Tag: captain america

legendarystarlords:

SteveBucky + parallels

…Or why Captain America: Civil War left us slightly unsatisfied

Look, we all liked Civil War, bar several scenes that inspired a few ‘…sure. I guess. Why not’ reactions. However, most of us were left with a feeling of ‘that’s it?’ when we left the cinema. The movie was not bad in any way, it just wasn’t what we expected exactly. Just a slight discontent after it was all said and done. But fear not friends, it’s not you: it’s them!

But first, what is circular plot structure? Basically, the plot starts at point A, goes to point Z, but point Z is actually an “echo” of point A – things are in a similar state to what they were at the beginning, only to show the internal journey of the main character. Basically, circular plot is that saying – “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. It doesn’t mean the plot hasn’t advanced, it just means that it’s (usually) a fun house mirror image of the beginning.

The Captain America trilogy does this very well between The First Avenger and The Winter Soldier but falters in Civil War. The echoes between TFA and TWS are very clear – the most obvious one being Bucky falling in the Alps – Steve falling in the Potomac. Or the widely discussed fact that Bucky is Steve’s inverted image. One is a symbol, the other is a ghost, but they both shaped the century. The Captain America Trilogy being a movie trilogy lends itself to visual echoes – like, for example, Steve getting out of the chamber when he gets the serum and Bucky’s brainwashing in the bank vault. It’s not the same, but it’s enough of a call back to think of it as a parallel.

And here comes Civil War. The expectations set by the previous two movies are not met, because the movie doesn’t let the plot come a full circle. Had the movie ended when Steve giving up the shield to leave with Bucky after the fight with Tony, it would have satisfied our subconscious expectation of the plot structure. Steve picked up the shield to save Bucky and put it down so he could leave and live with Bucky. That end would lead us to believe that they will return to their lives as they were before any of them got super soldier-ed – while they may still go out to fight the good fight, they would live normal lives as they did back in their time. It would be an echo – this time Bucky won’t be saving Steve, but similar enough to parallel the beginning.

However, the movie did not end there. The movie ended with Bucky getting frozen in Wakanda, fridged until the plot needs him again. That most certainly does not satisfy the expectations of the circular structure that the audience has, even if they are just on a subconscious level. Civil War didn’t disrupt the status quo – Steve now basically runs the Secret Avengers, Bucky doesn’t get redemption or, you know, any opportunity for closure and the Avengers still exist in a similar state they did going back to the original movie, they are just based in different buildings.

All in all, the problem is not that Civil War is a bad movie – it is probably the best superhero movie we’ve seen so far, it’s just that it wasn’t a good conclusion to the Captain America trilogy as much as the Russos wanted it to be. The plot was good, but it was just good enough – works for the casual viewers, but not for the people invested in Steve Rogers as a character and his emotional journey.