CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD:
SAM TOLD STEVE HE’D DO HIS BEST; HIS BEST IS GOOD ENOUGH!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: *** out of 4
MARVEL STUDIOS
Anthony Mackie in Captain America: Brave New World
Anthony Mackie (8 Mile, The Hurt Locker, Detroit) dons the shield and takes on the mantle as Captain America from Chris Evans in Captain America: Brave New World, the latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the fourth Captain America film. This marks the first Captain America movie without Chris Evans or the Steve Rogers character as it takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame and the Disney+ series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier with Mackie’s Sam Wilson becoming the new Captain America.
Despite not being that impressed by some of the MCU’s recent outings aside from Spider-Man: No Way Homeand Deadpool & Wolverine, I was curious to see how this movie would turn out when it was announced even if I felt there was no need to continue the Captain America movies after 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and 2016’s Captain America: Civil War which were landmarks in the superhero/comic book genre. But I enjoyed The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series even if the last episode didn’t quite stick the landing for many so, I was interested in Anthony Mackie’s first solo Captain America movie under direction by Julius Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox) and the verdict…it’s okay.
Apparently, the film is garnering mixed reactions from people and truth be told, both sides are validated here especially after Civil War was such a massive juggernaut in 2016. For me personally, I don’t think this movie is terrible as there are a lot of aspects about it I very much admired, but it doesn’t exactly leave that big an impression after the credits.
The film follows Sam Wilson/Captain America (Mackie) meeting with newly elected U.S. President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford-Star Wars franchise, Indiana Jones franchise, Air Force One; replacing William Hurt from the previous films) who asks for his help in rebuilding the Avengers. However, Sam soon finds himself in the middle of an international incident and must discover the reason behind a global plot before the mastermind makes the world see red.
The film also stars Danny Ramirez (The Gifted, Assassination Nation, Top Gun: Maverick) as Joaquin Torres/Falcon, Shira Haas (The Zookeeper’s Wife, Broken Mirrors, Asia) as Ruth Bat-Seraph, Carl Lumbly (South Central, A Cure for Wellness, Doctor Sleep) reprising his role from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as Isaiah Bradley, Xosha Roquemore (Precious, The Butler, Space Jam: A New Legacy) as Leila Taylor, Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem) as Seth Voelker/Sidewinder, and Tim Blake Nelson (Holes, Colossal, Nightmare Alley) reprising his role from The Incredible Hulk as Samuel Sterns/Leader.
Overall, Captain America: Brave New World is a passable MCU film that is a significant step down from previous Cap adventures, but Anthony Mackie’s likable performance as Sam Wilson, solid action scenes, and engaging enough storytelling make it an entertaining watch while in the moment. I think my biggest issue with this movie is that it doesn’t really take Marvel audiences anywhere new whereas the previous Captain America movies did either in terms of the MCU or comic book films in general.
Captain America: The First Avenger was a superhero movie set during World War II times with Captain America fighting Nazis, Captain America: The Winter Soldier was basically a political thriller that revolved around an evil Hydra conspiracy hidden within S.H.I.E.L.D., and Captain America: Civil War was an epic clash between Captain America and Iron Man among other Avengers over the Sokovia Accords. Brave New World is another political thriller with yet another conspiracy only this time it’s with the U.S. Government and Thaddeus Ross that I was invested in, don’t get me wrong, but it felt cheapened when compared to how The Winter Soldier had a similar plot and did it better in 2014.
With that said, I actually thought the stuff with Ross’ transformation into the Red Hulk (Which is not a spoiler because it’s in all the advertising and trailers) was pretty well-handled in this film with him not being on speaking terms with his daughter, Betty (Liv Tyler’s character from The Incredible Hulk) and secret revelations about him and actions from his past going public. Despite the marketing portraying Ross as like a villain (And given certain real-life events, that probably was intentional), that’s not really the case in the film itself as he is trying to change and make amends for past events which adds to the tragedy of the Red Hulk transformation, he goes through an arc over the course of the story and one of the most easily detestable characters in the MCU ends up being quite endearing here.
Anthony Mackie once again is great as Sam Wilson though there’s not much that’s different about him compared to his appearances in previous Marvel movies or The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. But he’s still very charismatic, funny, and has enjoyable chemistry with his co-stars especially with Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus Ross.
Harrison Ford is an excellent replacement for William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross and brings his A-game to the character. It also helps I’ve been a fan of Ford for a long time thanks to growing up with Star Wars and Indiana Jonesand does a stellar job encompassing this character while making it his own, Harrison Ford is not trying to imitate William Hurt’s performance, he’s doing his own take just like when Don Cheadle took over as Rhodey in Iron Man 2 and Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk in The Avengers.
Captain America: Brave New World had the potential to bring the Marvel Cinematic Universe back on track with a fascinating political thriller plot in the same vein as The Winter Soldier, but in the end it feels very jumbled together because of multiple screenwriters and reshoots. It’s not Thor: Love and Thunder or Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania but coming off of one of the greatest comic book movies of all time with Captain America: Civil War, this one is simply an entertaining Marvel movie that’s ironically not all that “New”.
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