What is this? Is it a 2 and a half hour prelude to another movie? Because it sure feels like that to me. It’s the nadir of this recent trend in blockbusters to split a movie into two halves. Because, though this is ostensibly a Captain America film, what it really feels like is just the opening act of the next Avengers movie.

I must say, I actually chuckled a few times during that Avengers battle, when they were only sort of fighting each other and throwing one-liners around. I was having fun. Unfortunately, it was utterly meaningless and the stakes were zero. Why? Because we knew nobody would die.

SPOILERS!

Even when War Machine hurt himself, we knew he wouldn’t seriously hurt himself. And if he did, so what? He’s a minor character. We know none of the major players (and, wow, are there ever a lot of them now) are in trouble at any time.

The world-threatening stakes of the previous Avengers movies are gone, and even the lower stakes of the previous Captain America movies are gone. Instead, we have a threat to the Avengers themselves, which would work if I gave a shit. Unfortunately, I don’t. There are too many of them at this point, and I know they’ll all come through anyway. It’s the peril of this cinematic universe: the stakes are so damn big that they can’t be small any more. I just don’t care if the Avengers break up. (Why did I watch the movie then!?!)

This is, for me, the worst of these so far. Just twiddling of thumbs until the next event film. Sigh.

4/10

• Directed by Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
• Produced by Kevin Feige
• Screenplay by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
• Based on Captain America by Joe Simon, Jack Kirby
• Starring:
  • Chris Evans
  • Robert Downey Jr.
  • Scarlett Johansson
  • Sebastian Stan
  • Anthony Mackie
  • Don Cheadle
  • Jeremy Renner
  • Chadwick Boseman
  • Paul Bettany
  • Elizabeth Olsen
  • Paul Rudd
  • Emily VanCamp
  • Tom Holland
  • Frank Grillo
  • William Hurt
  • Daniel Brühl
• Music by Henry Jackman
• Cinematography by Trent Opaloch
• Edited by Jeffrey Ford, Matthew Schmidt
• Production company: Marvel Studios
• Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• Release date: April 12, 201
• Running time: 147 minutes

  Country: United States

  Language: English

  Budget: $250 million

  Box office: $1.153 billion