4. There’s a way to do the death fake-out, and there’s a way not to do the death fake-out.
Of course, we’d really prefer they didn’t reprise the old “OMG [Character X] is dead!”/”OMG he’s totes not!” thing at all, but it seems to be so much part of the DNA of the blockbuster film (it’s not only superhero/comic book films that frequently return to this well) that it’s never going away entirely. So if we have to have one, can we have it done well? By which we mean: use a relatively minor character, say Rhodey/War Machine (Don Cheadle) so there’s an actual faint chance that he might really be dead, as opposed to pretending Superman — the co-title character, the original superhero, the more or less indestructible alien and the lead of his own franchise — has this one time truly met his match and is gone for good. Superman staying dead is even less likely than Jon Snow staying dead.
In the event, Rhodey isn’t dead either (shocker), but again ‘Civil War’ surprises: the scene of him attempting physio after essentially being crippled in the fall, somehow carries even more pathos and punch because he’s not dead. Rhodey living with the visible, life-altering consequences of the Cap vs Tony rift not only dials up the emotive connection, it occasions one of the best scenes in the film, and it’s just Cheadle and Robert Downey Jr. talking. For a movie about friendships sundered, it’s a lovely quiet moment of friendship reaffirmed.
In ‘Batman vs Superman’ not only is there none of this texture to the death fake-out, they have the nerve to leave the resurrection moment (the earth rising off the coffin) to the very end like it’s somehow gasp-worthy or provocative. Like it’s a cliffhanger. Like there’s any question as to what it might mean. This is not a Christopher Nolan movie, and that is not a spinning top.
5. Don’t tease a ginormous conflict that can be easily resolved by a single word.
We’ve mentioned our, erm dissatisfaction with the whole “Your mum’s Martha? My mum’s Martha! Let’s be friends” approach to conflict resolution in “Batman Vs Superman.” And with all due respect to those who suggest we missed the point and that the coincidence of the names is simply the catalyst for Superman remembering Batman’s humanity or somesuch, nope, not buying that for a second — he’s Superman, replete with Kryptonian wisdom and moral strength. He should not need such an idiotic signifier to remind him to stop pummeling some dude to death. As it plays in the film, had Thomas Wayne married a woman called Lucinda or Beverly or Eileen or literally any other name on the planet, Superman would have killed Batman.
The problem of course, is that if you have a giant conflict such as both these films tease in their very titles, somehow it has to resolve, and hey, might as well be wacky nomenclature that does it, right? Except — and this is where ‘Civil War’ really shines — it doesn’t have to resolve at all. Giving us our “Empire Strikes Back” ending, if not our “Empire Strikes Back” (keep your hair on, it’s not that good), ‘Civil War’ dares to leave the gang broken up, separated and factionalized, and dares to contravene the most dearly-held of blockbuster traditions: a truce may be in place, but they are not all friends in the end.
6. Give your villain actual motivation.
Villainy has traditionally been the Achilles Heel of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at least on the big screen: Loki aside, their villains have tended to swing between interchangeable corporate dickbags (Jeff Bridges, Sam Rockwell, Guy Pearce, Corey Stoll), or underwritten prosthetics-wearing Buffy rejects (Christopher Ecclestone, Lee Pace). Even Ultron turned out to be kind of a washout. So it’s a pleasant surprise that Daniel Bruhl’s Zemo (who was absent from the marketing) turns out to be one of the more effective adversaries of the MCU so far, particularly given that he’s remarkably similar in some ways to Jesse Eisenberg‘s Lex Luthor in ‘Batman v Superman.’
Both characters have the same aim in theory: to plot from the shadows to cause supeheroes to fight each other. Eisenberg’s Luthor is pretty open about this, but it’s never quite clear exactly why. There’s a monologue attempting to offer some kind of explanation, where the character talks about how his father grew up under a harsh, dictatorial regime in East Germany. But it’s a leap from that to killing Superman (who’s only done good for mankind). And why he would use Batman to do so, or what he has against Batman in particular to drag him into the conflict, or why he keeps attempting (mostly ineptly) to frame Superman for crimes like BLOWING UP THE CAPITOL BUILDING, or why the cave-troll at the end figures in, isn’t something that the film ever lets us into, particularly because Eisenberg’s playing him in this oddly jovial manner. And yes, you might well have theories about why, but that mostly involves bringing stuff in from outside the actual text, and that’s cheating.
‘Civil War’ meanwhile keeps Zemo’s motivations at arm’s length for most of the film, but because he’s a shadowy figure on the periphery, and because he’s working towards something concrete — finding the secret Hydra base full of supersoldiers — it doesn’t become a problem. And then the film reveals them, quite plainly, and it turns out he isn’t some costumed Nazi, but a reasonably ordinary man seeking revenge for the deaths of his family, which he blames, quite fairly, on The Avengers. It’s entirely thematically cohesive — we don’t realize it until that surprisingly low-key, beautifully performed scene between Bruhl and Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther, but he’s essentially a dark mirror of the character that Alfre Woodard plays early on, another example of accountability and consequences, the two things that drive the entire story.
And it results in a bad guy who, despite his limited screen time, feels like one of the most human and relatable in the MCU so far, a far cry from the murkily-motivated histrionics of Luthor. Let’s hope Marvel movies learn from this going forward. And that whoever the villain of “Justice League” turns out to be, that it’s at least clear why they’re trying to conquer the world/kill Batman/kidnap a Martha.
7. Have some fun in your big action set pieces.
Any student of action cinema will tell you that a great action set piece is less about the amount of sound and fury that you can summon, and more about the beats — the little memorable moments or gags that you’re left thinking about long after the rhythm of the whole has passed. Think Indiana Jones shooting the swordsman in ‘Raiders,’ or bringing down the AT-AT in “Empire Strikes Back,” or Spider-Man being pulled along by the train, “French Connection” style, in “Spider-Man 2.”
Zack Snyder can compose a great action image — it’s one of his major strengths, and it’s why a film like “300” made his name, and it’s why his superheroes always seem so striking on screen in terms of iconography. But the lightness of touch and playfulness that makes for a truly great superhero action sequence, the ability to land a memorable beat, has never been the director’s forte, and it’s never been as apparent in “Batman V. Superman,” which doubles down on the repetitive, thumping, sturm und drang nature of the “Man Of Steel” action. It’s superheroic, certainly — people get thrown long distances through things that go smash — but it feels leaden and bruising, a noisy ordeal to sit through rather than to revel in. Even the film’s best set piece — the “Arkham Asylum” -inspired take-down of a room full of bad guys as Batman tries to rescue Martha Kent — never feels particularly inspired.
Marvel have been guilty of this too — the final act of “The Incredible Hulk,” the robo-smashing of the “Iron Man 3” climax and ‘Age Of Ultron,’ and the Russos sometimes have a clarity problem when it comes to action: particularly in 3D, it can sometimes be filmed too closely and shakily to be as clear as they want. But their choreography of the action (aided, here, with “John Wick” helmers Chad Stahelski and David Leitch on some of the second-unit) is strong throughout — almost every bad guy gets knocked down in a way that’s organic, inventive or fun.
And it reaches a peak in the airport sequence, which at least matches the Battle of New York as the MCU’s action sequence high-point. In terms of its story point, it’s landing at about the same point as the Batman/Superman brawl, but no one is trying to murder each other, it’s stuffed with the film’s best jokes (thanks primarily to Spider-Man and Ant-Man) and lets everyone have a good little character moment, be it Hawkeye and Black Widow acknowledging that they’re almost playfighting, to the Giant Man revelation. In some ways, it’s a microcosm for the whole film.