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Captain America: Civil War: Mini-review

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Chris Evans

Chris Evans is all smiles after looking at Captain America’s box office totals

BLess that two months ago, Warner Brothers pitted the two greatest heroes in the DC Comics universe against each other in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Not to be outdone, Disney and the Marvel superheroes have fired back, and the result is a knockout. Not only does Captain America: Civil War have many more superheroes than does its DC counterpart, it has something much more important: a sense of humor.

Civil War has a detailed and, at times, cumbersome plot that basically serves as a device to eventually pit most of the superheroes in the Marvel universe against each other. After several civilians are killed when Captain America (Chris Evans) stops terrorists in Africa from stealing a biological weapon, the United Nations wants to put the Avengers under its direct control. The Captain refuses, and when it later appears that his friend, the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), is responsible for a mass bombing, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) heads up a team of Avengers to bring the Soldier in, even if it means taking on Captain America to do so. 

Captain America: Civil War is divided in two roughly equal halves: brooding and fighting. The movie acknowledges the enormous amounts of collateral damage resulting from the finale showdowns in previous Marvel films, and several of the heroes, most notably Iron Man, are wracked with guilt about their involvement. But, much as in Batman v Superman, it’s hard for audiences to take this as anything other than a means to a spectacular end. And the end is truly spectacular, a terrific battle royal pitting a dozen heroes against each other in and above a commercial airport runway setting that conveniently allows them to toss jets at each other with no innocent bystanders in the middle. The two most noteworthy participants in the battle are a new, actually high-school-aged Spider-Man (Tom Holland), and an easygoing Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), who reconfigures his suit to turn himself into a giant. There’s a light touch to the showdown, and, indeed all the set pieces, as directors Anthony and Joe Russo keep the quips flying along with the fists in all the action scenes. Just as important, they made a wise choice in centering Captain America around the more optimistic and youthful appearing Evans rather than the more world-weary Downey. The movie still feels a bit bloated and slow moving at times, but Captain America: Civil War is easily the most effective and entertaining of the Marvel superhero ensemble movies. 
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In the Heart of the Sea: Mini-review

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Chris Hemsworth

Chris Hemsworth on dry land, not In the Heart of the Sea

C+At the heart of Ron Howard‘s In the Heart of the Sea is an often breathtaking, well-made film about 19th century whaling, nautical disaster, and survival under harrowing conditions. For some reason, however, Howard has seen fit to overload his cinematic vessel with numerous weak subplots and factual inaccuracies and, to top it off, a leaden performance by woefully miscast leading man Chris Hemsworth. As a result, the movie adds far too much baggage and nearly founders.

Heart of the Sea, based on an acclaimed non-fiction best seller by Nathaniel Philbrick, purports to be the story of the whaling ship Essex, which sank in the Galapagos Islands in 1820 after being rammed by a white sperm whale. A handful of survivors, including Captain George Pollard (Benjamin Walker) and First Mate Owen Chase (Hemsworth), were rescued from the ship’s whaling boats after spending over three months adrift. Chase’s account of the voyage inspired Herman Melville‘s Moby Dick. 

The actual story of the voyage of the Essex and its aftermath (only a portion of which Heart of the Sea recounts) is so fascinating that Howard had no need to embellish it. Indeed, his depiction of life on the whaler is quite powerful, especially the thrilling CGI effects work. Howard captures the excitement, danger, and cruelty of whaling, as the crew risks their lives in flimsy whaleboats trying to harpoon and slaughter the giant animals for the oil that can be obtained from their blubber. Despite having more than a single movie’s worth of great source material, Charles Leavitt‘s screenplay adds as much fiction to the tale as Melville did, but not nearly as well. Heart of the Sea  begins with and periodically returns to the historically inaccurate and completely unnecessary framing device of Herman Melville ( Ben Whishaw) persuading the supposed last survivor of the Essex, cabin boy Thomas Nickerson (played by Tom Holland during the voyage and Brendan Gleeson as an older man), to tell his story. Later, the movie adds, then conveniently drops, a bitter disagreement over seamanship between Chase and Pollard and a cover-up by the ship’s owners of what actually occurred on the voyage. These extraneous subplots merely serve as time-consuming distractions and highlight Chris Hemsworth’s lame attempts at both a New England accent and serious acting. Watch In the Heart of the Sea for its first-rate action sequences; if you want a first-rate dramatic treatment of the same source material, read Moby Dick instead.  
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