Josh Reviews Captain America: Brave New World

Captain America: Brave New World opens with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) inhabiting the mantle of Captain America, adventuring with his new sidekick Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), the new Falcon.  They retrieve a “package” stolen by terrorists, earning them appreciation from the newly elected President, none other than Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (now played by Harrison Ford, replacing the late William Hurt).  But things turn sour almost immediately, when Sam’s friend Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) is framed for an assassination attempt on President Ross, and Sam must try to uncover the true villain at the heart of the plot, all while an increasingly erratic Ross seems poised to set off world war three…

It’s a pleasure to see Anthony Mackie finally get to headline a movie of his own; I just wish it was better.  Captain America: Brave New World is fine movie.  There’s nothing egregiously bad in the film.  I had fun watching it.  Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford are both terrific.  It’s got a ton of deep-cut nods to MCU continuity that I enjoyed.  The third act battle (which you know from the trailers is going to be the Red Hulk vs the new Cap) is a lot of fun.  But the film never launches itself out of the category of “fine”.  The film has a ton of characters, but other than Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford, they’re all rather flat.  I didn’t care much about any of them.  A lot happens in the movie, but none of it feels like it has much weight or consequence.

As was the case with The Marvels (a film that feels to me like the edited-down “Cliff’s Notes” version of what was intended as a longer, better movie), the seams of the film’s production problems are painfully evident in the finished film.  If even half of the rumors about the making of this movie are true, it seems this film was significantly reworked and reshot, and watching the film, this was clear.  The film doesn’t have a smooth flow; scenes start and stop jankily; character motivations and plot points are unclear.  Too much exposition is given in news reports, or clearly ADRed phone conversations, or in an awkward “let’s explain the whole movie” scene with Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito) late in the game.  (I’ll give lots more examples later in this review.)

Now, is this movie worse than, say, some of the Phase One MCU films?  Certainly not.  None of the choppy editing in this movie sticks out more than, for example, the painfully awkward way that Hawkeye was jammed into a scene in the first Thor film.  But after some of the MCU’s recent stumbles (The Marvels bombing at the box office being a low point), I was hoping this would be a return to form.  (Deadpool and Wolverine was terrific — let’s not forget about that — but that took place mostly outside of the MCU.)  And I was hoping for a more exciting launch to what I’m sure Marvel wanted to be a new Captain America film series, with Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson in the leading role.  Why is the first Sam Wilson Cap film basically a stealth sequel to 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, a movie that Marvel has ignored for years after re-casting Bruce Banner (who was played by Edward Norton in that film)??  What a weird choice!!

Shall we dig in deeper?

Beware SPOILERS ahead!

As I wrote above, Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford are both terrific.  Mr. Mackie has such charisma and charm as an actor.  I loved that he got to be co-lead of one of the first Disney+ Marvel TV shows, and it’s exciting to see him given the lead role of a feature film.  It’s a bummer Mr. Mackie doesn’t really have anyone worthy of him to play off of.  His strong chemistry with Sebastian Stan (as Bucky) was a strong asset in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV show; I missed that here.  I also wish Sam had more of a character arc in this film.  On the one hand, I’m glad they didn’t just replay his arc from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, as I was worried they would.  But I’d have liked to have seen some sort of character-focused story for Sam!  I loved how his being an African American super hero was such a key element of the story in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier; we get a taste of that here, at the very end of the movie when Sam talks about getting a seat at the table.  It’d have been nice for that to have been more a part of the rest of the movie.  Or, if not that, some sort of character storyline!

Harrison Ford is on fire these days.  After decades in which I complained that I felt Mr. Ford had lost his spark, he’s amazing on Shrinking and he’s great fun here as the grumpy, snarly Thunderbolt Ross.  His scenes with Sam really crackle.  (I wish they had more scenes together in the film!)  I of course miss William Hurt, who had been playing Ross in the MCU for years, ever since 2008’s The Incredible Hulk.  I was worried that after Mr. Hurt passed away they’re forget about Ross; I’m thrilled that instead Marvel decided to recast, and make Ross such a big part of this film.  (I’d also assumed that he’d be a part of the next film, too: Thunderbolts.  I’d assumed this team of “Dark Avengers” would be named the Thunderbolts after President Ross!  I know that’s not the case in the comics, but it seemed so perfect here in the MCU!  But with Ross in prison at the end of this movie, maybe that’s not the case?  I’d thought that when Harrison Ford was first cast, that they’d said he’d be in Thunderbolts too, but I also think that film was originally supposed to come out before this one… so who knows?)

The Red Hulk has been a popular character in the Marvel comics for a while now, so it’s fun to see him make his way into the MCU.  And while I wasn’t too impressed with any of the action sequences in this film until the end, I thought the visual effects in that final Red Hulk fight were terrific.  They really made the Hulk look like Harrison Ford!!  That was so cool!

Watching this film, I could tell right from the opening minutes that the editing seemed off.  Scenes didn’t flow together smoothly.  In the opening montage, when we first see Sam Wilson, he’s walking through a bar; it seems clear he’s heading to meet someone, but the film cuts away and we never see the rest of that scene.  The opening series of news reports felt like an awkward post-production addition, like they were worried they needed to explain all sorts of stuff in the early going that the story didn’t do on its own.  Want more examples?  How about the weird way the movie just jumps into Sidewinder’s shooting at Cap in the car, in the middle of the movie?  (How did Sidewinder find Sam??)  How about how we see Sam grab his costume when he and Joaquin (the new Falcon) leave their (weirdly huge) HQ to chase after the Leader, but then when they go to Camp Echo One they’re still in their civvies?  How about the weird way in which, when Sebastian Stan pops up for his cameo, the film seems to assume we know that Bucky is running for Congress?  (Is that going to be a plot point in Thunderbolts?  Had Thunderbolts been released first, would we have known this info already?  Was that the original intention?)  How about the way Samuel Sterns seems to be able to just walk up in a hoodie to the base where Sam’s army crew are training?  (Maybe this last one is just a plot hole, but it’s emblematic of how the film’s choppy editing makes it often unclear who is where, and why.)

This film is steeped in MCU lore.  On the one hand; I love that.  On the other hand, this is one of the first times in a MCU film in which I’ve felt that the popular complaint about these movies — that you have to have seen 10 previous ones to understand the new one — is correct.  I love the continuity; I just wish it was handled a little more smoothly.

This film depends on a lot of info from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV show, especially concerning Carl Lumbly’s Isaiah Wilson.  Would someone who hasn’t seen that show understand who Isaiah is, or why he’s called “the forgotten Captain America” in the movie?  I was also thrilled to see the giant frozen Celestial, from the end of The Eternals, referenced again.  That was a HUGE development that I’m happy to see isn’t being ignored!  But making the third act of this new Captain America movie dependent on a plot point from The Eternals (which I loved, but much of the rest of the world didn’t) might not have been the best way to launch a new Sam Willson Captain America movie franchise.  Which brings me to…

I was thrilled to see The Incredible Hulk movie brought so firmly back into MCU continuity!  I was thrilled to see not only Thunderbolt Ross back, but also Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns (he’s The Leader in the comics, though the movie never uses that supervillain name, which bummed me out) and also, a real shock, Liv Tyler back (briefly) as Betty Ross!  (I really hope we see her again, and in a scene with Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner!)  But, as I’d noted above, the choice to make the first Sam Wilson Captain America film basically a sequel to this mostly forgotten 2008 movie feels like such a strange choice to me!  I want Sam to have his own storylines and supporting cast.

In that category, I was thrilled to see Carl Lumbly back as Isaiah; and he had more to do in the movie than I’d expected, which made me happy!  I wish the movie had better set up his backstory, for audience-members who didn’t see or didn’t remember The Falcon and the Winter Soldier… and after all his sad droopiness throughout the movie, I wish he’d gotten a scene in the end to re-establish him as a hero.  Wouldn’t it have been cooler had we seen HIM stop (or try to stop) the murders of the other hypnotized patsies, or at least use his superpowers to save himself?  Wouldn’t it have been cool had we seen him use his superpowers in ANY WAY after that first training sequence with Sam and Joaquin?  I wanted a better sense that he was ALLOWING himself to be held in prison, not using his powers to break out.  I wanted him to be more involved in the third act in a way that would have given the character back some of his dignity and heroism.  (I also would’ve loved to have seen Isaiah’s grandson Eli Bradley — who in the comics becomes the Captain America-inspired hero the Patriot — or maybe Sam’s sister, who were both characters on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.  They’d have been useful in fleshing out a Sam-specific series of supporting characters.)

I was so happy to have the great Tim Blake Nelson back as the Leader.  After waiting so long, I wish they’d better solved the visual look of this character.  His weird brains looked OK… but for much of the film he basically just looked like a guy in green paint; not very menacing.  Nor did his plot seem all that brilliant.  Why does he allow himself to be arrested at the end?  Why doesn’t he ever try to hypnotize Sam?  (And his end-credits scene was lame.  I am all for starting to lay the seeds of Secret Wars and the threat of more incursions — first seen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.  But this clumsy speech given to the Leader made no sense.  Even if I believed this character would know about the multiverse and incursions, this speech to Sam was dumb and totally disconnected from his plot and motivation as seen in the rest of the movie.)

I love Giancarlo Esposito (Gus Fring in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, and Moff Gideon on The Mandalorian) and I’m delighted to see him in the MCU.  I wish he had more to do here in this film.  The Serpent Society are classic goofy super-villains from the Marvel Comics; why are they just lame dudes with guns here in this movie??  Why aren’t they actually snake-themed super-villains?  It’s such a waste of the Serpent Society!  (I’ve heard rumors that in an earlier version of this film they were more super-villainy; also, apparently Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel; Undone) was cast as Diamondback, but she doesn’t appear at all in the finished film.  Though she was included in the original 2024 McDonald’s Happy Meal toys released to promote this film!!)

I liked Danny Ramirez as Joaquin, the new Falcon, in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and he was fine in this film, albeit disappointingly forgettable.  I wish the film better sold the bond between Sam and Joaquin.  I wish Joaquin had more of a character to play, or was at least more useful in the plot.  Why does Sam — who still has his Falcon wings, even as Captain America — also need a sidekick Falcon?  Same goes for Xosha Roquemore, who is fine as Leila Taylor, the African American woman in President Ross’s secret service detail.  I wish the film better established a relationship between her and Sam.  It’d have been fun to have seen them as oil and water enemies… or perhaps seeing some romantic sparks between them!  (Or both!)  Either would have been better than the vanilla nothing we got.  Ms. Roquemore seems like she’s a fine actor; I wish the film gave her more to play.  (And it’d have been nice for Anthony Mackie to have been allowed to be a romantic lead, not just a heroic one.)

I was excited when it was announced, years ago, that Ruth Bat-Seraph, who is the Israeli super-hero Sabra, would be included in this film.  Unfortunately, this announcement was followed by a lot of ugly Anti-Semitic backlash on the internet; and when the current Israel-Hamas war started (following Hamas’ brutal massacre of over 1400 innocent Israeli men, women and children), it was unclear to what degree the reshoots would rework or remove this character.  On the one hand, I am pleased that Ruth does still have a lot to do in the film, and the film does still acknowledge her as Israeli.  But this character bears little resemblance to her character in the comics; the film reworks her to be a former Black Widow (and now, somehow, in charge of the U.S. President’s security?).  Now, making Ruth a former Black Widow is not a crazy use of this character in the MCU.  I am OK with that.  I wasn’t expecting her to actually be the super-hero Sabra in this film, so I’m not disappointed that she’s not.  My main disappointment is that Ruth (played by actress Shira Haas) is, like most of the rest of the supporting characters in this film, given lots of plot stuff but very little actual character.

More thoughts:

• How many audience members know that when President Ross is talking angrily about the destruction of Harlem, he’s referring back to the third act of 2008’s The Incredible Hulk?  Even in-universe, it seems weird to me that Ross is still so burned up about that — wouldn’t that pale in comparison to the trauma of the blip?
• It’s interesting to see the Raft (first seen in Captain America: Civil War) is still in operation (as opposed to, say, the Damage Control villain prison seen in Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk).  I wonder if there are any other prisoners there these days besides Ross?
• I’m not sure how I feel about the giant Celestial being the origin of adamantium in the MCU.  (That’s the unbreakable metal that makes up Wolverine’s bones.)  It’s nice to see X-Men stuff being slowly woven into the MCU, and I like that this plot point from The Eternals is being used for something important, though this is a wild divergence from the comics.

I feel like I’ve lodged many complaints against Captain America: Brave New World in this review.  Too many?  The film really isn’t bad!  It’s just that it’s not that great either; certainly not as great as I wanted it to be, or as I felt that Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson deserved.  Can the upcoming Thunderbolts* film do a better job of bringing back the joy I felt for so many years, when walking out of a new MCU film?  Here’s hoping!!