What It Is: Only the superhero movie that Marvel fans have been waiting for since Cap and Iron Man first shared the screen. Directed by the Russo brothers, Civil War is set to detail what happens when you try and force superheroes to publicly declare their identity. Why It'll Be Disappointing: Captain America: Civil War has so much potential. For a start, it's building on the strong foundation set up by Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Though that film wasn't without its flaws, it was one of the stronger entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and was received well by fans and critics. Not only that, but it's pretty much a mini-Avengers film, featuring appearances from not only Captain America and Iron Man, but Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Ant-Man and Hawkeye. Everything is set up to be wildly entertaining, but there's one thing that's going to cause major disappointment: Marvel doesn't have the guts to commit. In the comics books, the Civil War story is something of a tragedy, eventually culminating in the death of Steve Rogers. The only problem is, Marvel have repeatedly refused to kill off any of their main characters, resulting in cringe-worthy twists and miraculous survivals. The closest they've come is killing off a character in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, and that character was first introduced in the same film. Disney won't render a whole range of Captain America merchandise irrelevant, and so the profound power of the source material (and its follow up) will be substantially diminished. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVdV-lxRPFo One of the film's assets will almost certainly damage it, too. The Avengers films have a difficult enough time juggling a vast cast of characters, and those films are specifically planned to feature a huge number of people, so Civil War is likely to feel equally as muddled. Not only that, but the film has the incredibly difficult job of balancing a dozen prominent characters and introducing Spider-Man, who fans have been anticipating since it was revealed he'd be making his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut. Show too much of him, and it'll undoubtedly detract from the weightiness of Captain America and Iron Man's struggle, but show too little of him and fans will be annoyed. It's a film that demands dramatic weight that Marvel refuses to entertain, and a film so high-concept that it won't be able to keep track of all its constitute parts.
