Captain America Brave New World Review- Not Really Brave or New

In the latest Captain America movie, Marvel tries to convince us that just as ‘the clothes maketh the man’, the costume maketh the Superhero, but does it succeed?

Captain America Brave New World demonstrates that I still have difficulty with change when it comes to my fantasy heroes. Despite loving Florence Pugh as an actress, I still haven’t embraced her as my Black Widow because I’m still very attached to Scarlett Johansson. The Upcoming ‘Thunderbolts*’ movie looks fun and may change my mind. But how does this all relate to the latest Captain America?

From the moment the movie was announced, I had several concerns. Firstly, Anthony Mackie already has an established role within the MCU as The Falcon. I loved him in that role, both as a sidekick to Steve Rogers, a partner to Bucky Barnes and as a stand-alone character. While I appreciate the transfer of the shield to Sam Wilson did occur in the comics, I strongly believe that as a different medium of entertainment, comics as source material should be a reference rather than dictate what happens on the big screen.

Captain America was my second favourite on-screen Marvel character. Much of that was down to Chris Evans’s portrayal. Much like Robert Downey Jr, he managed to make what could be seen as quite a corny and out-of-touch character, iconic and much loved. That wasn’t simply due to the characters’ powers but their attitude, mannerisms and back story. We accepted Steve Rogers as a character called ‘Captain America because he was from a different time, where that kind of patriotism was applauded. Steve Rogers had a successful character arc within the Infinity Saga and unlike RDJ, Chris Evans has confirmed he has no intention to return for future Avengers films as he has retired from Marvel movies.

But in a bid to recapture past glory and repeat their incredibly successful movie run, Marvel are pulling back as many of those elements as possible, while also trying to write the newly re-acquired X-men and Fantastic Four into that existing framework. This is making an unnecessarily convoluted mess when the simple answer would have been to take a 10yr break from the Avengers/MCU and build the X-man and mutant world as a brand new Universe. Sorry, my mini rant is over.

Captain America Brave New World is set to be the launch pad for the new era of Marvel movies and the new Avengers, much like The first Captain America movie was. It does bring back that old question over who actually started the Avengers, was Tony Stark/Iron Man. was it Steve Rogers as the First Avenger or was it Nick Fury who brought them all together? (Nick Fury was again strangely absent from this film, it’s not clear where Samuel L Jackson stands contractually at present).

We start the movie with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) being wildly accepted as the new Cap working as an agent for the government, under the direct control of the newly appointed President Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross (Harrison Ford).

After a failed assassination attempt, the President and Wilson disagree on the direction of the investigation and the Captain goes rogue and begins his own investigation, alongside his new sidekick/Falcon in training Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez). Along the way, he finds new allies and goes head to head with numerous carbon copy bad guys including a professional killer for hire ‘known as The Sidewinder’ played by Giancarlo Esposito.

As they delve even deeper into the investigation, they discover a conspiracy linked to a treaty President Ross is trying to secure with other nations of the world. This treaty relates to the discovery of a newly discovered substance, stronger and more valuable than even Vibranium called ‘Adamantium’ (yes, the same metal that’s infused in Wolverine’s skeleton).

The battle for control of this new substance is the ‘Brand New World referred to in the movie title. This is designed to serve as an introduction for mutants, the X-Men and more specifically Wolverine into the MCU (although it’s not clear whether Hugh Jackman will be continuing in that role.

The film is a direct sequel to the Disney Plus series’ The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ and also picks up many of the story threads started in the often ignored ‘The Incredible Hulk’ movie from 2008. In fact, it has more in common with that film than the better-known movies in the Infinity Saga. If you haven’t watched that film some plot points may not make sense. And if you haven’t watched the Disney Plus Show, then you might be a bit lost wondering how Sam Wilson got to this point.

The plot is passable, I’d say mildly interesting at best. The story of the original super soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) which was started in the Falcon and Winter Solider show is continued here. It’s meshed with the wider ambition of getting this treaty about Vibranium signed by all countries. Anthony Mackie is a more than competent super lead but it just didn’t feel like Captain America movie – Flying through the sky, battling jet fighters, riding missiles etc It just didn’t feel like I was watching Cap, who is traditionally an on-the-ground, street-level hero.

This comes across as an amalgamation of several heroes, with the wings, the tech, the drones, the Vibranium costume etc It just feels like it’s a weird combo. While fantasy characters can take on additional powers and abilities over time, there comes a point when the character becomes unrecognisable.

“Superhero powers are as much a part of their identity as their names or costumes and it feels like Captain America’s identity is lost here”

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The set pieces are unremarkable, the action was okay but felt quite sluggish and lacking impact. Again it’s hard when you compare this Captain to Steve Rogers as he had so many amazing action scenes. I’m thinking of his battles with The Winter Soldier, or Bucky and Cap vs Iron Man, and even Cap’s fights in the elevator. There was just nothing I felt that stood out or excited me. The supporting cast was also forgettable, simpler versions of characters we’ve seen in previous Marvel movies.

Everything felt just okay, not great. My main real disappointment with the cast was Harrison Ford’s President Ross. This may sound ‘agist’ but I just felt he lacked strength or conviction which I feel is down to his age rather than his acting ability. Harrison Ford as president in the movie Air Force One is one of my favourite movie Presidents, so I am a fan. It’s just that here he felt more like a credible name to add to the cast rather than being in a position to offer a great performance.

The sidekick/buddy dynamics with the new Falcon Joaquin Torres felt a bit forced. And as you would expect from a modern Marvel movie, there are some surprise cameos. Only they were not really a surprise as director Julius Onah took every opportunity to remind us of them, including many close-ups of their photos along the way, to make sure we got the message they would appear at some point.

It is not popular these days to tread the middle ground, people like to hear over the top ‘It’s amazing’ or ‘it’s complete trash, a flop and the worst movie ever’ but unfortunately as is mostly the case, life doesn’t exist in extremes and I’ve never felt the need to exaggerate for ‘clicks’ and don’t need to now. Captain America Brave New World is not a terrible movie but it’s not great either in my opinion, it’s just okay.

For the reasons I stated at the start of this, I was a little more apprehensive and possibly harder to please due to my affinity for Steve Rogers. The press screening I attended was packed and based on the reaction, the majority of people really enjoyed it so will probably score this higher. But that’s alright, people are allowed to have different feelings and opinions. I enjoyed ‘The Marvels’ which apparently is considered a flop based on its box office numbers.

There is a price to mega success and Marvel is certainly paying it now. Having experienced such a phenomenally successful run with their movies in the early 2000s, anything that doesn’t perform as well is considered a flop. Some declared Marvel was back following Deadpool and Wolverine’s blockbuster success but I was very quick to clarify at the time, that was certainly an anomaly and not part of the MCU. Also, that movie was fun but not amazing as many declared it.

Captain America Brave New World is average at best, your level of enjoyment may be dependent on how invested you are in the MCU and how willing you are to ignore many of the very substandard elements present here. The era of the interconnected Billion Dollar Marvel movie may well and truly be over. The best we can hope for is a fun ride with great characters. Here’s hoping Thunderbolts* can deliver just that in May.