The superhero battles are big and extensive, as is the size and length of Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War,” in IMAX and RealD 3D, and with Dolby Atmos sound in selected theaters.
That’s nothing new with superhero movies. And the addition of even more superheroes in each chapter is not new either, although the first appearances in an Avengers ensemble of Ant-Man and Spider-Man deliver some of the best and most amusing minutes.
There are other additional actors in the ever-growing cast as well, including Emily Van Camp as Sharon Carter, a new and more contemporary, if technically not age-appropriate love interest for the good Captain.
The fanboys and others who have interest in this movie will no doubt already know all the characters and the premise, so we won’t get into any of that here, except to summarize for the non-fans that the civil war of the title refers to the moral and legal decisions facing the Avengers that divides them in their mission (relative to all the innocent victims who get massacred during the epic battles against evil), with Iron Man leading one side against Captain America.
The fights between the former (and still kind-of) friends is played mostly for fun and laughs, although one of them does get seriously hurt.
Unfortunately, the filmmakers did not utilize the 3D nor the Dolby Atmos sound system to its maximum effect. Neither offers any significantly noticeable extra visual or audio dynamics to the film, once again a big disappointment and missed opportunity. If ever there are movies made for exploiting the full power of 3D and a surround sound system, it is these superhero films.
Only IMAX at least offers a much bigger screen to make all the action — much of it vertical — seem even bigger and more impressive. And the IMAX sound system has been more dynamic in most of these movies of late than Dolby Atmos.
— By Scott Hettrick