Captain America: Brave New World
Brave New World isn’t a bad movie, it is merely serviceable – and Anthony Mackie deserves something better than this, especially as his first big screen appearance as Captain America.
The trailers made the movie look like it would have a good conspiracy at its core and maybe some twists like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, unfortunately it doesn’t. The movie is straightforward and a bit forgettable. Thaddeus Ross is elected President and his big first act is attempting to bring countries together to sign a treaty. The treaty brings countries together to agree on how to handle Eternal Island, which is the Eternal that showed up in the Indian Ocean. The material that is discovered on Eternal Island is a very important material (think Wolverine) and countries are working out how to share it. The geo-political storyline in the movie is not well developed. Sam and Joaquin are invited to the White House for a ceremony after a successful mission in Mexico. Sam invites Isaiah Bradly (Carl Lumbly reviving his role from the streaming show The Falcon and the Winter Solider) to come along also. An attempt on the President’s life results in Bradly going to prison – Sam and Joaquin go off to prove Bradly’s innocence.
The action in the movie is well done and there were some creative things done – incorporating the winged jetpacks well. The war scene in the Indian Ocean was the most memorable of all that were in the movie.
The look of movie is mixed. I loved the way they made the movie (shot digitally) look filmic between the lenses used and the lowered sharpness, making it look like it came from a past time. Unfortunately, as with most all Marvel movies, there’s also a cheapness to the way the movie looks – especially when special effects and green screens are employed. The fight in the last act of the film looked horrible, especially when the fight ends up on the street with the willow blossoms.
Brave New World does highlight a long standing problem that I have been writing about the MCU for a while now: The need for the audience to remember so much of what has happened in the MCU over the last 17 years. Brave New World being the worse offender, requiring the audience to recall characters and events from all the way back to The Incredible Hulk (2008) – asking the audience to remember Tim Blake’s Samuel Stern and Liv Tyler’s Betty Ross maybe a bit much, especially for audience members who casually watch MCU movies. Both characters being important parts to the story and Betty Ross being the emotional hook for the story.
I enjoyed the banter between Captain America (Mackie) and The (New) Falcon (Danny Ramirez), they are great together. Harrison Ford taking over the role of Thaddeus Ross is fine, Ford gets a second term in the White House. Tim Blake looks like a head of broccoli in the movie and his motivation, while explained via dialogue, is not well developed. Carl Lumbly is great in the film and Giancarlo Esposito is fine.
Kevin Feige and Marvel finally remembered they made the movie Eternals.
My daughter put it best about Brave New World: It’s like nothing happened in the film, there wasn’t a memorable conflict. My son didn’t think the change with President Ross in the last act was earned and thought the first two acts were pretty good. Captain America: Brave New World is emblematic of post End Game Marvel movies: It’s mediocre, somewhat entertaining and forgettable. It takes no risks, feels like it came stamped from a familiar mold, rolled off a conveyor belt, designed by a committee and made for as wide of a range of audineces as possible.
Watched at Oakridge Century 20 using Cinemark Movie Club.