I came out of the first viewing of Captain America: Civil War slightly disappointed because I expected more. With how much positive reviews it has received and how Marvel Studios actually gave critics their screening a month before the actual release date in the U.S., that says a lot.
I came out of the first viewing of Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice also slightly disappointed but I wasn't expecting as much from it. Full disclosure, I grew up with Marvel comic books but that doesn't mean I cannot be impartial. After all, one of my all-time favourite movies is The Dark Knight Rises. It achieved an entertainment value no other comic book movie was able to do ever.
But for Batman v Superman, I kind of was expecting to give it a score of 8/10 and I ended up with 7.5/10 after the initial viewing.
As for Civil War, with all that hype, I was hoping for 10/10 but ended up giving it 8.5/10. With how Helmut Zemo was written in with so much convenience, and with how little we saw of Vision and Scarlet Witch during the airport scene; I was very disappointed that this movie wasn't even close to perfection; and I even put off my second viewing for it for more than a week.
Maybe it was too much to ask, maybe my expectations were unrealistic.
I just watched Civil War a second time last night. And with all the expectations gone and letting the movie sink in, this second viewing was more enjoyable than the first. Vision, or the lack of, didn't bother me as much. The airport scene was still so enjoyable. I was able to appreciate the movie and the architecture of each fight sequence much more.
Even Zemo didn't bother me as much as it used to because there is a certain level of appreciation now that went into the writing too. To see how the writers, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, tie back the death of Tony Stark's parents in this movie; it was an ingenious move not just for a comic book movie but for movies in general.
And now as I recall the second viewing of Batman v Superman, the writing in that one was so much more inferior because I found even more holes and lazy writing in that script. Until today I can still ask people who have watched the movie, what were the motivations of Batman and Superman to fight each (without bringing in Lex Luthor) and they either cannot recall or hesitated.
And let's face it. Every reason you can give for the two to fight, none of them would be compelling enough to be believable.
Not that I'm comparing, but I guess I have to. The motivation behind each superhero in Civil War was much clearer. And that's what separates it from an okay superhero movie to just an awesome movie all around.
So, after having enough time to soak up both movies and their story-telling, I'm going to end this post with my new scores for them.
Even though I enjoyed the Doomsday fight, but with how Wonder Woman was written in and how I wholly disagreed with the way the movie ended, not to mention all the negatives spotted in my review, I'm going to drop this movie down to 6.5/10.
As for Civil War, I don't have to debate myself all that much and feel very comfortable to raise it to 9/10.
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