Sam finds himself in the middle of an international incident after meeting with President Thaddeus Ross. He must soon discover the reason behind a nefarious global plot before the true mastermind has the entire world seeing red. I happen to personally consider the Captain America trilogy the strongest trilogy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the most interesting storylines and compelling character development for both Steve Rogers and supporting characters. The Winter Soldier and Civil War in particular set a high standard for high octane superhero action sequences, especially when it came to anything related to hand to hand combat. So, with that said, this fourth installment had quite a lot riding on it. This movie needs to showcase Sam Wilson as the new Captain America, tie together loose ends from The Incredible Hulk, and set up the highly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Is it able to do all of that and still be its own movie? The answer from me is a resounding no, because although Captain America: Brave New World provides some entertaining action and intrigue, its ideas are far more interesting than the execution itself. Let’s start with the positives, because there are several worth noting. Anthony Mackie once again is able to bring the charm and charisma as Sam Wilson, always providing a likable screen presence and familiar face that MCU fans will immediately gravitate towards. While he is most certainly no Steve Rogers, his version of Captain America has quite a lot of impressive attributes as it relates to his fighting style and ability to read between the lines in the morally ambiguous situations throughout the film. His friendship with Carl Lumbly’s Isaiah Bradley is the strongest dynamic in the movie and a seamless continuation of their relationship from the Disney+ series “Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” Lumbly never fails to bring a helping of dramatic gravitas, especially in this case, with a pretty wonky screenplay to work with. Taking up the mantle of Falcon is Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres to mixed results. On one hand he has solid chemistry with Mackie’s Wilson, but on the other hand, his character suffers from being the MCU joke machine, and just about all of his attempts at humor fall flat.
Then there’s Harrison Ford, replacing the late great William Hurt as Thunderbolt Ross, one of the Hulk’s most iconic adversaries. Unlike in recent films, Ford actually does show up to deliver a strong performance as the now President Ross, who faces many challenges due to his checkered history as a general. Ford commands any scene he’s in with ferocity and grit, and the conversations between him and Sam are among the film’s most interesting and compelling moments. Now, here is where the comic book fan in me takes the wheel. Ross as Red Hulk is heavily advertised in the trailers, promotional material, posters, social media campaigns, and even through merchandise. As someone who has read a big chunk of Jeph Loeb’s run of the Hulk, I was deeply disappointed by how misleading the marketing was, because Red Hulk is only in the movie for five minutes for the climactic battle. While the design and CGI on the character is most certainly on point, Red Hulk is supposed to talk a lot in a very sadistic manner and take low blow jabs at his opponents without mercy. Red Hulk doesn’t utter a single word in the five minutes of screen time he has. What a waste of potential, especially when you have Ford who can easily add that extra level of menace to the monster. It doesn’t help that Tim Blake Nelson’s The Leader is a totally weak villain, who gives an overlong and convoluted exposition dump explaining his character’s absence since The Incredible Hulk and barely looks anything like The Leader in the comics. In this movie, The Leader manipulates everyone from Ross to Sam to Isaiah in order to create a worldwide incident and destroy Ross’s reputation. Sure, The Leader being behind the scenes lurking in the shadows pulling the strings is an attribute of his character in the comics, it’s just that his entire backstory and beef with Ross is explained via exposition instead of shown, so it feels rather empty. Show, don’t tell! This movie feels like a gigantic mishmash of different MCU films Frankensteined together in an effort to make an excuse for a Sam Wilson Captain America movie prior to the next slate of Avengers movies. It’s almost like the writers couldn’t find any interesting Captain America villains so they just chose to use a couple Hulk villains to make the viewer go, “oh yeah I remember them!”
One loose end that is tied up in a meaningful way is Ross’s relationship with his daughter Betty, which I won’t disclose the context of what happens, but it was heartwarming to see certain things get resolved. There are some entertaining action sequences, including a high stakes aerial battle surrounding the fallen giant Celestial from Eternals, an intense hand to hand bout with Sam versus Giancarlo Esposito’s Sidewinder (another wasted character), and a hard hitting final battle between Sam and Red Hulk. Having said that, nothing here remotely compares to the visceral fight scenes in The Winter Soldier and Civil War, making the absence of the Russo brothers seem fairly noticeable. When people tell me they feel like these movies are becoming bland and generic, with no real individual identity whatsoever, almost like a conveyor belt studio product, packaged and made just to make money and keep the rights of these characters, I think of movies like Captain America: Brave New World. It’s absolutely not a terrible unwatchable movie, in fact it can be oftentimes entertaining on a surface level. However, it’s also not great either, and seeing as how the Captain America trilogy raised the bar for Marvel, being an averagely mediocre meh fourth movie in such a beloved series just isn’t going to cut it for me. This isn’t the worst MCU movie and I definitely didn’t hate it, but it’s easily one of the most “mid” movies out of the 35 that have been released. I would only recommend it to those who are already far enough as I am into the Marvel rabbit hole, everyone else need not apply. Overall, while Anthony Mackie proves himself worthy of the Captain America mantle and Harrison Ford makes an excellent President Thaddeus Ross, Captain America: Brave New World heavily suffers from a cluttered script, an underwhelming villain in The Leader (one of the most significant Hulk villains in the comics FYI), and a severe lack of the much advertised Red Hulk. Not awful, but one of the most “meh” films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far. Mid New World.
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