Following widely publicized production
woes and extensive reshoots, Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World has arrived, and
although it’s not as disappointing as social media or Rotten Tomatoes might
have you believe, it’s a shaky flight for the winged Avenger.
Featuring Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, having taken up the
Cap mantle from Steve Rogers at the conclusion of Avengers: Endgame and solidifying
himself as the star-spangled hero in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter
Soldier, this film unfortunately only feels like a Captain America sequel
sometimes. Mostly, it’s a follow-up to 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, with
many plotlines and characters carried over from that film 17 years later. It’s
also a follow-up to notorious Marvel miss The Eternals, finally addressing
the massive dead Celestial in the Indian Ocean that one would think would play
into the MCU over the past 4 years. I give the film credit for picking up the
pieces and pulling these elements back into continuity, but it all starts to
feel more like housekeeping than storytelling – especially when these elements pull
us away from Sam.
The pacing is a bit rough as well, and the two-hour film feels longer than that. The action scenes are fun when they aren’t generic, choppy fistfights – especially an aerial dogfight and the thrilling-but-brief battle between Cap and Red Hulk – but the rest of the film is mostly exposition-heavy and feels more procedural than powerful. It seems like Julius Onah is trying to replicate the political intrigue of the Russo brothers’ Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but it often feels like a serviceable episode of Law & Order instead.
Despite feeling flat and disjointed overall, there were some good performances. Mackie brings a lot of charm to Sam’s Captain America, while Harrison Ford – stepping into the role of “Thunderbolt” Ross following William Hurt’s death – brings new vulnerability and urgency to the character, especially when he finally “Hulks out” in the third act. Danny Ramirez provides warmth and humor to the role of Joaquin Torres/Falcon, and Giancarlo Esposito oozes his trademark measured menace as Sidewinder, the leader of the villainous Serpent Society, even though it often feels like he’s in a different movie altogether. Everyone else does fine enough with what they’re given, although one returning character from The Incredible Hulk who winds up being the film’s primary antagonist elicited a lot of unintended laughs from my screening due to sheer goofiness.
All that said, I wouldn’t say Captain America: Brave New
World is among Marvel Studios’ worst outings, but it’s solidly middle-of-the-road.
It hints at big things for The Avengers and the MCU as a whole, but to me felt
like a hollow, brief, occasionally enjoyable experience in and of itself. I
should note, however, that this film has one of the worst post-credit sequences
in the history of the MCU. If you need to race to the bathroom as soon as the
credits start, it’s not worth the wait.
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