Kaitlyn Murphy
“You may be Captain America, but you’re not Steve Rogers.”
The Marvel Cinematic Universe needs Captain America. The shield has heavily impacted Marvel projects since 2011 — both as a positive symbol of justice and hope in films like Captain America: The First Avenger, and rebellion and conflict in Captain America: Civil War.
Even though Endgame made it clear that audiences weren’t seeing any more of Steve Rogers, that didn’t mean they’d seen the last of Captain America. The shield was passed onto Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, someone close to Steve who truly understood the weight it carried.
The original trailers for Captain America: Brave New World teased a tumultuous political climate headed by General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford), who had some disastrous anger issues that tore apart the White House both metaphorically and literally. Many people likely went into this film thinking this problematic president was going to be the big bad — it makes sense. Instead, the film split into three different directions and couldn’t make up its mind on what kind of statement it wanted to make, leading to not really any statement at all.
Brave New World opens by briefly introducing President Ross, and then cuts to Sam and Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), the new Falcon, in Mexico trying to stop a sale of illegal items by the Serpent Society, which is led by Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito). The scene felt reminiscent of Captain America films past — with decently choreographed fight scenes that, sadly, couldn’t even hope to be on Winter Soldier level. It was a promising start and decent introduction to the Serpent Society, which unfortunately faded into the background for the rest of the film.
Audiences see the chemistry between Mackie and Ramirez in these fight sequences, which is one of Brave New World’s strongest points. Both actors slide comfortably back into their roles, even with a script that feels cliché and underdeveloped on multiple occasions. Although thankfully, this film lacked the forced MCU humor that’s been popping up in recent releases.
Sam introduces Danny to an old friend, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), and they have a training scene together soundtracked to Tame Impala’s “Elephant.” An interesting choice, to say the least. They then attend a world leaders summit together at the White House, where Ross briefs everyone on the status of Celestial Island — which some viewers may remember from Eternals back in 2021. Some valid concerns were raised that too much time passed in the cinematic universe without mentioning the gigantic celestial body inhabiting the Indian Ocean, but that wasn’t the biggest concern of this film. Ross mentioned how the metal adamantium was discovered within this celestial, which sent both the United States and Japan into a frenzy to recover it first.
While all this talk about precious resources occurs, all hell breaks loose — with Isaiah trying to shoot Ross as he’s speaking. Sam and Danny don’t understand why the freed super soldier would attempt to assassinate the president and land himself back in a jail cell, which is when the true plot of Brave New World kicks in.
A mysterious faceless villain seemed to be brainwashing people by flashing a sequence of phone screen lights to the song “Mr. Blue” by the Fleetwoods, which was a far-fetched technique — even for a Marvel film. How exactly was he hacking into all of these people’s phones? Why was this song choice enough to brainwash them into becoming killing machines? These questions are all basically answered by saying this villain is extremely smart, and plotted everything with revenge on his large mind.
There are certain moments sprinkled throughout the film that feel reminiscent of, for lack of a better term, “old Marvel,” including an air fight scene where Sam and Danny are trying to bring down two brainwashed United States pilots above the waters of Celestial Island. The scene was shot well, showcasing the Falcon side of Sam that he didn’t relinquish when taking on the role of Captain America. He soars through the air with ease, cutting down missiles with his wings and saving the pilots’ lives.
Moments like that fight scene are what Captain America has always been about — saving innocent lives, not always taking the government’s orders into consideration. After that, the fight scenes devolve into a CGI-fest that doesn’t feel like it serves any real purpose. While the audience sees Ross slowly lose control and turn into an enormous red rage monster on the White House lawn, it doesn’t feel nearly as horrifying as when Bruce Banner transformed on the S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier in The Avengers. Marvel’s recent CGI has obviously been missing the mark with audiences, and the Red Hulk fight scene that ended in a poorly-lit parking lot surrounded by cherry blossoms was nowhere near as compelling as it should’ve been.
After this, the film just sort of … ends. There’s no real closure on the Serpent Society plot line from the beginning of the film and the mystery villain is taken care of. Everything is tied up just a little too neatly, and it doesn’t feel like the film set up anything for the future of the MCU. Not every project has to directly impact others, but when Avengers: Doomsday is looming off on the horizon, audiences have come to expect some sort of tease as to what the Avengers will even look like now. Sam Wilson will return as Captain America, likely leading the team, but Brave New World shied away from digging too deep into Sam’s fears of not living up to Steve.
If the film would’ve stuck to one solid, well-developed villain (preferably Ross), it likely would have lived up to its predecessors more. Instead, it leaves audiences wanting to go home and rewatch Captain America: The Winter Soldier and reminisce about the good old days.
