Aside from possibly Star Wars, the biggest draw for attendees of Disney’s live-action presentation at this weekend’s D23 event was the chance to see something of Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War. And studio chief Kevin Feige – who introduced both Anthony Mackie and Chris Evans on stage – did not disappoint, bringing a raw but raucous and action-packed sizzle reel with him.
After some usual banter from Mackie and Evans, who joked that they’d learned iMovie and edited the footage on the plane over from Germany, where the film is finishing up its shoot, Feige cued up the clip. (We’d caution here that there are spoilers ahead for anyone looking to watch the movie without knowing anything in advance).
The footage began with part of a sequence seemingly taken from early in the movie, showing Captain America (Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Falcon (Mackie) in strategic positions on a building scoping out a suspicious van. Falcon uses Redwing – a bird in the comics, but here a high-tech drone – to scan the vehicle surreptitiously, discovering that it’s heavier than it should be, and the driver is armed. Turns out it’s Crossbones, formerly known as Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo), who we met in The Winter Soldier, but has been seriously upgraded since Cap dropped a building on his face (he’s still bitter about what happened the last time they met). The team leaps into action, but Crossbones has his own tricks, including a magnetic bomb he attaches to Cap’s shield. We see Black Widow taking down opponents with her usual flare and Falcon flying, dodging and fighting.
Cap eventually gets the better of Crossbones, but then Rumlow drops knowledge of Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Cap’s oldest pal, thought dead, but long since turned into an assassin and the target of a manhunt by our hero since his last solo outing...
From there we go to a lot of clips from different points in the movie, with a vast array of characters including Vision (Paul Bettany – in a tailored suit!), Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther in costume and the blend of new and old that is Martin Freeman’s still-mysterious character and William Hurt’s Thaddeus Ross, who appears to have been promoted from general to secretary of state. “The world owes you an unpayable debt,” Ross says as images of past heroism play onscreen. “While a great many people see you as a hero, there are some who prefer the word 'vigilante'. People are afraid.” Cap is indignant. “This job, we try to save as many as we can. Sometimes that doesn’t mean everybody,” he says.
There are images of Bucky captured by unknown forces, a moment of reunion for Cap and his old friend, and, as expected, more than one conversational showdown between Cap and one Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr. “Sometimes I want to punch you in your perfect teeth,” says Stark to Cap at one point. Language! Oh, and a moment where Hawkeye and Black Widow are in opposition, which is an interesting shift to their dynamic, especially without Loki’s mind-warping wiles to take the blame.
A definite highlight is the first meeting between Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang (AKA Ant-Man) and some of the Avengers in, seemingly, a car park. “Captain America...” Scott says, shaking his idol’s hand. And shaking it some more. And some more. “I’m shaking your hand too long,” he says. He also sees Scarlet Witch. “I know you, too!” Scott says. “You’re great! I want to say I know you know a lot of super people, so thinks for thanking of me,” he says. Beat. “Thanks for thinking of me...” There’s also a moment of him reaching out to almost squeeze Cap’s biceps. It’s good stuff.
The crowd lapped it all up, and if this had been Comic-Con, we’re fairly certain there would have been a demand to see it again. But we got it just the once. Despite the early nature of it all, Civil War looks both intense and a lot of fun, a blend of** The Winter Soldier**'s style with the bigger scope of an Avengers film, yet without feeling overstuffed (so far). With Joe and Anthony Russo sharing the director’s chair, the movie will be out in the UK on April 29 next year.
Need a reminder of what else we know? Our Captain America: Civil War guide is a click away.