Why Civil War Worked and Batman v Superman Failed | One v One

and she said compromise where you can where you can't don't even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right even if the whole world is telling you to move it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree look them in the eye and say no you move if you happen to be following big Hollywood blockbuster franchises a couple years ago you might remember a sudden avalanche of so-called vs. movies where cute guys fight against each other fast and furious transformers Marvel DC no matter if the films were about humans or cars or humanoid robots turning into cars every last one of them was doing it sometimes with okay results other times with not so okay results the clear winner however was Marvel with Captain America Civil War which at least me is not only one of the strongest MCU entries to date but also one of the very greatest vs. movies of all time and so in honor of that other new Marvel Captain film nearly hitting theaters I wanted to try and figure out why that is and the most effective way to understand what makes Civil War so great is to contrast it against another similar superhero vs. movie that isn't so great another superhero versus movie which sadly for all DC fan boys and girls like me happens to be Batman V Superman I've examined BVS on the shell before it's positive side as well as its negative side so you could perhaps accuse me of beating a dead horse and maybe in some sense I am but as a counter-argument I would say that here it's necessary because like it or not these two films are very much like mirror images of one another and if we want to understand why Civil War worked from beginning to end while BBS didn't we're gonna have to find the difference between them and at least to my eyes that the core difference is fairly straightforward one movie is personal the other is impersonal so let's take these two very similar superhero versus movies and focus on their versus elements in order to see how they do things differently let's how the choice of being personal instead of impersonal made Captain America v Ironman the versus movie that Padma V Superman wasn't ever able to become let's see how exactly you can and cannot make a versus movie that works since the vs. films were talking about are about good guys butting heads with good guys the single most important thing you need for your film to work is a proper reason for the good guys to be butting heads the way Civil War accomplishes this is by introducing the sokovia accords which would place the Avengers under the supervision of the United Nations following all the death and destruction that the Avengers have inadvertently cost you know itself the Accord is an impersonal motivator Steve Rogers would obviously supported since he's the nice guy soldier Tony Stark would in turn obviously oppose it since he is the uncontrollable billionaire playboy and like that the motivations of Rogers and Stark would be in conflict and the two would indeed end up butting heads it would all function but it wouldn't be great because right now the motivations are impersonal not personal but the reason civil war is so fantastic in this area is because it takes this impersonal motivator and turns it into a personal motivator Tony Stark actually supports the Accords because he feels personally responsible for the destruction and death they've caused Steve Rogers on the other hand opposes the airport's because he has personally seen how powerful governmental entities can become corrupt and dangerous there's no decision-making process here we need to be put in check whatever form that takes I'm game it's not shield it's not hide nope but it's run by people with agendas and agendas change that's good what if there's somewhere we need to go and they don't let us we may not be perfect but the safest hands are still our own there are also the factors of Bucky Barnes and stocks family but we'll get the dose next even without them as of right now we have clear proper motivations that make the film work and most importantly those motivations are personal and thus more powerful with Padma be Superman this factor of motivations one of the bigger weaknesses there are motivations but only in personal motivations Batman wants to take Superman down because Superman could maybe possibly turn on humankind Superman wants to take Batman down biggest Batman does bad things to bad people or later because Lex Luthor tells him to not only are those motivations not personal they also have nothing to do with each other there is no one clear philosophical question that Batman and Superman disagree on there is no sokovia courts to be fair to be vs there is some personal motivation with Lex Luthor who wants to destroy Superman because Superman reminds him of his childhood when he was beaten by his dad but again it's not directly personal as with civil wars Zemo who wants to destroy the Avengers because the Avengers killed his family both function but one is more powerful in fact I would say that most side characters in civil war have more powerful directly personal motivations than any character in Batman V Superman so then how could BBS fix this how could it be about more personal motivations like civil war by selecting a single clear philosophical topic that its main characters can disagree on on a personal level for example the topic of Batman's habit of killing criminals I want to know why you decided to allow Batman to kill within this picture you know I tried to do it in that sort of technical way well I perceive it as has not him Killians directly how about instead of making not-so-great excuses for Batman killing criminals you actually doubled down on Batman killing criminals and make that the sokovia accords of BBS like this Batman supports killing criminals because he has personally seen what can happen if he doesn't Superman on the other hand opposes killing criminals because he is personally guilty of doing so and now perhaps strongly regrets it he can't take back what he did but he can make sure that it doesn't happen again for example maybe toward the beginning of BBS we have a scene where Batman is about to brutally execute some lowlife criminal and then Superman shows up to stop him and of course since Batman obviously doesn't like this hypocritical alien acting like the new supreme leader of humankind they begin butting heads not only are they now butting heads over one clear philosophical issue they are also doing it because of reasons that are purely directly personal in all big modern Hollywood action movies it's pretty much a given that there is going to be some amount of physical fighting and just like with character motivation in order to be powerful these physical fights and battles at some point have to be personal in civil war one of the more memorable fight sequences is the airport scuffle where the Avengers finally clash against each other head-on and while the sequence is very well made and entertaining and amazing it's not the most powerful battle in the movie and that's because at the end of the day it's not personal at this point in time except for Black Panther not a single character is fighting others because of personal reasons one side is fighting just to get to the next objective the other side is fighting just to stop them from getting to the next objective a notion which is made very clear by the light-hearted and impersonal attitude that the characters have look I really don't want to hurt you I wouldn't stress about it you have a metal arm that is awesome dude sorry cap just kill you but it ain't gonna tickle either hey Clinton you got tired of shooting golf well i played 18 shot 18 you got hard kid are you from Queens Brooklyn I hate ya we're still friends right for what the airport battle is meant to be it works magnificently but again it wouldn't work as the climax of the movie and if it had been the climax this movie wouldn't be half of what it is case in point throughout the story we've been moving towards a huge epic final battle where Steve and Tony and Bucky fight against an army of winter soldiers and if civil war was made by DC and Warner Brothers that's what the final battle probably would have been but unlike DC and Warner Brothers Marvel knows that huge doesn't equal good so instead of going huge they go personal this isn't gonna change what happened to date this battle between Tony and Steve and Bucky probably is the most impactful and powerful fight sequence in the entire MCU much more so than any epic scuffle against any number of random winter soldiers could have ever been why because it is just so personal to the point where the fight becomes inevitable Tony Stark has to kill Bucky Steve Rogers has to stop him no words or compromises exist that would prevent one of those two things from happening compare this to be vs Batman fight Superman because Superman one day might be evil Superman fights Batman because Lex Luthor said that he has to and so no Civil War like personal reasons exist which is very apparent in the fact that unlike in Civil War the fight here isn't inevitable Superman could for example just push Batman to the ground and then be like hey listen I don't want to fight but Lex Luthor has my mom by the way her name's Martha obviously bbs is a bit different from Civil War because at the end Batman and Superman have to be friends but the movie is in desperate need of more personal battles in both the Batna V Superman fight as well as in their fight against doomsday and if we learn from Civil War how could that be done firstly we need to increase Batman and Superman motivations to fight we already talked about some philosophical conflict earlier but with this there should be more maybe Superman's fight with Zod actually killed someone that Batman cares about maybe Batman's destructive crime-fighting habit injured someone Superman cares about like Lois Lane something to make them really want to hurt each other also since they now really do despise one another they can't simply just kiss and make up right in the middle of the battle so instead it should go something like this Superman defeats Batman and then much like with Zod is about to kill him because that seems like the only option to stop him but this time he has learned from his mistake and knows that killing isn't the right way so instead he lets Batman live and somehow goes to save his mom on his own and then ends up fighting doomsday and now Batman is just sitting back like I don't care until somehow he ultimately has a change of heart maybe it's something L first says maybe he somehow bumps into Superman's mom whatever something that finally makes him see Superman as a man and not some alien who came here to destroy humanity and so he joins in the battle to help him plus the actual battle against doomsday should also have more to do with Lex than just this random CGI monstrosity anything to make it all more personal stay down final warning for the last point let's look at a couple smaller but at the same time very important character elements to keep in mind when making a versus movie those character elements being inner unbalanced and connection with one another firstly the inner unbalanced if you want your heroes to disagree with each other to the point of actually fighting each other not only do they need proper reasons to do so they should also be in a bit of a bad place mentally and that's because it is basic human nature to make more drastic and destructive choices and actions when things aren't okay you wouldn't normally run a red light but if you've just been cheated on by the love of your life then you might you wouldn't normally tell your super nice chemistry teacher to go eff herself but if you've just been to the theater to see justice league for the first time then you might in civil war there is unbalance like this on both sides none of it is huge but it is all still very important Tony Stark has recently broken up with Pepper Potts because of his inability to stop being Iron Man and now even though he tries to keep it hidden he is clearly heartbroken and has nobody to talk to or get support from and then and then and then stopped because the truth is I don't want to stop I don't want to lose her family the Accords could split the difference Steve Rogers on the other hand hears about the death of Peggy Carter and because of this Bucky is now the only person he has left from the time that he comes from she said compromise where you can where you can't don't again neither of these things are huge but they are very important in influencing the choices that the characters make secondly the element of character connection which is pretty self-explanatory if your movie is about two good guys becoming enemies those two good guys should share a connected personal relationship in a way that their conflict can develop and escalate civil war for example does this very well throughout the movie Tony and Steve are constantly sharing scenes relating to their disagreement first the disagreement is verbally indirect than verbally direct and then finally grows to the point of being physical first indirectly physical than directly physical something which would be impossible without a relationship obvious but important in Batman V Superman neither of these character elements are properly featured with inner unbalance there are some starting points but it's never enough Bruce Wayne did lose Robin at the hands of the Joker but that seems to have happened a long time ago to the point where it isn't fresh in his mind anymore and doesn't really strongly influence him Superman is bothered by all the political controversy surrounding him but that all of a sudden just gets tossed aside so never mind same story with the connected personal relationship between Batman and Superman as in they don't really have any kind of relationship which would allow their conflict to steadily escalate they meet once for five seconds and then they fight they also bump into each other out of costume but even then it's not personal it happens only because Lex Luthor wants them to bump into each other so again never mind but now that we know how civil war does it let's see how BVS could maybe do it with the inner unbalanced all we need to do is strengthen some of the stuff we've mentioned before with Batman the death of Robin for example should have happened fairly recently so that it is still fresh in his mind and because of it Batman has pretty much become manic and is only now taking up the habit of killing criminals as the Superman you can use the politics thing if it actually goes somewhere but even more effective is to have Superman still be pained by him killing Zod to the point where it's eating away at him inside so much so that he's become obsessed with not allowing anything like it to happen again and since he now hears about this bat vigilante killing people left and right he has to stop him with the connection thing you need to find a way to give Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent a personal relationship maybe it has something to do with Lois Lane like in the animated movie maybe it has something to do with something else doesn't really matter as long as Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent share personal scenes where their conflict can develop and grow they don't have to know each other secret it's enough that the audience knows and now when the conflict between Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent grows in the audience's spies so does the conflict between Batman and Superman and there we have it if you want to make a versus movie that's great consider the following personal factors give your heroes proper conflicting motivations and beliefs make their climactic physical battle intimate instead of big put them in a bad place mentally and give them some form of a connected relationship so that their conflict can naturally grow do that and maybe you get a movie that's less bad maybe Superman and more Captain America the Iron Man [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Filmento

Views: 1,858,649

Keywords: marvel, mcu, captain america civil war, black panther, captain marvel, avengers endgame, batman v superman, justice league, batman, superman, iron man, captain america, robert downey jr, chris evans, brie larson, dc, aquaman, captain marvel review, captain marvel controversy, civil war, thor, thanos, avengers endgame villain, justice league 2, ben affleck, henry cavill, video essays, filmento, film perfection, anatomy of a failure, mistakes, one versus one, one v one

Id: f4JwDrr-_B8

Length: 17min 27sec (1047 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 01 2019