Captain America: Brave New World is now in theaters. The good news? It’s nowhere near as bad as the critics and Rotten Tomatoes score suggest. I enjoyed it a lot. I went with my 17-year-old son, and he liked it too. Honestly, it’s probably my third favorite MCU movie post-Endgame, behind Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine. But is that saying much? Is it perfect? No. The story is a bit messy, some characters don’t work, and there’s some cringe dialogue here and there. But if you don’t overanalyze, you’ll enjoy it for what it is—a solid popcorn movie.
The special effects are good, the action is well-executed, and the fight scenes are decent. The story, again while wonky, does work. Captain America: Brave New World also ties into the larger MCU, referencing its beginnings and hinting at its future, which should please fans. There are some surprises, and the post-credit scene is cool (there’s only one, and it plays at the very end).
Standouts
As I said in my reaction video, I like Anthony Mackie a lot. He plays a likeable character as Sam Wilson. I liked him as Falcon. You could see yourself having a beer with him. He comes off as a good friend and a superhero.
Giancarlo Esposito is also a great addition. Yep, he wasn’t a part of the original version of Captain America: Brave New World, which according to reports was a complete disaster, but he plays a good villain. You can’t go wrong with him.
Another standout is Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns, aka The Leader from the comics, who returns from the 2008 Incredible Hulk movie. He looks good as The Leader, too (I explain The Leader in the movie here).
Slights spoilers follow
What about the rest of the cast?
The rest of the cast is a mixed bag. With all the reshoots, it’s clear the film was pieced together. The beginning feels different from the rest of the movie, almost like you’re dropped right into the middle of the story (maybe not a bad thing). They also scrapped the new MCU opening intro, which I don’t mind since it avoids showcasing all the lousy characters from the past five years.
Overall, I liked the cast, but IMO, Harrison Ford’s portrayal of the president is inconsistent. At times, he comes off as weak, and at others, he seems like a strong leader. It also feels like his staff doesn’t respect him—Xosha Roquemore’s character, in particular, doesn’t work. He takes pills (for some reason), yet no one seems to notice, and he awkwardly tries to hide it, which just looks silly. Ford is also 82 years old and it shows.
Danny Ramirez at first comes off as pretty annoying. All his jokes at the start of the movie fall flat. No one in the audience laughed. However, by the end of the movie, Joaquin Torres is actually a pretty likeable character. Again, the start of the film is kind of sloppy but as it progresses it smooths out and gets better. The dialogue in that final scene was pretty cringe, though, and came off as forced.
Carl Lumbly plays a good Isaiah Bradley. The character was added to the Marvel Comics in 2003 for politically correct reasons by the same clown responsible for Marvel NOW! which ruined the comics by replacing fan-favorites and introducing ones that push the agenda. That plays into Captain America: Brave New World a bit but works with the story. Did you notice in the movie that Isaiah punches the punching bag just like Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers did in The Avengers? LOL.
Shira Haas as Ruth Bat-Seraph doesn’t work at all. I have to question why she was even cast in the role? She’s looks really small. She plays a badass and kicks ass, but it doesn’t work. I did appreciate her comment and joke about a certain someone’s body, which made her character more likeable. They had the opportunity to introduce a cool new character, similar to Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh, but Shira Haas as Ruth Bat-Seraph is a 100% miss. Why was she even in the movie?
The story
Going in, I didn’t really watch any of the trailers, so I was curious how they’d explain everything. How does Ross fit into the story? Where has he been? How do they introduce Red Hulk into the MCU? I think they did a solid job tying it all together, connecting it to The Incredible Hulk (2008) and Eternals. The good news? The Eternals themselves aren’t mentioned—since that movie was terrible—but the MCU is using the Celestial to introduce new comic-based concepts.
Spoilers follow
The race is on to control the Celestial, with a summit being held to negotiate a treaty. But here’s where things get laughable—Captain America: Brave New World pits the U.S. against Japan. Huh? Japan? Really? Using China or Russia would have made way more sense and raised the stakes, but of course, Disney/Marvel were probably too scared to go there—just like that awful Red Dawn remake put out by MGM that swapped China for North Korea. Let’s be real, Japan is no threat to the U.S. And how awesome would it have been to see Red Hulk smash the hell out of Japanese warships?! But nope, Marvel plays it safe and fails to pull the trigger.
The Red Hulk battle is done well. Yeah, there is unfortunately only one battle, but it all made sense at least. It looked pretty good. They also put their thinking caps on regarding the puny human Sam being able to take on the Red Hulk.
I also couldn’t help but wonder how The Leader pulls off everything he does. They don’t explain it—you’re just supposed to accept that he’s super smart. But then Joaquin manages to do the same thing with the press of a few buttons. That part of the story feels weak, but given that the movie is under two hours—which I actually welcomed—it’s not surprising. Again, the film feels like a lot of different scripts put together, and at times, it shows. Also, The Leader somehow shows up in multiple locations, yet we never see him driving, flying, or traveling in any way, which bugged me (LOL).
Oh, and the music score is nothing to write home about (same composer for The Marvels).
No political BS
There are also no worries about comparisons to Donald Trump. I actually thought more of Ford at times as Trump’s predecessor (LOL). Who wants to bet they scrapped that in reshoots and minimized all the wokeness? I also noticed no where in the flick is there a vice president of the United States. Pretty interesting.
The Verdict
I went into Captain America: Brave New World not expecting much. If you don’t nitpick or pick the movie apart, you can enjoy it for what it is—a fun superhero flick with cool action. It’s a solid popcorn movie. Captain America: Brave New World gets a 7/10.
Major spoiler follows — don’t read unless you have seen the movie
So the big question is how did they handle Anthony Mackie being the new Captain America? I thought Captain America: Brave New World started off pretty cringe as they made a point of having ALL the characters call Mackie/Sam “Captain America” or “Cap” over and over and over. Yeah, we get it.
Then there’s that scene. Sebastian Stan makes a surprise appearance as Bucky. The crowd immediately clapped and loved it—I was smiling too. But honestly, I didn’t like the scene at all. It felt unnecessary and shouldn’t have been in the film. It was your typical eye-roll-inducing “pass the baton” moment. “Sam is a better Cap than either myself or Steve.” WTF. That’s how it comes off. They threw in a quick joke to soften the impact, and there is another joke later during the Red Hulk fight, but the message is loud and clear. Oh, and apparently, Bucky is now running for Congress. Seriously. LOL. Who comes up with this, and who writes this shit?
However, I didn’t let it ruin the movie for me. Again, I wasn’t going in expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. As things stand, Sam makes a fine Cap. He’s a lot different than Steve Rogers as he has a vibranium suit and flies through the air (looks cool). We just don’t need to be told over and over and over. That said, I don’t like replacement characters as they’re not doing it for story purposes but to fulfill an agenda (which is woke: agenda over story). Sam could still have done everything he did and be called The Falcon. Now that would have made a brave new world.
