Captain America: Brave New World begins with a Mission Impossible-like opening in terms of vibes and also dropping the Marvel Studios fanfare intro for a more grim opening. While there is a lot to enjoy or take away from this Marvel film entry, it falls short of reinvigorating the recent Marvel film franchise slump.
The story has the makings of Captain America: Civil War, where heroes and villains are pitted against each other by a third party. Civil War had Baron Zemo; this film had Samuel Sterns, aka The Leader. After meeting with the newly elected U.S. President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford), Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) finds himself in the middle of an international incident. He must discover the reason behind a nefarious global plot before the true mastermind has the entire world seeing red.
Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World stars Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly, Xosha Roquemore, Giancarlo Esposito, Liv Tyler, Tim Blake Nelson, and Ford. The film is directed by Nigerian-American filmmaker Julius Onah, who is most notable for directing Luce and The Cloverfield Paradox.
“Anthony Mackie does the heavy lifting to land this film successfully, but even his strong performance can’t fully save it.”
The story of this fourth Captain America film took some inspiration from previous films in the Captain America films but takes some other vibes from other Marvel entries like Black Widow and The Incredible Hulk. The folly of this movie was how it felt more like a sequel to The Incredible Hulk than it did being a Captain America movie. With Thaddeus and Samuel’s return to the big screen, this movie felt like it was more of a reunion for them and Sam and Joaquin were just caught in the middle of them.
The best parts of the film are the action set pieces, the way The Leader manipulates everyone, and Anthony Mackie doing the heavy lifting of trying to land this film successfully. The choreography was creative enough for Sam’s move set list. Unfortunately, the fights did not last long enough to make the moves really worth it. While the fights were realistic for Sam not being a super soldier, there could have been longer fights.
What makes a good fight in film is based on how believable the actors or stuntpeople can sell the fight. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was a great way to see Sam evolve into the new Captain America, and we see Sam learn how to use the shield as a weapon that works for him. Essentially, he showed off how to mix his Falcon moves with a remix of Steve’s moves.
“The chemistry between Mackie and Ramirez’s Falcon was underwhelming, making their banter feel repetitive rather than dynamic.”
Captain America: Brave New World has moments that show how Sam has a new set of moves since the show’s timeline, but the fights were short-lived. The only fight that felt worthwhile was the final fight between Sam and Red Hulk. The final fight held great tension, with Sam taking a huge beating and the fear of knowing Sam is not superpowered ratchets up the potential of Sam getting mauled by Red Hulk.
For a film as big as this one, the VFX department also has some heavy lifting to do as well. For the most part, the VFX and CGI used were executed decently—Celestial Island looked great. The VFX teams deserve some major credit for making Red Hulk different in his own ways and making the facial features match more to Ford’s regular face.
However, there was one shot that needed some better work done. When Sam had to talk Thaddeus down from raging as Red Hulk, the CGI blue screen background stood out so badly. It took me out of the moment. Maybe it was a time crunch issue, but it was egregious. But there were just as bad issues that made Captain America: Brave New World fall short this time around.
Again, Mackie carried a lot of the great acting in this film, arguably Carl Lumbly’s Isaiah Bradley, too. Every other main character brought a different level of acting that did not really work for their characters well. Giancarlo Esposito always brings the heat in all his roles, and this one as Sidewinder was just as good. It is unfortunate that he did not get a lot of screen time in this film.
Ford was always going to be a hit-or-miss replacement for Wiliam Hurt as Thaddeus, and it is disheartening to see how different Ford’s portrayal of the character was in this movie. Hurt brought a quiet, clever villainy to Thaddeus, whereas Ford brought a short-tempered, bumbling Thaddeus depiction. The stark differences were too hard not to ignore, but maybe Ford’s version will grow on me and audiences more later on.
Another disappointment of this film was the lack of chemistry between Mackie and Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres, aka Falcon. There were moments of good back-and-forth, especially about the Miami comment near the end. But the ongoing jokes about Ant-Man and Joaquin constantly asking Sam for some tips and tricks to be a better Falcon outlived its stay being mentioned at multiple moments. The bromance between Sam and Bucky Barnes, aka The Winter Soldier, was built up a lot better than this. Even though we have seen Sam and Bucky longer, their initial back-and-forth was funnier and entertaining—without even using words at times.
“In an era of superhero fatigue, Brave New World is a good movie but not one of Marvel’s best, struggling to recapture the heart of previous Captain America films.”
One of the last saving graces for this Phase Five Marvel movie is Laura Karpman’s score for this film. Her last composing works for Marvel included The Marvels and Ms. Marvel, which added some powerful orchestral work to drive up the action sequences. Karpman was recently Oscar-nominated for Best Original Score for American Fiction, too. Her work on Captain America: Brave New World was sadly the least inspiring work in comparison to the examples mentioned above.
The score during action scenes was hype, and the quieter, sinister moments added some menacing vibes. Despite all this, there was not a clear thematic vision with the score. Yes, it achieved its ability to sell high-octane action and add some scary notes when The Leader was lurking in the shadows. Where it fell short was how there was not anything resembling musical themes from previous Marvel films, nor were there any recurring notes to emphasize a Sam Wilson/Captain America theme.
It would not be shocking if Captain America: Brave New World fell short of its box office goals. In a time of superhero movie fatigue, this one will most likely not be one of the memorable ones. It was a good movie, but not one of the better MCU movies. Recently, Deadpool & Wolverine had its own fair share of issues but was entertaining, and almost everything tonally hit their intended marks. This movie had issues all around, missing a lot of the entertainment and heart from the previous Captain America films. Hopefully, Thunderbolts* will do better.
