The New Civil War Trailer

After the debut of the new trailer today I'm not sure I can fully communicate my enthusiasm for this one. Where do I start? Ah, first up, link is here if you haven't seen it yet

• Story! While it is in some ways comicdom's Lord of the Rings in size and scope I have always thought it would make a great movie. I think it would have made a great pair or trilogy of movies too but that would likely draw the whole thing out too much for a movie audience. If they can take the key moments, the signature developments and scenes and characters of the main Civil War story and cover the same issues, well, then I'm pretty happy with just the one film.
• Characters! The bits I have seen seem to be staying true to movie-Stark and movie-Rogers. That's huge. There's nothing weaker than the hero that goes rogue in some totally out of character twist or for no reason at all. Changing in response to consequences from the prior events versus staying true to your old self is part of what makes this story great.  
• War Machine! Falcon! Winter Soldier! Vision! Looking forward to more of all of these characters.
• Black Panther! I've wanted to see what they could do with a Panther movie for a while now and this is a very cool way to bring him in. 
• Underoos! It's about time he got involved in a larger universe and thank goodness we're not going with another origin! he has a huge role in the original story and I hope he carries that in the film as well.

Now contrast this with my interest in Batman vs. Superman - and that's exactly what it is: I am interested in that one, but not especially enthusiastic. It still feels like the wrong people are making the wrong movies in the wrong order over in DC-land. I think Henry Cavil makes a great Superman but I am not thrilled with what they are doing with him and I do not like Ben Affleck as Batman. I'm still going to go see it I just expect to walk out with mixed feelings on it at best. I already know Civil War is not going to be terrible. I can't say the same thing about BvS.

This isn't quite the level for me of the first Avengers movie - that was a dream come true for my inner 7-year old. This one is up there though. It's that next level of superhero story where the team/crossover concept is an accepted thing that no longer needs to be explained and isn't limited to cameos. We can move forward and tell stories about the things that might happen if such a team was real. Call it a dream come true for my teenage self, rediscovering comic books with a little more seriousness to them.

Finally, I'm glad they picked this one because it feels like a very "real" story: no alien invasions, no time-travel, no gods or immortals. (As much as it can be "real" in a comic book movie) It's otherwise normal people (except for Vision, I know) who have become extraordinary and have more power but have some of the same problems everyone else does. That's been a Marvel thing from the very early days but this story exemplifies it better than so many others. It's the individual vs the team, friendship vs. duty, control/safety vs freedom/chaos. It's a real shades-of-gray story, one of my favorites, and I hope the movie lives up to it.