Captain America Civil War

If you are really into superhero movies then you must have seen the newest “Captain America: Civil War” trailer by now even though it only came out two days ago on March 10. It has already amassed over 30 million views and climbing. If you haven’t seen it yet, take a gander by clicking the video above. The Civil War part of the title comes from the fact that this movie will see superheroes pitted against other superheroes with the main attraction being Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) vs. Captain America (Chris Evans). If you know the movies well, there is a nice little eye wink to the first Captain America movie thrown in the trailer too.

General Ross (William Hurt), who has not been seen since 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk” returns to the Marvel Universe in “Captain America: Civil War” to tell Captain America that he and his superhero friends must be put in check (actually, Tony Stark is the one who says it, but that is the message the General is conveying after showing clips from the first two Avenger movies and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”) Steve Rogers apologizes, but states if he sees a situation going south, he can’t ignore it and this different view point is what sets off the war between them.

“Captain America: Civil War” is based on the Marvel comic book story line that took place just prior to the first Iron Man movie. The situation in the story was quite different as the United States issued the Super Hero Registration Act, which stated that all superheroes must register with the government along with their secret identities. Secret identities is a big deal in the comic book world, but has not been an issue in the Marvel movies since the world already knows the identities of everyone. The tag line for the comic book story was, “Choose your side.” That was meant for the readers as well as the heroes in the universe and there were reasons to pick one side or another.

It was easy to understand how two factions broke out in the comic book world. If you were a superhero who had a secret identity to protect, how do you know it wouldn’t accidentally get “leaked” and put you and your loved ones in danger? Here, in “Captain America: Civil War” based on the above trailer, the reason for the divide does not seem as clear cut. First of all, is the government asking that the superheroes should have just leaved well enough alone? Should they just let New York get invaded by aliens or Ultron to wipe out all man kind? It’s also quite odd seeing Tony Stark taking the side he is on considering he always say himself as someone who “did not play well with others.” Can this movie really bring an audience in on a different concept? If not, while we all can enjoy the action scenes, we would not be as involved if we can’t believe the story. Perhaps there is more to the story than we are seeing in the trailer. We’ll know for sure on May 6 when the movie opens everywhere.