition, and some might even agree that her character’s been over-sexualised at numerous instances.

Will Smith as Deadshot does what he knows how to do best – be Will Smith, and I can’t complain. He’s the sanest member of the squad, which is otherwise mostly a motley crew of ‘antisocial freaks’ as very aptly put by squad leader Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman). Thankfully for him, his character has received marginally extra attention which helps to establish his humanity better, basically making him the pseudo-mascot of the squad.

Someone who really surprised me was Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang. Judging his previous flat performances that include ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’, and ‘Terminator: Genisys’, it is quite a treat watching him as the comic, edgy and loony boomerang expert Digger Harkness. He and Margot Robbie are the true embodiments of the 'crazy' element of the movie.

And now onto the Star Disappointment of Suicide Squad. I present to you the Joker.

For all those in line for a monumental Jared Leto performance, burn your tickets. Firstly, the Joker is not a lead attraction; he is merely in the film because Harley Quinn is. The promotions of the film have been riding on Mistah J and Leto’s star value, when the truth is that he’s ornamental, ordinary, artificial and not-even-galactically close to the hype. All the while I was thinking, “This is what Leto came up with after his methodical ‘deep dive’ into the role? An amateur in Improv class could have cooked that up!” Talk about doing justice to Heath Ledger.

Gotta give it to the studio though, rarely has a film received the level of marketing and promotion that Suicide Squad was subjected to. What with all the trailers, accompanied by tracks like Bohemian Rhapsody and Ballroom Blitz; a kickass soundtrack featuring original songs from names like Skrillex, Rick Ross, Imagine Dragon, Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, and Twenty One Pilots;s and a year’s worth of PR. So despite all the shred-by-shred analysis into the structure of the film, one can bet good money that Suicide Squad might even cross BvS in terms of revenue. 

VERDICT - 2/5 stars

DC is following an awkward trajectory with their films, which seek to explore substance, in a grim manner sticking true to the comics’ roots, but get tangled up in messy plot-lines, restricted time frames resulting in a pace faster than a bullet train, and a vision for the future of the DCEU which seems to neglect the needs of their current projects.

Suicide Squad is a stylish testament that there is actually something called ‘excess promotion’. Despite all that , nothing can take the spotlight away from the fact the future of the DCEU seems pretty bleak. 

How Civil War is the Quintessential MCU film and not : Op-Ed Article

<WARNING : SPOILERS AHEAD>

Oh Captain! My Captain!! I’m on #TeamIronMan. Yeah, since the latter half of the past year, this and the #teamCap hashtag has been trending on the entire bloody internet. Way to build up steam for the grand opening. With memes, jokes, tweets and the hotlot making the rounds, Captain America: Civil War opened to some roaring fanfare, albeit late, in the Indian market.

Through this piece, I am not trying to appraise the Russo brothers in any out-of-the-way manner. I believe the tweets and facebook posts have done enough of that. Whatever I wish to state, and any opinions regarding the Russos, shall be substantiated through the elucidations of this post.  

Civil War is the most serious and matured entry of Marvel till date (after Jessica Jones and Daredevil), in all fronts possible. After the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, and a mission against Crossbones that went sideways, the Avengers are obligated to sign the Sokovia accords, an agreement which would take away their autonomy, and screen the situations that require their presence. This divides the team into two factions, one pro-accords and the other against, led by Tony Stark and Steve Rogers respectively. Add to that, a conspiracy by a victim of the Avenger’s past exploits and the presence of Bucky Barnes a.k.a. the Winter Soldier, worsens the team fabric.

Civil War is the typical Marvel film, with more age and more wisdom added to the mix, despite defaulting in numerous instances in the rather comical slapstick-ish way typical of Marvel (Note: Usage of the word ‘typical’ twice should denote the weight of this statement). The film wins sweet points in performances, story (most of it at least), character development, and the political realism that it enters.

The film is basically centering around the polar change in the outlooks of Captain America and Iron Man. Cap’n is still the same old ‘Murican soldier, ‘who probably can’t live without a war’ as so aptly put by Ultron, but time and experience have brought out a new facet of his patriotism to the forefront: one by which he is ready to forsake any chains of order (which he used to be the embodiment of) to be able to protect the Earth as per his self-righteous terms, as well as his old friend who’s apparently innocent as his activities were being controlled by the rogue organisation HYDRA. We witness a metamorphosis in Rogers’ identity, from a soldier, to a symbol of structure and order, to an insurgent who believes that giving away the Avengers’ autonomy under Oversight would result in the failure of the very purpose of their existence.

On the other hand, Tony Stark faces a completely new angle in life. We see a bit of the old Tony return from the first Iron Man film, who after facing the ground reality of his weapons industry had shut it down in hopes of making the world a better place. After witnessing the aftermath of New York and Sokovia, Tony starts doubting the very autonomy that Rogers seems to uphold, and believes that the Avengers, like any other government entity require some sort of regulation, and this signs to the accords. Unlike the usual Tony Stark that the Marvel films have us used to, Civil War presents us with a much more calculative, much more pragmatic Tony, one who is ready to adapt to survive as well as develop, as an individual and a team.

The Stark-Rogers turmoil couldn’t be a more beautiful picture. Over their years together, the Cap’n and Iron Man have reached a spot, where their collective ideology has become similar, with a few still opposing facets. It’s like their 2 personalities trapped in 1 body, hashing it out to see whose definition of right and wrong is valid.

Point of interest: In terms of story structure, one can actually spot some striking similarities between Civil War and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – 

Both Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne have gained considerable experience over their years of practiced vigilantism (Tony lesser than Bruce though) (Both the experience and the v, that has led them to become rather precautious, especially with their superior counterparts i.e. Rogers and Clark Kent respectively.

Both the films are building up to a master plan on a galactic level by an alien overlord, i.e. Thanos with his infinity stones, and Darkseid as was seen in Batman’s nightmare (for those who couldn’t catch up). 

Both films’ villains are secretly sowing discord between the 2 lead superheroes who hash it out, and then reconcile later.

Both Iron Man and Batman’s parents, specifically their mothers, are key parameters governing the turn of events in both the movies.

And last but not the least, both films feature a deadly damsel having a mysterious past, bridging the two lead characters (Black Widow and Wonder Woman). 

It’s as if this film was a reply to all those people making the Teletubbies Analysis between the MCU and the DCEU.

I mean, seriously. It’s rather uncanny. And to think DoJ performed rather poorly in the market. Seems like some sort of classroom favouritism, this. No?

Notwithstanding what’s about to follow, Civil War was a great entry by the Russo brothers, who already had the gem that was Captain America: The Winter Soldier in their kitty. Many raised the question that 'Why is this a Captain America film and not an Avengers film? What's the difference?' The difference lies in the principal point of view that the story piggybacks upon, one that is professed through the eyes of a man forged from raw patriotism, compassion, and self-righteousness in the face of harrowing odds 

Some points in this movie though, could really get red spots in the otherwise cool film. Leading the array is the famous Airport fight sequence between #TeamCap and #TeamIronMan at Leipzig.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a good fight. A damn good choreographed one, at that. But in the otherwise serious, mature presentation that Civil War was, and is expected to be considering it’s a ‘Captain America’ movie and not an Avengers movie, it was rather shoddy.

Why in the world are Spiderman and Ant-Man being pulled into a fight that doesn’t even concern them remotely? Scott Lang is a father trying to wean off his criminal past and paying child support for his incredibly sweet little daughter, and somehow he found that being in a brawl at a German airport (which is completely uninhabited, God knows why) fighting alongside a 70 year old science experiment is the solution to all his problems. And he wasn’t even being paid!!!

Same goes for Spiderman, but truly he wasn’t to blame. Really, Peter Parker’s a 19-year old kid. If I can shoot web out my hands and sorta kick ass, and Tony Stark offers me a nice suit, even I would accept the ticket to Germany, which begs the question: what the hell is wrong with Anthony Stark? You’re bringing a high school kid into your private skirmishes?? Just because he shoots white stuff that has high tensile strength??? Damn, and here I am writing paragraphs on how the guy’s matured and everything. WAY TO GO, TONY! <sic>

Keeping the rest of the character lineup aside, I must point out the elephant in the room that is Civil War - Black Panther. Possessing the quintissential anti-hero persona, Black Panther scratches and claws his way into Cooldom. I suppose it’s become a norm of sorts: You have an antihero? You want him to be cool and kick-ass? Give him claws and kitten that bitch up! Possibly the next best antihero after Wolverine and Deadpool, and the next coolest cat after Wolverine and Bagheera, I really don’t see why anyone wouldn’t like him. If anyone doesn’t though, that’s their problem. And his. And his claws' <RED ALERT>.

The typical Marvel film is guilty pleasure, the sort that even most critics aren’t able to run away from. Captain America: Civil War is that and more. Much more (This sounds bad, but is actually good). Through Civil War, Marvel proves its adaptability as well as its conviction, by creating a pragmatic, realistic story around the same goofball, never-seeming-that-serious superheroes, pitting them in a scenario involving real world problems like international law, sovereignty, treaties and agreements; problems that the earlier movies seemed to have a childish disregard for, without completely straying away from its comic spirit by providing a darker, more pessimistic portrayal. We saw how THAT worked out for DoJ (Not that I didn’t like it, but it sure is bad for business). 

The studio has also tried to set the film as a launchpad for future members of the Avengers' which may include a certain adamantium feline (rumours) (Control your breath), and though the intros may be a little fumbled up, it's actually turned out pretty good. Future sees good for all things MARVEL