I’ve always found there to be a narrow range of quality in Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, which for me means that the good ones are generally just pretty good, but the worst ones aren’t all that bad. Going into the latest MCU film, “Captain America: Brave New World” (now playing in theaters), I expected more of the same, and that’s just about what I got, although “Brave New World” falls on the lower end of the MCU quality spectrum. It’s a mostly competent action movie with passable performances and a fleet but forgettable plot. It’s not very good, but it’s not all that bad, either.
The best thing about “Brave New World” is its showcase for charismatic star Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, who’s now ascended to the mantle of Captain America following the events of the equally underwhelming Disney Plus series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” The worst thing about “Brave New World” is that it often feels like a sequel to 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk,” guest-starring Captain America.
For some reason, the filmmakers have decided to build “Brave New World” around plot points from a few of the least popular MCU releases, and that hinders its chances at succeeding on its own terms.
‘Captain America: Brave New World’ is mired in mid-tier MCU continuity
Although “Brave New World” has been presented as a relatively fresh start for the MCU and the Captain America character, it requires a surprising amount of MCU homework in order to be fully understood. The problem is that instead of taking its cues from the mega-popular “Avengers” movies or even the past “Captain America” movies starring Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, “Brave New World” pulls together elements from movies and shows that are best left forgotten.
At least “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” was released fairly recently, and fans are likely to remember Sam’s journey to taking up the Captain America identity that he inherited from Steve. They may also be familiar with Sam’s new sidekick Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) — who’s taken on Sam’s old superhero moniker of The Falcon — as well as mistreated past super-soldier test subject Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly).
It’s less likely that viewers will remember Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, the military commander previously played by the late William Hurt, who’s elected president of the United States at the beginning of “Brave New World.” Now played by Harrison Ford, Ross has a more expansive character arc in this movie than its own title character does, but it’s hard to care about his relationship with his estranged daughter Betty (Liv Tyler), given that she was last seen in a mediocre movie nearly 17 years ago. That’s also the last time that anyone saw Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), the devious scientist who was exposed to gamma radiation that affected his mind.
‘Captain America: Brave New World’ has a jumbled plot with too many villains
Ross, Sterns and international criminal Seth “Sidewinder” Voelker (Giancarlo Esposito) all serve as antagonists to Sam and his allies over the course of “Brave New World,” but none of them command the kind of attention that a hero of Captain America’s stature needs in an adversary. The real rivalry in “Brave New World” is between Ross and Sterns, with Sam merely serving as a mediator between the two power-hungry men. He could have been replaced with nearly any other non-powered MCU hero with largely the same results.
The plot of “Brave New World” kicks into gear with an assassination attempt on Ross, which sets off an international crisis around the competition for resources found in the abandoned Celestial body that rose at the end of “Eternals” — another MCU misfire that’s inexplicably essential to the plot. Sam and Joaquin zip around the country confronting shadowy figures and uncovering a conspiracy, but “Brave New World” has none of the vintage paranoid-thriller vibes of franchise high point “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”
“Brave New World” is often indistinguishable from a long episode of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” at least when Sam is allowed to be the focus. Ross gets nearly as much screen time, and it’s a shame that all the marketing has ruined the surprise of his eventual transformation into the Red Hulk, which only comes at the end of the movie and is the culmination of his showdown with Sterns.
Even when Ross finally Hulks out, it’s only for a bland, CGI-heavy fight scene with Sam, one of many unremarkable action set pieces. I can forgive some chaotic storytelling if an MCU movie delivers on the superhero action, but there’s nothing in “Brave New World” that stands out as original or thrilling. It doesn’t even have the appealing goofiness of recent maligned MCU entries like “The Marvels” or “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”
“Brave New World” is a serious, plodding exercise in continuity extension, without any real-world resonance even when placing a Black man as the human embodiment of the United States. It represents the MCU on autopilot, and while that means everything runs smoothly, it never goes anywhere particularly interesting.
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