I’ve been joking with all my friends that I’m going to spoil the Civil War for them, then I say “Lee Surrenders and Lincoln dies.” But of course they aren’t talking about the American Civil War, they’re talking about Marvel’s latest movie: Captain America: Civil War. I will try not to give away any big spoilers, but in case you don’t want to see anything about the movie, just go watch it for yourself.
So, first impressions after the movie: wow a lot happened. This movie is over 2 hours long and there are so many characters now in this Marvel Universe, that it can be a bit hard to keep track of them all. I have to admit, I got a little lost with the villain in this movie. He didn’t have red skin, or a metal arm, so I didn’t always realize it was the same guy when he kept popping up in different places. But I think that was part of the point: villains aren’t always trying to take over the world. Sometimes, they’re just normal people who are reacting to their situation in the wrong way. One of the main themes in this film is revenge, which makes sense, I mean we are dealing with the Avengers here. But so many characters are dealing with the loss of someone they really cared about. Tony Stark’s parents and more specifically his mom, were killed when he was younger, one of Steve Rodger’s last friends Peggy Carter dies, a new character loses his father in a terrorist attack, and even our villain has lost his family.
But how the characters respond to this loss is varied. In Cap’s case, Peggy merely died in her sleep. She was old, it was her time. There’s nothing he could do. So he deals with her death in the best way. He goes to her funeral and moves on.
Tony seems to have moved on from his mother’s death, but this is because he doesn’t know who is responsible. He has nowhere to place blame, so he tries to just deal with the sense of loss with technology and recreating how he would have said goodbye to his mom. However, when he discovers who is responsible, he immediately thinks that person should pay, and tries to kill them.
Our villain has lost his entire family and blames the Avenger’s team for their role in it. Though it was not intentional, and the Avengers were trying to save lives, he still holds them responsible and decides to seek revenge by breaking up their team.
And our last character who is dealing with loss, or at least the last one I’m going to look at is the Black Panther. When he first loses his father, he reacts the same way as the villain and Tony: he wants revenge. He tries to kill the person who he blames for the attack, even though we eventually find out that person was framed. As he continues to seek the real cause of his father’s death, he eventually finds the villain. But instead of killing him, as he had unsuccessfully tired to do to the original suspect, Black Panther comes to a realization. Seeking revenge is not the answer, killing this person will not make everything better.
I love this message, especially as a Christian. I couldn’t help thinking of the Bible verse: “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the LORD.” (Romans 12:19) Seeking revenge is consuming and hurtful, not only to others, but to yourself. Jesus teaches us to instead forgive our enemies.
So anyway, this movie was fun, it had plenty of witty dialogue and cool action scenes. The characters were believable and enjoyable to watch. So I hope you enjoy watching this movie as well.
NovelSisters 