Sam Wilson, the new Captain America, finds himself in the middle of an international incident and must discover the motive behind a nefarious global plan. (from IMDB)
In 2019, we said goodbye to Steve Rogers as Captain America when he retired at the end of Avengers: Endgame. During the finale, Steve handed off his iconic vibranium shield to his friend Sam Wilson, AKA Falcon, at the same time passing the mantle along with it. In 2021, Disney turned this transition period into a miniseries on their streaming service, Disney Plus, titled Falcon and the Winter Soldier. They used this series to give Sam a chance to try retiring the Captain America shield and name, but the government ended up electing their own Captain America instead with a decorated soldier named John Walker. Ultimately, that didn't work out, especially when Walker ended up taking the super soldier syrum which compromised his heroic integrity, and Sam had to team up with Bucky (AKA The Winter Soldier) in order to stop Walker (along with a new terrorist threat). The series ended with Falcon meeting an elderly, abandoned super soldier named Isaiah Bradley, and deciding to reverse his original decision and take on the role of Captain America in an official capacity.
Mackie's first true outing as Captain America comes in the form of the fourth Captain America film, Brave New World. The movie serves as a follow-up to Falcon and the Winter Soldier, as well as a sequel to 2008's The Incredible Hulk... as crazy as that might sound. It also finally addresses the climactic events of 2021's otherwise waste-of-time Eternals, which saw the emergence of a gigantic celestial being in the Indian Ocean (and it has been frozen as a statue ever since). I saw a review snippet quoted online recently calling this movie a film all about loose ends, and that description can't be more accurate.
I loved Chris Evans as Steve Rogers in all of the Marvel films that featured him. Mackie has always been a good and loyal sidekick of sorts to Cap (ever since being introduced in the second solo Cap movie, The Winter Soldier) - someone who is quick to support him and be by his side through thick and thin. "I do everything he does, just slower," as the character once said about his allegiance to Cap. Sam Wilson is great as a soldier-turned-sort-of-superhero-sidekick, but can he really fill the big boots of Captain America? Sadly, everything that has come since Endgame has proven that he just can't -- even if he's yet another underdog wearing the stars and stripes. In Brave New World, Marvel attempts another Captain America: The Winter Soldier-style spy thriller, but it just doesn't have the right direction for it. Director Julius Onah, who has no real notable prior directorial efforts, feels pretty green in how he handles the material here. Worse yet, Laura Karpman's orchestral score betrays the vibe the movie so desperately wants to convey. Henry Jackman provided the score for Winter Soldier, Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Civil War, expertly creating the tension and dark intrigue the films often called for (That "Winter Soldier" theme is just brilliant), and then excelled at the heroic themes that the bigger action sequences called for. Karpman, who previously contributed music for The Marvels and Ms. Marvel, goes too big and too over-the-top throughout the entire film, giving moments that called for more nuance far cheesier vibes. Music is really everything, people; it can make or break a film. It can elevate a mediocre or average film to be something greater than it actually is, or it can ruin a truly good movie. (And heck, on the other side of the coin, a great movie can make so-so music really stand out.) Brave New World needed a tight team to pull it off, but instead, it feels like it exists only because someone in charge just felt obligated to make it (and therefore felt like, "Well, I guess we can tie up some loose ends while we're at it then").
As a fan of Harrison Ford since his portrayals as Han Solo and Indiana Jones, I was pretty thrilled to hear he'd be taking over William Hurt's role as Thaddeus Ross after Hurt's passing in 2022. Since 2008, Hurt has appeared as Ross in several Marvel films, reprising his role in Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and in smaller capacities in a couple other films. It's hard to adjust to Ford as that character, but you'll be surprised to see that Ford's Ross gets a pretty substantial amount of screentime. He's no spring chicken these days, being 82 now since last July, but he does pretty well in Brave New World in spite of his age. I'd think he'd find movies like these sort of beneath him, but it's nice to find a big screen legend like Ford making it into the MCU - and as the U.S. President, no less. There are definitely moments where he seemed out of place, unfortunately, and I couldn't help but wonder how much of that is the fault of the script, direction, or just Ford being past his prime. But, when all is said and done, I have to say it was nice to see the 80's action hero back in action once more.
With Wilson donning the Captain America mantle for this movie, this sort-of leaves an opening for a new Falcon - something Wilson seems reluctant to address. But Danny Ramirez's Joaquín Torres is a lighthearted addition to the new Cap team. He makes a good compadre for Wilson -- even if it never feels much more than a sidekick for a sidekick (Sorry, Mackie). This movie feels like it at least needed Bucky's Winter Soldier to fight alongside this new Cap, but my guess is they wanted Sam to establish an identity of his own on his own. It's also just really hard to adjust to his new role when the movie itself seems to be trying too hard to compensate for its weaknesses its aware of. You can feel it in the way it handles a couple anticipated cameos, or in the way it's knowingly trying to tie up loose ends. (Whether or not those loose ends were ones anyone had ever really cared about in the first place.) Remember when Shang-Chi surprisingly brought back the fake Mandarin from Iron Man 3 to address that elephant? It's jarring to the point of yanking you out of the proceedings. I'm sure there's a good - and appropriate - way to handle this material, and sadly, I think this is where good direction is notably lacking.
The content is on par for the Cap movies, with the exception of a considerable increase in profanity usage. I noted at least 17 uses of the "S" word, quite a few instances of more minor cuss words, a couple of "S.O.B," and a few uses of blasphemy. It's unfortunate, because, again, Disney knows these movies are aimed at kids and families - no matter what the content they put in it is. I was surprised at how rough the content in the Falcon and the Winter Soldier series was (with anything on Disney Plus being even more accessible to kids and families), and this movie is very much in line with that. Violence is frequent, with some of it being bloody. One of the roughest moments shows a character under mind control open a door, shoot everyone in a room - unseen to us - and then put the gun in his own mouth. We then see someone else's reaction as we hear that trigger pulled. We then get a quick glimpse of the room with the victims having bloody bullet holes in their foreheads and blood on the walls and around them. Another scene shows a main character take a knife to the chest and a mini ax to the abdomen, with the blades remaining sticking out for some time afterwards (and blood around the wounds in their shirt). Later, when the Red Hulk appears (it's not really a secret at this point; he's in all the ads and on the posters), we see several blades stick into his skin with purplish-bloody results, and a few slow motion shots of his skin getting cut and even some blood flying in the moment. There's also a shot of the Hulk's skin getting impaled and him reacting to the purple-colored gash that's left behind.
Part of me was nonsensically looking forward to this movie just because it's "Captain America," but I pushed my expectations way down because I knew it's not really what I wanted it to be (i.e. a new Steve Rogers adventure). Ford's casting - and a decent first trailer - did elevate those expectations some, but I went in without much emotional investment, and therefore left without any major disappointment. In fact, I found myself enjoying some of the ride (kind of like I did with those terribly disappointing Disney Star Wars sequels), but the problems with the movie never stopped being glaring in the moment. Knowing that Marvel is always building onto their Cinematic Universe, the casting for some new characters was surprisingly faulty. Shira Haas plays Ruth Bat-Seraph, which a quick Google search shows her to be a mutant of Israeli descent. We learn in the movie that she's an ex-Widow, like Nastasha was, but her on-screen presence is awkward and she is never as interesting as the movie wants you to believe her to be. (And why is she sort-of wearing superhero armor under her jacket at one point? It's so weird.) Then there's Ross's aid, Leila Taylor, played by Xosha Roquemore, who is so wooden and lifeless, she's instantly forgettable (or memorable for being a talking human statue). The Mandalorian's Giancarlo Esposito is decent as Sidewinder, but he really doesn't get more than a few minutes of screentime. However, his few scenes with Sam are memorable, especially when the two have an unexpected showdown at one point. Lastly, Tim Blake Nelson is back as Samuel Sterns - again, who we haven't seen since 2008's The Incredible Hulk, and his performance is just a bit too over-the-top and cartoony for the film's own good. If the movie wants to be a younger sibling of 2014's The Winter Soldier, it fails with details like these alone.
I'm definitely not here to hate on Captain America: Brave New World or the MCU. I'm a big fan of the Avengers films and Steve Rogers' Captain America - and basically the MCU up until and including Avengers: Endgame, with just a couple of entries since then (Spider-Man: No Way Home quickly comes to mind as a highlight, and I did enjoy Black Widow). But Marvel seems to be floundering like a fish washed up on shore since wrapping up the first run with Endgame. I still look forward to the latest franchise entries, but it's tough to get excited about them when their quality seem to have dipped so dramatically. If you're a fan of Sam Wilson, and actually enjoy some of the lesser entries in the MCU, then Brave New World should still land just right for you. But if you're longing for the days when Marvel was just knocking them out of the park one movie after another, you're probably not going to like where it's going with this one.
By the way, there is a scene all the way at the end of the credits that teases something for a future Marvel movie. (But it really isn't all that exciting.)
- John DiBiase (reviewed: 2/15/25)
Disclaimer: All reviews are based solely on the opinions of the reviewer. Most reviews are rated on how the reviewer enjoyed the film overall, not exclusively on content. However, if the content really affects the reviewer's opinion and experience of the film, it will definitely affect the reviewer's overall rating.
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