Captain America: Civil War – BIG RANT and many plot spoilers inside (you should save your time and money and not see it now)

[Zanten]

Drawing apart elements from the earlier post, my conclusion is that in Civil War, both characters- Steve and Tony- were being driven, first and foremost, by failure.

Tony Stark, who had failed to properly control and restrain his own ridiculous ego and intellect, overcompensated. First he tried to restrain himself by no longer being Iron Man, but when- and he confesses this- he realized he COULDN'T stop, that he wanted the adventure and the shooting and all that stuff too badly to simply retire, he chose to put himself under someone else's authority. Not because he WANTED to be restrained or controlled (as evidenced by his typical snideness and occasional acts of rebellion against Ross,) but because he felt he had to be. He wanted to be Iron Man, but didn't trust himself to operate without oversight. As such, he felt that he (and, due to his ego, everyone else) NEEDED the restraints that the Accords would provide.

Steve Rogers is a bit of a mix between his own failure, and the failure of others. His attempts to be a 'good soldier' and follow orders had nearly caused catastrophe, as countless people in SHIELD and everyone supposedly keeping it in line failed to stave off corruption or identify Hydra's influence until the last moment. Because of that, he didn't trust the authority of some other committee or group, regardless of who they were. Not because he necessarily thought 'He Knew Better,' (though obviously there was some concern of bureaucracy,) but most importantly because his own intentions, aims and goals were the only ones he knew for certain. Following any group assigned to oversee and direct the Avengers, he'd never know for sure if he could really trust the agendas of those pulling the strings. The one time he came close to agreeing to sign, his sole condition was that there had to be safeguards- measures that kept whoever would be in charge of them from having too much unfettered power over the Avengers. 

Meanwhile, Steve's own defining failure was how he had been unable to protect one of the two most important people in his life, and when given a second chance, he couldn't fail that person again. He would not kill Bucky, wouldn't even allow him to be killed, not if there was anything he could do to prevent it. So when Barnes was about to be confronted by a squad of soldiers sent with the express purpose of killing him, Steve wasn't going to let it happen. And his intervention succeeded; though Barnes was captured, Steve wasn't trying to help him ESCAPE during that first encounter, just trying to help keep him alive, and more importantly keep him from doing anything that would make things worse, like kill all the soldiers sent to take him out.

But then, when Bucky was locked away in a holding cell, Zemo came a'knockin, seemingly an on-the-level fellow sent through official channels... only to stage a 'jailbreak' and thoroughly screw with Barnes' head. Keep in mind, the fact that Zemo was only POSING as the legitimate guy wasn't revealed til after the airport scene, meaning Steve had no way of knowing Zemo was an entirely rogue element rather than someone sent by some shadowy cabal within the U.N., or an individual government. After having already seen an entire pseudo-Nazi group infiltrate SHIELD without triggering any alarm bells, Zemo's actions would inevitably have left Steve thinking 'Well, SHIT, I officially have no idea who I can trust in the U.N. I'm sure as Hell not taking him back there.' 

But Tony, still SUPER determined to bring structure and order to the chaos- and, admittedly, also try to keep people he had fought alongside from getting killed by government retaliation- wasn't going to settle for anything short of MAKING Steve bring Barnes back. Now, the airport scene and the circumstances directly leading to it can take up an entire post all its own, so for now Imma ride past it and bring us to the final act of the movie, where the 'true enemy!' is revealed to Stark.

And, to Tony's credit, despite literally JUST having watched his friend get his spine wrecked and having had his own ass kicked, all while trying to make stubborn, STUBBORN Steve do what he wants, Stark seems ready to swallow his pride and anger in order to neutralize a potential threat. He joins Bucky and Cap to deal with the super soldiers, but upon arriving, he came across an entirely unexpected reminder of what has been an ongoing failure; confronting what had happened to his mother. Keep in mind, during the beginning- that 'Holo Therapy' thing- his projection speaks to his FATHER when trying to 'make peace' but says nothing to his mother. And Tony, a man who never shuts up and has pretty regularly spoken about said father- admittedly in not the fondest of tones- never, speaks about his mother. Because she was the loss he couldn't face, at least until that moment. In his rage, he didn't tell Barnes 'You killed my father,' or even 'You killed my parents.' No, he specifically said 'You killed my mother.'

Bottom line, Tony was going to kill Barnes. Not rough up, not capture and drag back to the authorities, I'm talking flat-out murder, with no indication that he was at ANY time going to hold back a finishing blow, and he would take out anyone who got in his way. And, well, two prior Captain America films probably makes it pretty clear that Barnes dying (again) was something Steve was NEVER going to allow, even if it meant fighting Tony to do so. =P Because nothing short of taking out Stark's suit was going to make him stop coming after Barnes.

*****

Phew. Okay! I think it's only fair that I do cover the elements in the movie that didn't jive quite as much for me.

Whereas I can pretty much figure out the motivations of most of the side characters- i.e. why they're on the side they chose- Vision's motivations are rather nebulous. I get the impression maybe they're hinting at his romantic interest in Wanda, and as such he's doing all this because he sincerely believes Tony's way is the best way to keep her safe, but it's not super clear.

And if we want to talk about characters who are portayed as OP, what about Black Panther? The guy is wearing an entire SUIT made of the same substance that Captain America's shield is composed of. We've already seen that it can tank helicopter gunfire without having him even flinch, and he even covers a gunbarrel point-blank with his hand without suffering any sort of damage. o_o I have NO idea how they plan to make anything a credible threat to him in his standalone movie.

The final segment of Zemo's plan is just rather ridiculous, as it hinges on both Iron Man AND Winter Soldier ending up in the same bunker at the same time; sure, he triggers the discovery of all his secret stuff so Tony clues in to what's really going on and MIGHT find the bunker as a result, but the timing and details are just so precise, it's a wonder things actually fell into place THAT well. But before that, (i.e., getting Tony and Steve on opposing sides due to Barnes,) I thought it was at least a doable plan, if only in a 'Well, I have NO fucking chance of killing, well, ANY of them on my own... so heck, Hail Mary manipulation ploy it is!'

I'll even agree that Steve NOT telling Tony about the fact that HYDRA was involved in his parents' deaths was a really weird choice. o.o It wasn't even about protecting Bucky, as Rogers legitimately didn't know any of the details behind their deaths, (he only knew about it at all due to a VERY brief mention in The Winter Soldier,) so having him keep it to himself seemed like an odd choice. I don't necessarily think Steve's secrecy (or Steve knowing about Stark's parents in the first place) would have even been needed; I would totally have bought Stark still going nuts at finding out Bucky was the murderer, and fighting Steve JUST because Cap was in his way, taking Rogers' attempts to stop him as a betrayal all its own. So I do think it could have been dropped without losing anything significant.

However, all that aside, the core movie- its main characters' motivations, the underlying themes- are, (in my opinion, of course,) quite solid. =P They do stupid, reckless things, but they've always DONE stupid, reckless things. The difference is that the consequences for those things had a lot more weight this time around.