“Captain America: Brave New World” Review
Anthony Mackie dons the mantle and the shield of Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest entry: “Captain America: Brave New World”.
After “Avengers: Endgame” closed one chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the subsequent phase of films and television shows (Phase Four) came over the next few years to a mixed response within the fanbase with some even dubbing this collective group of stories “Phase Bore”. I however don’t see it that way. While not every film in this phase was a hit, there were plenty that managed to leave me very happy including “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”. Even the more disappointing entries, like “Eternals”, were still taking big swings. As for the shows, the MCU was putting out some of their most inspiring work including “Loki”, “WandaVision” and “Moon Knight”.
To me, the phase the MCU is currently in (Phase Five) is far more underwhelming. While there have been some bright spots, like “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”, “Agatha All Along” and “Deadpool & Wolverine”, many of the films and series have felt lifeless. I haven’t loathed most of them but I haven’t caught that same spark of joy that other MCU stories, even recent ones, usually give me. While the future of this franchise still has potential, including from films to be released this year, “Captain America: Brave New World”, the latest entry from Marvel, feels like just another Marvel story without the punch.
After being gifted the iconic shield from Steve Rogers in “Avengers: Endgame” and embracing the mantle of Captain America in the series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is now going on important missions wearing the stars and stripes while training his protege Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) to become the next Falcon. After many successful outings as Captain America, Wilson is approached by General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford), now President of the United States, to restart The Avengers. Despite their bad history, Wilson is interested in working with President Ross. However, these plans are put on hold as an assassination attempt on President Ross places Captain America, Falcon and their allies in the middle of a conspiracy being perpetrated by an old enemy to thrust the United States into chaos and war.
One thing that I always liked about the films centered on Captain America was how their stories felt more grounded in comparison to something like “Guardians of the Galaxy” or “Thor” but they still embraced the fantasy of being an adaptation of comic books. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” may be filled with interesting commentary regarding the security apparatus of America and its ethics but it also stars a guy who throws a shield to stop an assassin with a robot arm. After several MCU films where the characters are in space, the Quantum Realm or traveling throughout the multiverse, I like the idea of a film returning to a more “realistic” side of this franchise.
In this world, Anthony Mackie works well as Captain America and you see in Mackie’s performance a dedication to upholding the ideals of Steve Rogers while also finding his own way forward as a symbol for everything America should be. For over a decade, Mackie has been playing Sam Wilson and, after a few sequences in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”, it was enjoyable to see him as Captain America in a film.
Tragically, Sam Wilson feels wasted, along with the rest of the cast, by an unfocused plot that feels like everything we’ve seen before but without the fresh speed. The film’s screenplay has five writers attached and you can tell because “Captain America: Brave New World” has no idea what it wants to be, where the focus should be and even who the villain is. “Brave New World” feels like a classic example of two many cooks in one kitchen with much of the story feeling chopped from other scripts and being pasted together. If you’re going to make a film where the President is being targeted by a relentless villain with super-intelligence, there needs to be more urgency and it needs to feel more grand. In other MCU films involving conspiracies, it felt larger and you felt like the heroes couldn’t be safe anywhere. That’s not the case here. This needed more paranoia like other great political thrillers and even other MCU entries.
As a result of having many plot points, characters feel simplified often to their detriment. One casualty is Danny Ramirez whose performance as Joaquin Torres is often reduced to comic relief who throws quips around more than a Spider-Man blooper reel. Most of these jokes aren’t very funny and they actually undermine the friendship between Torres and Wilson because I’d rather they just talk like normal guys which was very much present in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” where Torres made his first appearance. The pair have a very good scene together in the last third where they have an honest heart-to-hot without any quips. I wish there were more scenes like that.
Also wasted is the great Giancarlo Esposito as Sidewinder: the head of a terrorist network known as the Serpent Society. While Esposito brings the energy of a main antagonist to the table, his role is sidelined to be a goon of the real villain of this story: Dr. Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson). Despite having true menace attached to him and starring in one of “Brave New World’s” best action sequences, Esposito doesn’t leave much of an impression because he’s not given enough time to do so.
Some of the characters do manage to make it through this film unscathed and, in fact, add enjoyment to the story. After starring in “The Incredible Hulk” 17 years ago, Tim Blake Nelson returns to play Dr. Samuel Sterns who had his brain chemistry altered when he was accidentally infused with some of Dr. Bruce Banner’s blood. But instead of becoming a monster like The Hulk, it gave him an incredible intellect. Now seeking vengeance against President Ross, Sterns crafts a master plan, based on accurate predictions and calculations, to destroy Ross and plunge the world into chaos. Nelson is excellent in projecting this off putting persona and his scenes have this creep factor that works to the film’s benefit.
Harrison Ford also accepts the challenge of playing President Ross with his immense talent and gives this character excellent depth, doing an admirable job taking over for the late William Hurt, who first played the role in “The Incredible Hulk” and reprised it several more times including in Hurt’s final performance in “Black Widow”. Instead of a flat impression, Ford has this intensity to him that makes the role his own. While his allegiance to Captain America is fragile given his run-ins with superheroes in the past, it’s clear that Ross wants to move forward and try to change. As far as I’m concerned, Harrison Ford is one of our finest actors and every performance he gives, including this one, only cements that for me.
But no matter how good the actors are, they only add some enjoyment to the tired story. Also detracting from “Brave New World” is the underwhelming action scenes that don’t have many epic qualities. Most of the fights felt too short, were set in uninteresting locations or featured too much flat CGI. Not that all of my action sequences have to look beautiful or be these lengthy showcases. One of the best fights in a more grounded Marvel film is the elevator scene from “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”. It was a short burst of adrenaline that was shot intensely with proper build-up and it all felt fresh. The stunt performers in this film are clearly putting a lot on the line and the actors are all trying hard but Julius Onah’s direction lacks that excitement we’ve come to expect from the MCU and Captain America’s films in particular.
Overall, “Captain America: Brave New World” isn’t awful or even bad. Nor is it good. The film is just in the middle and feels like another Marvel film with very few qualities that warrant a rewatch aside from wanting to marathon the whole series. While I still have faith in the MCU and look forward to films like ”Thunderbolts*” and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” as well as shows like “Daredevil: Born Again”, Marvel needs to really inject adrenaline into the narrative if they want us to be excited for their upcoming Avengers films.
