My favorite moment of Captain America: Brave New World lasted about two seconds. In one of the film’s better big battles, Captain America and Falcon are attempting to stop two fighter jets from attacking the militaries of multiple countries. Things blow up, machine guns are fired, and at one point Captain America stops a missile by riding it like a surfboard. It happens in a flash but, at that moment, I realized what the film I was watching had been missing: something, anything, unique and fun.
Captain America: Brave New World is the fourth film about the titular mantle, and the first with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) wielding the shield. That passing of the torch happened in a movie released six years ago (2019’s Avengers: Endgame) and was explored with a little extra depth and care in a TV show released four years ago (2021’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), both of which come to fruition in a story that’s a direct sequel to a movie released 17 years ago (2008’s The Incredible Hulk). Basically, very little in this movie is “brave” or “new.” More like “tried” and “true.”
© Marvel StudiosHere, Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford, taking over for the late William Hurt) is now President of the United States and must deal with the fallout from a movie also released four years ago (2021’s Eternals). In that film, the corpse of a celestial being was left behind on Earth, and now Ross finds himself trying to broker a treaty that would fairly distribute the island’s resources. The main resource, adamantium, is actually new in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but unless you know its ultimate applications from the comics (or the last Marvel movie), it’s never adequately explained why it’s so important. They know you know, so you just kind of go with it.
Weaving in and out of the progress of that treaty is Captain America, often joined by his friend Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) who is slowly slipping into Wilson’s old role as The Falcon. They steal a secret package. Their friend is framed for murder. They hang out together in this plush Captain America-themed apartment and, eventually, they uncover a plot concocted by Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) who has a beef with Ross dating all the way back to the second MCU movie ever. He’s a cool-ish villain but is largely kept in the shadows until the end of the film, undercutting some of that impact.
If all of this sounds a little stale, kind of dumb, and overly complicated, that’s because it is. Captain America: Brave New World goes back and forth from long, drawn-out narrative dumps, the occasional exposition dump, and mostly pointless action set pieces that do little to advance the plot. Often they feel added out of obligation, just to fill a few minutes until the characters can overly explain the–ultimately–kind of simple plot for the 20th time. This pattern repeats, all leading to a scene we know is coming because it’s on every single piece of marketing out there: Ross becoming a red Hulk. That the movie treats it like a big reveal, one that’s teased from the very beginning of the movie, but that it’s literally on the poster as you walk into the theater is another perfect example of Brave New World‘s failures. The whole thing is crafted with this moment being the huge, epic, surprising, Marvel climax, but there’s zero suspense, and it ends up looking and feeling almost exactly like every other Hulk scene in previous Marvel movies. It simply falls flat.
Spoilers – this guy is in the movie. – Marvel StudiosA few things don’t fall flat, though. Riding a missile like a surfboard for two seconds is one. More importantly, the cast is another. Anthony Mackie fully becomes Captain America here, rising to the occasion he’s been working towards since 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. While seemingly everything happening around Mackie fails to raise any emotions or warrant much attention, his charisma and confidence fight against that, a superheroic feat if ever there was one. Ford mostly shines too, but he’s Harrison Ford–so as long as he’s screaming his lines with even an iota of energy, he’s great. Marvel newcomer Shira Haas plays Ruth Bat-Seraph, a former Black Widow turned Ross’s head of security, and though the character has the most unclear arc in the film, she’s incredibly captivating to watch. Ramirez balances well with Mackie, offering at least a hint of humor, and supporting turns from Blake Nelson and an unfortunately pointless Giancarlo Esposito work because each almost seems to know they’re not in a great movie.
Which would be perfect if the movie itself was aware of that, but it is not. Starting with a unique, stylized “Marvel Studios” logo, to the bold decision to just call the film “Brave New World” (sans “Captain America”) at the beginning, director Julius Onah thinks he’s at the helm of some slick, important, 1970s political thriller. Or, at the very least, a film closer to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. That’s not the case. Brave New World has no idea what it wants to be, no idea what it wants to say, and a story without any significant dramatics. Even the handful of scenes that have some heart or excitement get quickly get drowned out by extraneous exposition or unconvincingly half-hearted character motivation.
There are a few crumbs for Marvel Cinematic Universe fans spread throughout, including one scene at the very end of the credits, but none of it–including the introduction of adamantium and its obvious, comics-driven implication for the future–ever adds up to make Captain America: Brave New World what it wants to be: an important, memorable addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Mackie might be a worthy successor to Chris Evans, but Brave New World is a bottom-tier Marvel movie with a snooze-worthy plot and low emotional stakes.
Captain America: Brave New World opens this Friday, February 14. Happy Valentines?
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