“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
― Isaac Newton
If ever you have taken some time off from handing out lemons on street corners and have ever read Steven
Erikson’s epic fantasy series, The Malazan Book of the Fallen, you will know
that one of the overarching themes in the books is convergence. If you have not
read the books it’s fine because convergence seems to be one of your overarching
themes. Like how you handed out so many lemons throughout your career that it eventually annoyed Beyoncé and she went and made Lemonade for all of us so you would stop. Those two events were just drawn to each other.
All the ups, all of the downs
and all the madness have all led to this moment. This is where everything
collides to form something new.
In the fourth book in the
series, House of Chains, Mappo and
Karsa have a chat about convergence. In their case they talk about convergences
and their relationship to curses. I am here because of the good and the bad.
Curses and blessings.
Mappo:“And I
speak from long experience; curses are horrible things. Tell me, has Sha’ik
ever spoken to you of convergence?”
Karsa: “No.”
Mappo: “When
curses collide, you might say. Flaws and virtues, the many faces of fateful
obsession, of singular purpose. Powers and wills are drawn together, as if one
must by nature seek the annihilation of the other. Thus, you and Icarium are
now here, and we are moments from a dreadful convergence, and it is my fate to
witness. Helpless unto desperate madness. Fortunately for my own sake, I have
known this feeling before.”
The road to here has felt so
long and I am weary to the bone. Life, you are difficult but it is also filled with
many unexpected blessings. I have been unluckier than some and luckier than
most to get to where I am currently at. The forces that I have no control over
have only minimally interfered with my existence and the areas I have control over I
have manged okay. I could have done more and should do more. On many a Sunday
evening I am struck by a deep anxiety that I am failing at you. This morning
as I was walking to work I realised that I am failing by my standards, I am
rather average by society’s standards and a superhero by my family’s standards.
That gave me some perspective. I am okay. I can still do better. I can still do
worse but the road to improvement is open for me as it has never been open for
anyone in my family. All my failures and successes have led to this point where
I can look around me and use all that information to make better choices. Not
just that though, I could have done that yesterday too. It seems everything has
converged in a way that allows me to bring every influence together to build
something new and powerful. My problem has always been that I am never sure how
to combine all my strengths and now I think I am ready to do it.
This is the time. This is the
place to build anew from the old.
P.S. If this post makes no
sense to you don’t worry because a thing is happening and when it all comes
together you will be the first to know. Okay, maybe second, I will have to tell
my mom first.
I was sick for a week and on my return to the land of the
living I found out that we were getting Civil War on 27 April (Freedom Day in South Africa). I
just wasn't ready though, you guys. I was still working with that 7 May release
date and I am still reeling from the first episode of Season 6 of Game of
Thrones. Can the old gods and the new please give a nerd a break out here? But
it's all good, I got my game face and Marvel fanboy underwear on and got ready
for the biggest cinema spectacle of the year!
Civil War is the best
Marvel movie to date
Captain America: Civil War is the third Captain America
movie and the thirteenth entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After the huge
success of the second Captain America movie, The Winter Soldier, the Russo
brothers returned to the helm for Civil War and they made a movie that hits all
the right notes. I am going into full fanboy mode here. This movie is perfect
and it seems that every year I say this about a new Marvel movie, but it’s
Odin’s honest truth every time. What especially makes Civil War great is that
it taps into all of the history and lore of the universe it takes place in.
This movie is not here to accommodate anyone by explaining too much. It is
simply the culmination of all Marvel’s Earth-based movies to date.
Plot overview
Civil War is set in a universe where all the actions of
every hero in the Avengers team have led to this point in time. The world owes
the Avengers a great deal for the amount of times they have saved it, but at
the same time, who watches the watchmen? Who takes the Avengers to task when
innocent people die in the collateral damage of their battles? This is the
overarching question that Civil War poses and it is a fair question and
difficult to deal with.
Civil War takes a lot of beats from Winter Soldier in that
it is a political spy type of thriller, but it borrows tonnes from other Marvel
movies like Iron Man 3 that shows that superhero characters don’t have to be in
their suits the whole time - they can deliver powerful, emotional performances
just as themselves. After an incident gone wrong in Lagos, Nigeria the US
Secretary of State, General Thunderbolt Ross, calls the Avengers in to inform
them that the world cannot tolerate them operating unchecked and that the
United Nations has come up with what they refer to as the "Sokovia
Accords", which will establish an international governing body to monitor
and regulate all enhanced individuals like the Avengers.
The battle lines are drawn in a response to this
development. Captain America’s response is that he does not agree to having the
team effectively being run by the UN, which is a political entity and has its
own agenda. By signing the act, the Avengers would only be able to work
according to the say-so of the UN. Since waking up in the modern world, Captain
America has had to deal with quite a lot. The guy is Marvel’s ultimate boy
scout and is usually the sort of team player who would never question orders.
Unfortunately politics is a messy business and the Cap has been burned on many
occasions dealing with organisations like SHIELD/HYDRA and he is loath to allow
the team to become puppets of such agendas. Cap thus rallies the members of
Team Cap to his side, because they share the same belief, or in Hawkeye’s case,
because he called first.
Tony Stark is also carrying a huge load on his shoulders
since the incident in New York and even more with the incident with Ultron,
which he was directly responsible for. The man has been having panic attacks
and sleepless nights, because he knows there are dangers outside of our planet
that the Avengers might not be able to deal with (we know that Thanos is
lurking out there, after all. Does that guy just sit in his space chair all day
by the way? I digress though). Ultron rose from these fears and Scarlett Witch
didn’t help by giving him visions of a bleak future where everyone dies either.
Tony is almost on the opposite journey that Cap is on in the sense that he
starts off as this carefree character who doesn’t adhere to rules and picks up
a lot more responsibility on the way to the events in Civil War. It's difficult
to decide whose stance is right.
This is just the simplistic view of the plot, because there
are other forces at play and there is an actual villain in the movie. Batman v
Superman takes itself very seriously and Civil War finds a sweet spot between
the seriousness of everything that is happening with friends fighting each
other, but there are many moments where you can just laugh and have fun. The
movie is long at 147 minutes, but it never feels like it and it is cut in a
beautifully economic way.
Enter new characters
All your favourite characters are back and are all running
around punching, kicking and shooting each other and the bad guys in super cool
ways. All of them are there ... well, except for Thor, because he is doing
Asgardian things and Bruce Banner is doing hiding out things. The highlights in
terms of characterisation are the new people though. Chadwick Boseman makes his
debut as T'Challa / Black Panther, the prince of Wakanda, the technologically
advanced African Nation that is known for living in isolation and being the place
where vibranium comes from. Marvel is pretty much done with long and windy
introductions, so they just throw Black Panther in there with a brief but
powerful introduction and the character then hits the ground running. The
character is intriguing and I can’t wait for his solo movie and to explore
Wakanda where, interestingly enough, they seem to speak Xhosa. I died of
laughter in the cinema when T’Challa shares a moment with his father, King
T'Chaka (played by South African actor, John Kani) and they just kick it in
Xhosa, but with an East African accent.
Our favourite neighbourhood Spidy also gets a quick and
punchy intro. Peter Parker is played by Tom Holland and he is the witty, funny,
awkward Peter Parker we love from the comics. The movie also makes fun of the
fact that his aunt, May, is so attractive (played by Marisa Tomei) in response
to people freaking out on social media last year, because Aunt May is “too
hot”.
Marvel just keeps winning and Civil War is just great. I can
find zero fault with this movie. It delivers solidly on everything and all the
characters are given their due in terms of screen time and personality. The
action sequences are a feast, but the times where there is no fighting are also
intense and while you’re still reeling from an emotional reveal they offset it
with humour that provides the comic relief you need while not taking away from
the gravitas of the situation. The new characters fit in and their roles aren’t
just as cameos. All the Earth-based stories in the Marvel universe have led to
this movie and it draws from and builds on the history and lore from the
previous titles beautifully. Just go out and watch this one a few times. Just
do it.
