Civil War is like You Only Live Twice, the book and film

Spectacle phase of Captain America: Civil War

No real spoilers, but your mileage may vary.

To use a James Bond reference, imagine a movie that had both the sprawling spectacle of You Only Live Twice, the movie, plus the personal elements of Ian Fleming’s You Only Live Twice novel.

That’s what you get with Captain America: Civil War.

The film, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and scripted by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, goes through a progression:

–More or less standard super heroics with serious undertones.

–Expansion to a spectacle phase, fueled by the introduction of Spider-Man into the proceedings.

–A surprisingly personal climax, which ties up plot threads dating back to when Marvel started producing its own movies eight years ago.

With You Only Live Twice, there has been a half-century fan debate whether Fleming’s 1964 novel could actually be filmed versus a disappointment of fans of the novel there wasn’t an actual attempt.

Civil War walks a similar tightrope with style. Marvel is drawing upon multiple stories (but especially a 2006-2007 story line that crossed over various titles), rather than a single novel. So perhaps it’s not the fairest comparison.

Regardless, Civil War traverses that tightrope in style. Truth be told, the Spy Commander was wondering whether Marvel could maintain its momentum heading into its “Phase III.”

As it turns out, Civil War launches Phase III into new territory.

Civil War has the equivalent of two 007 pre-title sequences, one a short period piece, the other a more elaborate one set in the present day. In the latter, there have been some collateral casualties, spurring a move among United Nations members to rein in the Avengers, the team led by Cap (Chris Evans).

Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) is in favor but Cap isn’t convinced.

So far, so good. Along the way, the audience meets a new character, T’Challa, the Black Panther, who becomes the ruler of the advanced African nation of Wakanda after his father his killed during a terrorist attack during a U.N. ceremony.

As a result, a big conflict breaks out, with the two heroes recruiting allies. It’s here where the latest Spider-Man (Tom Holland) makes an appearance and he immediately ramps things up. The scene where Tony Stark recruits a teenage Peter Parker is one of the highlights of the film.

The major fight, as impressive as it is, only sets up the climax, where we get into intense personal conflict (albeit with super heroics) delivered with a wallop.

One criticism of the movie (from Los Angeles Times and NPR reviewer Kenneth Turan) is that it’s harder for viewers who aren’t hard-core Marvel fans to get up to speed. Perhaps so.

Still, the Russo brothers get the audience’s attention from the beginning. By the end of the two-and-a-half hour movie, Marvel fans will be especially pleased but there’s something for everyone. To again use a 007 reference, it’s like seeing Thunderball or You Only Live Twice (or later film) as your first James Bond film. It’s easy enough to get up to speed.

One more thing: There are *two* scenes in the end titles. The first wraps up things from Civil War, the latter sets up a future Marvel production. The very last image of the end titles utilizes a page from the playbook of the early Bond films, something the 2011 Thor and Captain America movies did as well.

GRADE: A

Plants named for real James Bond, watch the puns fly

Bond, James Bond kept a bird’s eye view.

Ornithologist James Bond (1900-1989) has had four plant species named for him. Given that Ian Fleming took the name of the author of Birds of the West Indies as the name of his fictional hero, you might expect there’d be lots of puns used.

And you would be right.

Science magazine website: “There’s no word yet on how they’ll take their martinis, but a new subgenus of plants has been named Jamesbondia,…”

CNET (headline):  “Bondia, Jamesbondia: This plant likes its martinis shaken, not stirred.”

Fox News: “Scientists have christened a subgenus of plants with a killer name: Jamesbondia.”

CNN: “Sure, it’s not as exciting to Bond fans, but sometimes in life you get the Bond girl, and sometimes you get the Bond plant.”

Other outlets, while noting how Fleming took Bond’s name for a fictional character, were a little more straightforward in their descriptions. Here’s an except from SCI-NEWS.COM:

The four Jamesbondia plant species — Alternanthera costaricensis, A. geniculata, A. olivacea, and A. serpyllifolia — are mostly found in Central America and the Caribbean Islands.

Dr. Iamonico and Dr. Sánchez-del Pino have built on the research of Dr. J.M. Mears, who identified a group of Caribbean plant species as ‘Jamesbondia’ from 1980 to 1982 in unpublished annotations on Alternanthera specimens.

Molecular phylogenetic analyses and observations of the flower morphology justify the official separate naming of this group.