A common interpretation of the superhero genre is that its appeal is based in being a modern-day equivalent of the legends of ancient mythology. Both are fantasies which use outlandish elements to connect to human ideas of justice, or the lack thereof. Obviously, there's an aspect of wish fulfillment. Who hasn't wanted to run faster than everyone else, be stronger, or fly? There are the religious overtones. The hope that someone will descend from the sky, or appear out of nowhere to save us from the evils of the world, wipe away all tears, and make everything okay. Others see the popularity of the entire genre as a reaction to the September 11 attacks and its aftermath. Skyscrapers fall and buildings are destroyed, but the lines between good and bad are more clearly defined. And the fiction of it all presents a force the audience can get behind without all of the contradiction and controversy evident in the realities the world faces in the here and now.
With Captain America: Civil War, the 13th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, directors Joe and Anthony Russo and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely turn the story inward by intentionally deciding to deconstruct the very idea of The Avengers, and in doing so confronts some very real-world ideas about the use of force, whether moral authority flows from popular will, restraints on a duty to act when others won’t or can’t, and the unintended consequences which come from even the violence done for the best possible reasons. The politics of nations with great power and great responsibility is a great metaphor for superheroes that don’t respect sovereign borders when doing what they think is necessary, and sometimes causing collateral damage while doing it.
But moreover, even while tackling some heavy themes, this movie is fun, not afraid to be silly, and succeeds in ways Batman v Superman failed, even though the basics of the plots for both films are pretty damn similar. The tension at the heart of the film is personal and built upon what we know from eight years of movies, and how it keeps expanding to encompass more and more (i.e., hello Spider-Man and Black Panther) while deepening these characters’ scars and expounding on their frailties. And seeing them divide, like a dysfunctional family where both sides have their points, is an instance where all of the time devoted to this venture of serialized-storytelling pays off.