Another big superhero movie comes to town, and once again I cannot get too excited.  Comic book fans love this stuff, but it seems about as arbitrary to me as the world of magic, where anything can happen at any time, but does not solely because of story constraints.  Like Batman v Superman, this megamovie pits the good guys against . . . the good guys.  This isn’t politics; these people should all be working together, not attacking one another.

In 1939 Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce began their run as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.  The first two are Victorian mysteries, but in the next four Holmes and Watson are moved up in time to World War II-era London, where they help the war effort and outwit the Nazis.  The remaining eight adventures return to the mystery format, though staged as contemporary tales.  It was wartime and Holmes and Watson were “recruited” into the war effort to help out.

So why bring this up?  Why not pit the Avengers against ISIS, Boko Haram, North Korea or Putin’s escalating Russian menace?  If the producers of these blockbusters cannot find real villains for Iron Man, Black Widow, Ant-Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, Falcon, War Machine, The Scarlet Witch, Vision, Black Panther, the Hulk, Thor and Spider-Man to fight, why not set them up against the real villains of our world?  That’s where we really need them.

Instead, Anthony and Joe Russo’s film forces superheroes to take sides against each other and fight rather half-heartedly (the airport scene) until the real villain can be identified.  A strong message of friendship and loyalty prevails, but not before Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) experiences a lot of grief and War Machine (Don Cheadle) is hurt through friendly fire.  Lots of angst ensues about responsibility but the bottom line is that meta-humans can pretty much do what they want, and we all have to hope that they have consciences.  Fine.  Now go fight some real bad guys.  ☆ ☆ 1/2.  11 May 2016.