Captain America: Brave New World and all the images you see in this review are owned by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Directed by Julius Onah
Do you know what’s way more tiresome than another MCU movie? Hearing about how tired people are about there being another MCU movie. Marvel Fatigue jumped the shark a long time ago, and frankly, I see enough movies that there’s always a sizable buffer between each superhero outing so it never feels like the MCU is overstaying its welcome. Still, there have been some missteps in recent years after the one-two-three punch of COVID, the death of Chadwick Bosman, and Jonathan Majors being outed as a predator; all of which threw the entire Post-Endgame roadmap into chaos and left us for six years without a Captain America movie to kick-off Anthony Mackie’s run as the character. Is this a case of better late than never with Mackie proving himself to be just as big a star as Chris Evans, or have all the delays and shakeups at Marvel taken the shine off his coronation? Let’s find out!!
Things have changed quite a bit since The Avengers brought everyone back from The Snap; not the least of which being the election of Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) as President of the United States. With a new Commander in Chief looking to write his name in the history books, he works towards a peace treaty that will allow all nations to mine the precious resources from that Celestial that almost destroyed the world back in The Eternals while also trying to convince Captain America Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) to start a new Avengers Initiative to fend off whatever threats are out there waiting to strike. Sadly, these plans are forced to take a back seat when Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) and several others attending a peace talk at the White House try to assassinate the president. Of course, nothing is as it seems, and Sam is not about to let the government throw his friend back in jail. With the help of the new Falcon Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), the two set about to find out what caused those people to become would be assassins and if there is more to the plan than just the death of a President. Can Sam and Joaquin uncover the truth and save Ross’s plans for peace, or will all this chaos only beget more violence on the global stage? Is Ross being upfront with everything that he knows about this latest threat, or are there secrets so terrible that he would put the world at risk to protect them? I mean, I usually trust Harrison Ford no matter what, but still…
Calling this movie a mixed bag would be an understatement, and it’s not hard to understand why. I don’t think any movie in the MCU has had this much going against it while at the same time lacking a significant hook for those who are waiting for the multiverse chaos of Secret War; already being overshadowed by Fantastic Four and its promise of bringing even more alternate realities into the fold. Given everything that’s changed between the end of Falcon and Winter Solider and the film finally making its way to theaters, it’s a small miracle that it works at all, let alone as a solid entry into the ever sprawling MCU. I can’t say that it’s everything that I wanted it to be, but it stands tall on its strong performance and fun action, and I can’t get too mad at it for playing things safe while squeezing itself into the MCU’s ever evolving continuity.
I’m almost at a loss as to how to talk about this movie, as every thread I wish to pull threatens to derail any coherent discussion of it, which I suppose is fitting for a movie torn between so many worlds while still trying to stay confident in its own vision. It’s a Captain America sequel but is actually more of a continuation of Falcon and Winter Soldier, it refers back to The Incredible Hulk which I doubt most audiences can remember yet gives this movie some of its strongest moments, and it also ties together a lot of the threads from the multiverse and cosmic movies without having the chance to do anything with them given the grounded nature of the story. We’ve also got a new Captain America to prove himself onscreen, the introduction of several Next Gen heroes to take over roles that other actors have retired out of, and let’s throw in some new villains who second fiddles here but will surely become important later. It’s a mess, and you have to sympathize with everyone involved, who probably weren’t expecting to do this much franchise maintenance in what is supposed to be a debut for the new Cap on the big screen. It could have been a Wonder Woman 84 level disaster had anything else gone wrong, so I’m inclined to stay positive in this review, and there is certainly a lot to like in here even without grading on a curve. The performances across the board are fantastic, with a lot of strong character work in between the action scenes. I’m particularly impressed with Danny Ramirez and Shira Haas who both have one of the most thankless jobs any actor can have which is to be the New Hip characters in a well-established franchise, otherwise known as being a Poochie, and yet they never come off as obnoxious or an inferior shadow to who they are meant to replace. Mackie continues to excel as the new Cap and his relationship with Carl Lumbly as Issiah Bradley does a lot to differentiate him thematically from the Steve Rogers incarnation of the character, who you don’t even miss while watching this. What really makes this movie, however, is Harrison Ford, who is probably too good for a goofy comic book movie like this yet still elevates the material without feeling completely out of place. Perhaps some of it is my nostalgia for the political thrillers that were his bread and butter in the nineties, but his gravitas in the role grounds an otherwise silly premise and makes scenes that could have been disastrous into engaging character moments. Action wise, it’s pretty solid with some well executed scenes that do a fantastic job of showing us what this version of Captain America can do, and while there’s an extended ocean battle that drags for far too long, it all comes together in an impressive finale that was sadly spoiled by the trailers but is no less thrilling to watch onscreen.
With all that said, I do have some problems that I’m not so easy to forgive, and most of it has to do with the story. For a movie with an embarrassment of riches, VFX artists, and great actors at its disposal, none of it feels fully realized due to the paper thin narrative that has the trappings of a political thriller but doesn’t embody any of its best qualities. Going into this, I was ready for a smaller story where the shocking twists and gasps from the audience would come from interpersonal conflict rather than the end of the world, but the tradeoff of this reduction in scope is that there would be added complexity to the story which never materializes. I understand that even at its most intellectually stimulating that the every MCU movie needs to hit as wide an audience as possible to hit half a billion and break even on its budget, but there’s too much hand waiving of mechanics and logistics for what is supposed to be a story about political machinations and the corruption of ambition. Most of this falls on our villain, and he is sadly one of the worst realized in the entire MCU. His motives are genuinely compelling and could have been heartbreaking to watch, but it’s hampered by a lackluster design and an overly convenient scheme that has no drama or cleverness to speak of. Those 90s movies weren’t the smartest ever made, especially when you get to stuff like Murder at 1600, but they at least played the part and slowed down enough for people to sit in a room and contemplate things with a modicum of nuance that reflected the political realities of its time. Perhaps that’s the biggest problem here; we’re so far into an alternate reality that MCU politics don’t meaningfully reflect our own, so whatever commentary this could have had given the thematic elements at play feels simplistic and weightless.
Did I get what I wanted out of this movie? Not really. It’s unable to fully reconcile its vision for the character and the franchise, so what we get is a mishmash of styles that don’t come together as much as they should. Still, as much as I would have liked Marvel to take a big swing here and give me the sequel to In the Line of Fire that I never knew I needed, I found more than enough to enjoy and can recommend this movie on its own merits. Even when Marvel doesn’t knock it out of the park, they still know how to put a decent movie together, but at some point they’re gonna have to finish course correcting and really let movies like this lead the way instead of guiding us through the latest detour.
The Reviewers Unite 