Brave New MCU? — CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD

by Jason Godbey

Last night Danny Mendes (TheCinebuff.com) and I saw Marvel’s latest feature offering, Captain America: Brave New World. The film is reminiscent of what many consider to be Marvel’s best Captain America movie and perhaps it’s best film overall, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It has political intrigue, lots of action, and a big red hulk, but is it enough to warrant paying for a ticket?

Brave New World continues the story from where the series Falcon and the Winter Soldier left off. Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is now Captain America, and taking on the mantle of The Falcon is Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) who played a small role in the series as Sam’s military liaison. We also get Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) as a former Captain America helping Sam train his new protege. Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross is now the President of the United States, the role now being played by the legendary Harrison Ford after the passing of William Hurt. Our villains are Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito) and Samuel “The Thinker” Sterns ( Tim Blake Nelson).

Performances are really solid all the way around with Lumbly and Ford being the standouts. Nelson and Esposito are excellent as usual, but unfortunately they don’t have much to work with. Mackie is a charisma machine with tons of screen presence, but there are moments when the script fails him. At times he seems to deliver his lines as if he’s addressing congress rather than talking to the person in front of him. It’s difficult to pinpoint why this happens, so I’m giving Mackie the benefit of the doubt and blaming the script. There are also moments when he seems to strike a superhero pose that feel as if he’s attempting to sell Captain America action figures rather than be in the scene. Don’t get me wrong, I said along time ago, Mackie is a real movie star who can carry a film, and his performance reaffirms those beliefs.

The film’s action looks really good with the exception of a few VFX composites that look a bit rushed. There are also times when we’re asked to suspend disbelief a little too much. There are collisions and explosions in the big action set-pieces that may leave you wondering how some of these non-super-powered heroes haven’t been spattered into paste by the impact.

Like many of the films in the post- Endgame MCU, while Brave New World tries very hard, doesn’t really have the same magic as the previous films. Whether it’s a Captain America film without Chris Evans as Steve Rogers or a Black Panther movie with out Chadwick Boseman, the new Marvel films will live in the shadow of their predecessors. It’s a long shadow making it hard for these new stars to shine. In this film, these newer heroes do the best with what they’re given, but is it enough for those of us who seemingly checked out after Endgame to sign up for another phase?

There’s nothing really wrong with Brave New World. It’s not trash. It’s not a mess or anything like that. The fact of the matter is it’s just fine. After seeing the best and brightest of Marvel’s cinematic universe, a film like this seems like just another movie. It just doesn’t have the same spark that those other movies had, and that’s fine… I guess. The proof will come in the form of weekend grosses as it always does, and we’ll all have a better idea as to whether or not 2025 will be another great year for the MCU.

If you enjoyed the Falcon and the Winter Soldier series, you’ll probably enjoy this, but maybe save the cash and stay home. Sooner or later this will be streaming on Disney+, and that’s a perfect place to watch this one.

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Originally published at http://behindtherabbitproductions.wordpress.com on February 14, 2025.