Captain America: Brave New World: The Off-Balance Review.
Thrills, chills and half-baked conspiracy.
When the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) began with Iron Man seventeen years ago, it presented a unique opportunity for comic book storytelling, at least as it related to popular perception in the adaption space.
Being inspired and inherently indebted to the source material yes but in existing squarely on its own terms, it could, ideally, have a healthy degree of separation between its own impulses and decades of accumulated lore and backstory.
Lore which, while undoubtedly impressive in its breadth is also full of oft-unhealthy expectation, in adhering to an only lightly-wavering status quo.
A clean break, if you would. In a way that say, the Blade outings, the original X-Men films or Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy never really needed.
And for a time, the MCU stuck to this principle. Building out a world compact but never overly complex in its sheer scale.
Though as Captain America: Brave New World arrives in theatres this weekend, it does so as the 35th film in that franchise, directly follows a TV miniseries (one that debuted four years ago) and works to act as connective tissue to no less than a handful of prior MCU projects.
There is an irony present somewhere.
Something paraphrased about dying a hero aping the interconnected web of comics long enough and eventually, well, having the line blur.
Now, that isn’t to say Brave New World is wholly without merit, of course. But much like last summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine, it is clear the MCU at large is (mostly to its deterrent) primarily banking on broader, base enthusiasm. As it inches ever-closer to the multiverse-focused, total board-reset, that will come with the next Avengers films, so to, does everyone else.
It leaves Brave New World, while surface-level competent, lacking any sort of genuine artistic conviction. Yet another proving ground, a placeholder, a factory-produced item packaged in holiday sheen. Here, in the moment, to merely to support whatever comes down the line next.
And ultimately, working to an end that simply doesn’t respect any sort of legitimate audience investment.
As Brave New World begins, though Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) isn’t immune to bouts of uncertainty in believing he can truly succeed Steve Roger’s legacy, he has comfortably settled into his role as Captain America, following the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
In support, Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) has enthusiastically taken up the Falcon mantle and while Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) doesn’t much approve of Sam openly being an operating arm of the US Government, he tries to keep him grounded however he can. His worry, not entirely without cause, as with Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford, replacing the late William Hurt) ascending to the Presidency, he wants to bring Sam fully into his fold, despite their past disputes.
But when a brainwashed Isaiah attempts to assassinate Ross, it sets off a chain of events that reveal a long-incarnated Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) scheming to his own (literal) big brain ends with Ross in his crosshairs.
Meanwhile, as he tries to clear Isaiah’s name, Sam must try to prevent political grandstanding in Washington from escalating into a series of international incidents.
Even in its smaller strokes, the influence of one of the most well-regarded MCU films, 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Solider is apparent here, almost to the point of (evidently purposeful) repetition: unease in the US government, shadowy politicians and their soulless machinations, etc, etc.
For as the project stands however, Brave New World can’t really line up to what made Winter Solider successful with any reasonable sense of honesty, at least on its own merits.
The bones are there sure but Brave New World continually falls back on the bare minimum of the Marvel-house style, again-and-again, with little energy of its own to speak of.
Not cinematic sludge per se but so sterile, so safe, so throughly expected in its delivery, the corporate-mandated seams can hardly be bothered to hide their overarching puppet strings: from the disjointed, uninspired action choreography, the stilted, colourless dialogue or the sloppy, albeit predictable execution that touches so much of the storytelling.
And despite its hard-wired premise, while one can draw some relative parallels, come the climax in particular, to the current North American political climate, the film seems content to sidestep making any singular, pronounced political statement, as it hides behind the façade of its bigger-picture narrative. Be it Winter Solider or The Boys in comparison, this quieter posturing feels weak and lifeless (at a time, to be clear, when the current US administration is actively dismantling personal liberties across their country and threatening Canadian sovereignty wholesale).
As further detailed in a piece published by Vulture earlier this week, Brave New World was infamously plagued by a difficult production, from extended reshoots to tension behind the scenes.
With these missteps in mind, it is apparent from the very beginning and is a feeling that never once lessens (did Giancarlo Esposito physically interact with anyone besides Mackie on the green screen set? It doesn’t seem so).
There are some larger franchise threads picked up - the discovery of adamantium (obligatory snikt!) by way of the Celestial in the Indian Ocean or the warnings of multiverse conflict yet-to-come - and yes, there is something to be said for what does click.
Captain America, putting all his skills to use as he takes on Red Hulk or Sam and Joaquin, working together when up against rogue military goons - splash pages and crisp panels, bought to life.
The performances are solid, Mackie most prominently, though without much in the way, overall, in regards to any striking memorability (Ford hits a few notes despite the endpoint of his character’s arc - Red Hulk lives - being the main crux of the marketing).
As it comes to Mackie however, it is particularly disappointing, though outside of his individual effort.
After being apart of this franchise for over a decade, he shows once more that he is a Captain America more than worthy of the mantle but simply isn’t given enough material to really showcase that to its full effect, save for a few scenes in the third act.
It is a sense of top-down disinterest that can’t be shook, be it from the corporate overlords, director Julius Onah or the film’s five credited screenwriters.
All-in-all, Brave New World just can’t move beyond its totally expected trappings, to no real surprise, the diminishing returns that have largely dominated the genre for the better part of the past five, six years.
Speaking on this general condition recently, with her usual elegance, was , of :
The resulting creative anemia spreads beyond any single Marvel entry into our broader artistic metabolism. Explosions replace vision. CGI substitutes for soul. Harrison Ford cashes his check. Each frame costs more yet demands less of us - a perfect equation for cultural entropy.
Fuck escapism. We've drowned in it.
Our brains have pickled in it. Mass culture dissolves into a thin gruel of green screens and sky portals while we nod along, pretending not to notice the death of effort.
Brave New World, though not the worst offender in this regard, necessarily, hits far too many of Sophie’s points.
Ineffectual, detached and accepting any lack of external pressure.
Even under the label of mass market easy viewing from a billion-dollar production arm, more must be asked here. Pushing forward on whatever sticks to the whiteboard, just to get a film out the door, it inherently defeats the purpose of expending those creative boundaries in the first place or claiming any semblance of commitment to the source material.
And yet… on the reverse side of that well-weathered coin, expectation and the oscillating nature of escapism considered?
There is 2024’s Echo and upcoming superhero projects. Marvel’s own Daredevil: Born Again, Fantastic Four: First Steps or DC’s Superman reboot. All, in contrast, carrying a very real enthusiasm in the lead-up to their respective releases later this year.
A reminder that fatigue is, for the most part, more practical than abstract.
Again though, that line of thinking wasn’t captured here.
Formulaic and familiar to a fault, to the detriment of its premise, thematic framework, leads and the larger enterprise Brave New World itself is apart of.
A missed opportunity, however one slices it.
Great writeup Ryan! Not a Marvel guy but ended up seeing this in Liemax 3D & I thought a few things were pretty thematically interesting:
- The International relations element in this film - scenes spanned Mexico, Japan, International security state Zoom meetings with France & India, and an Israeli character as well as an + a an open waters resources debate are introduced. This was not done in an 'America is always right' way either- where US steamrolls, maintains moral high ground & ultimately 'teaches the world'. Harrison Ford as the American president does a great job with motives, and interactions that are nuanced, fraught at times ,and complex. All this to say, I liked how even in a movie called "Captain America" it is not really clear who is the 'good guy' at times especially with an unhinged, compromised American commander in chief...
- The criminal justice element. Spoilers for anyone reading but showing how a formerly incarcerated character could be 're radicalized' or triggered & how a 'rush to justice' leads to this mess was also I thought expansive of what is normally in a movie like this
- The emotional element- characters like Falcon, The President, even Captain America came across as more multifaceted that I would expect from a movie like this.
- Lastly, Anthony Mackie was also great but the villain was a bit of a miss for me!!
I just love your reviews, Ryan! They illuminate the powerful possibilities of film as a medium. You hold each film in a kind of hopefulness of what could actually be communicated. When the art reaches that height, you celebrate it. When it doesn’t you remind us the impact films can make both creatively and culturally and that art of all forms has a responsibility to expand our experience.