“Captain America: Brave New World” Review

Captain America films have been some of my favorite films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe mostly because they shake up the political landscape of this comic book world rather than stick to its own box. Brave New World, by comparison, is a far too delicate film, reducing itself to more of a complex political thriller than a reshaping of the landscape. Much like how Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness tested the limits of horror in the MCU, this fourth Captain America movie hits the wall with how far a political thriller can go involving assassinations, conspiracies, and sleeper agents. The thud reveals an echoing hollowness, where the end goals seem less about the shifting political winds and more about getting to that obligatory fight.

Anthony Mackie reprises Sam Wilson, but his concerns over being the new Captain America have mostly dissipated since he graduated from the TV series Falcon and the Winter Soldier. His repartee with bad guys is a little rusty, but his relationship with the military is still ironclad. His struggles now seem minimized to a degree that all he needs is a good pep talk and to get off the ground when he’s roughed up. His hero role has grown so much that he already has a sidekick with Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) taking on the old Falcon wings to become an ally in the skies. The film doesn’t lament too hard on this aspect of Sam living up to the shield Steve Rogers bestowed him, but that’s mainly because the film has a whole lot of busy work.

Addressing Sam is the current President of the United States, Thaddeus Ross, this time played by Harrison Ford, stepping in for the late William Hurt. Ross and superheroes have a lot of history, dating from his first encounters with the Hulk to his defense questioning in Captain America: Civil War. There are plenty of politics for Sam and Thaddeus to clash over amid the lingering doubts of the former Hulk hunter being able to live up to the Presidency. But there’s no time to discuss much of that when sleeper agents start shooting at the President. Some elaborate detective work leads Sam to unearth a conspiracy with international treaties and national security in jeopardy.

This film mistakes complexity for compelling, adopting quantity over quality for its elaborate conspiracy. We spend so much time trying to track the clues of this world and so little time getting to know the onslaught of players. Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) is an interesting character for his history of imprisonment and experimentation by the US government. Still, his plight is simplified to being a mere pawn of a game he’s played before. Giancarlo Esposito is a reliable actor for playing villains, but he’s mostly wasted in a role of Sidewinder:, where he fires a few guns and willingly spills intel for his gain. Tim Blake Nelson is even more of a waste, reprising his role as Samuel Sterns from 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, now looking closer to the brainy Leader of the comics. He’s supposed to be incredibly intelligent, but the scheme he devises is not as complex as the film makes it out to be. There’s not even time to explore the addition of Shira Haas as Secret Service Agent Ruth Bat-Seraph, spending the majority of her time giving debriefings and occasionally kicking some butt.

The action at least remains competent and fairly fitting of the thriller staging. Sam and Joaquin can embrace a Top-Gun-style dynamic when they soar on a naval mission, showcasing their devotion to each other as much as preventing a worldwide war. More bang-zoom fights involving Cap’s shields are present, but with the bonus of Sam’s wings doubling for protection as much as flight. One aspect I dug about Sam’s many battles is that he seems to take a lot of vicious hits but never aims to kill his targets. It’s a unique trait, even if it only appears to be preserved for the standard unity speech.

But while the fights may be challenging for this new Captain America, his first film outing is treated with kid gloves. Previous Captain America films served up meaty national security questions and an erosion of trust without firm answers on adapting to an ever-changing world of superheroes. That world has grown so large since 2016 that this film doesn’t so much play with that world for a political thriller as it does struggle to keep up with it. To the credit of the many writers, they’ve certainly done their homework in weaving in aspects of past Marvel movies that were almost forgotten. But there’s no great mystery present for the MCU sleuths to divulge in this picture, nor is there an intriguing development that isn’t resolved with one big fight at the White House.

Anthony Mackie might live up to being Captain America, but Brave New World doesn’t quite live up to being an intriguing political thriller. While the action still looks good and the opponents for Cap are tough, this film struggles to find something to say within its mess of Marvel components. The movie will likely be draw comparisons to The Manchurian Candidate for how it weaves together hard science fiction and grounded thriller aspects. But while The Manchurian Candidate felt like it was saying something about the Cold War era, Brave New World seems to dabble in the broad traits of revenge and egotism, reducing what could’ve been a grander stage for distrust and a reflection of our own era of political division. With that lack of a thematic punch, it’s no surprise and practically a filmic fantasy that this movie is where one good fight or inspiring speech can heal a world terrified of supervillains and without a unified force against them. Outside of the Red Hulk President tearing up the White House, feeling symbolic of how the Republicans have brutalized our democracy, this is a film that doesn’t have much to say about our current world and wanders trying to say something about its own.