Captain America: Brave New World Review – Neither Soaring Nor Crashing

Captain America: Brave New World occupies an odd position in the heirarchy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s unquestionably the worst of the Captain America films, but that’s a high bar to clear. It’s also one of the better recent entries in this ever-evolving mega-franchise. Anthony Mackie’s first big-screen turn in the stars and stripes struggles under the weight of questionable writing and messy pacing.

The latest MCU action blockbuster comes from director Julius Onah. He’s somewhat new to the genre, but Onah has a unique vision. His previous output mostly consists of critical darlings like Luce and Bad Genius. Onah’s most notorious previous outing was The Cloverfield Paradox, a disaster that may have killed its franchise. Brave New World could be a step forward, but it could also be a brief diversion in his artistic career.

Picking Up the Shield

Steve Rogers handed down the Captain America mantle to his dear friend and partner, Sam Wilson, at the end of Endgame. He took a full season of TV to accept the promotion, but Sam is now both Captain and Falcon. The new Cap seemingly operates as a friend to the military without full soldier status. That’s an arrangement that incoming POTUS Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross wants to fix. Ross offers Sam a chance to reform the Avengers under the US military, but that option quickly falls apart. Veteran super soldier and experiment victim Isaiah Bradley inexplicably attempts to kill Ross, forcing Sam to fight for his friend’s freedom. The new Cap struggles against unseen enemies to uncover a terrifying conspiracy. Captain America: Brave New World operates on stakes as high as The Winter Soldier, but that’s where the similarities stop.

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The Captain America trilogy is probably the best solo series of movies within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Iron Man and Thor each have a dud right in the middle, but every Steve Rogers showcase hits like a perfect shield throw. I could argue for the Guardians of the Galaxy films, but I feel like Cap has higher highs as a superhero series. Part of that overwhelming success comes from the perfect casting. Chris Evans shares Marvel’s casting gold medal with Robert Downey Jr. Anthony Mackie brings a comparable performance to a less compelling character in Sam Wilson. He’s a solid actor, and he brings a lot of pathos to this role, but Evans never had his films on his back either. Steve got First Avenger, Winter Soldier, and Civil War, all of which were incredible. Sam got Brave New World, which could never live up to its predecessors.

Presidential Address

Captain America: Brave New World‘s biggest weakness is its script. Characters can hardly get out a sentence without frankly stating plot details like they’re part of a court record. I think back to the dialogue from The Winter Soldier and wonder where things went wrong. Gone are the days of Nick Fury comparing his granddad’s elevator attendant job to global security. This Captain America doesn’t get to boldly call for freedom in the face of danger. Instead, almost all of the dialogue flatly recounts information we already knew. I felt certain that the lectures would end after the first act. I thought they were struggling to reintroduce all the stuff from previous movies. They never stop spouting the same handful of basic plot elements from a Wikipedia plot summary. Harrison Ford gets the worst of it. He’s only allowed to talk about his daughter and his very important treaty.

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The script’s inability to use nuance or convey information in an interesting way kills Brave New World‘s genre-bending ambitions. It wants to be a political thriller, again, like Winter Soldier, but it doesn’t have an ounce of intrigue. Sure, several of the characters wield political power, but they don’t have any actual positions. That’s not to say we need to know which party Ross ran under, but these figures can’t pick a deeper meaning. Every detail tries and fails to stand for something. The very idea of an African American Captain America fades completely into the background. Ross has three or four character arcs that rise and fall like the tides. Isaiah Bradley, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s most striking element, becomes a narrative tool. It’s grim, but even the straightforward “freedom good, Nazis bad” messaging of The Winter Soldier seems too bold for modern Marvel.

Captain America: Brave New World has some solid performances, a few great action sequences, and plenty of fun moments. Unfortunately, it also has a script without nuance and three incredibly tough acts to follow. This isn’t the disaster a lot of fans were expecting from all the reshoots and last-minute changes, but it isn’t anything special either. I don’t know if it’s better or worse to land somewhere in the middle here. Brave New World is anything but brave, and it’s got nothing new. Let’s just hope Sam Wilson’s first feature turn as Captain America is only a shaky first flight.