Did anyone else think the super soldier sub plot seemed unecessary?
In the context of the movie what Zemo did make alot of sense as a storyline.
He had no idea there were "other" super soldiers, which was the point of him setting up and questioning Bucky about the incident of 1991 after he gained control of him. He knew something had happened but not exactly what.
When he discovered they existed he changed his plans to include that base, because it was a great example as to what would happen to the Avengers team if they failed to agree to sign the accord ie imprisoned (and possibly "sanctioned" if they lost control).
His intention was always to breakup the "Avengers" so by dragging Stark and the Cap out there, particularly after the battle at the airport, it just brought things to ahead. It was the final straw that broke the camels back and triggered a terrible infight .
Zemos also knew his plot would be discovered (after killing the pyschologist ) so the chances were very high that things would have been returned to normal without that last critical push. He also showed to the world again just how dangerous the Avengers were, how simply they could be manipulated by just a normal man and how devastating the outcome would always be with people who wield super powers go into battle, even against themselves. He's made them look terribly dangerous to ordinary people yet again.
And thats pretty much what I really respected about the writing in this. Zemo was a "weak" villian only in the sense he was simply a grieving human being ,yet he managed to gain control over the "super heros" and cause chaos and destruction everywhere as a result. After the incident at the beginning of CACW that airport battle is going to cause an even huger public outcry and the results for them, as Zemo hinted, even worse, which we begin to see at the end.
Kudos to the writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely who did what I thought was a fantastic job with a theme thats been done so poorly so many times (one of the best up until now was "The Incredibles) and the Russos (and Marvel) who managed to give to give us a movie which was wholely consistent with the rest, yet tonely so different from all the others.
Snikt, I'm glad you liked this after reading your posts in BVS.