One thing that might have made Captain America: Brave New World a better film, or at least a better moviegoing experience, would have been a final act surprise. Imagine if Disney hadn’t marketed the hell out of the Red Hulk and we hadn’t known going into the movie that Harrison Ford’s president Ross was going to turn into the Red Hulk. If that hadn’t been spoiled in the marketing, it might have been a really fun twist. Instead, we just waited around to see when it would happen and then watched a big fight scene and then that was that. Light spoilers ahead.
Captain America: Brave New World isn’t the best or the worst MCU film. It has some genuinely fun action scenes. There’s a good political thriller buried in the overstuffed plot. Anthony Mackie did a really great job as Captain America, and as someone who is generally not a huge fan of Mackie, I’m happy to report that he really grew on me here.
But outside of Mackie and Ford and some strong but brief moments with both Giancarlo Esposito’s Seth Voelker and Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns, the movie is just a convoluted mess. I’ve already listed three villains: Voelker, Sterns and Red Hulk / Ross, though Ross is less of a villain and more of a well-meaning antagonist and Red Hulk is just a natural disaster. I’m already having trouble keeping track of all these bad guys, plus the new good guys introduced, and the characters from past MCU shows. The more I thought about this movie after seeing it, the less I liked it, because the more I realized how little any of it matters.
So much is going on in Brave New World it’s honestly hard to keep up, and the plot is just go, go, go from the start. There are various factions and alliances and treaties and conflicts and all of them come at you fast, relentlessly, like the film is worried that if it ever slows down people might pay too much attention. Despite tons and tons of exposition to keep audiences up to speed (and to help clue them in on what’s going on since many likely missed The Eternals and Falcon and the Winter Soldier) the whole thing is just clunky as hell.
It’s also hard to really care about any of it. I don’t care about Ross and his estranged daughter. I don’t really care about the international relationships between the US and Japan (seriously, Japan?) and the rest of the world powers. I don’t really understand why the Celestial is filled with Adamantium, either. Surely all this does is cheapen Wolverine?
I won’t even bother recapping the plot. The plot is too messy. The plot gets in the way of what might have been an interesting movie. The movie is constantly tripping all over itself because of this, and the few nice character moments that do occur feel rushed and out-of-place, like they were jammed in as an afterthought. There are a few funny moments, but not enough to offset all the Very Serious ones. The plot just keeps coming at you. The plot is Red Hulk and it’s running and leaping and charging right at us the whole time.
There’s some mind control stuff going on that could be super interesting if handled properly, but the explanation we get ends up being far less interesting than what could have been a really compelling conspiracy thriller. Somewhere buried in the rubble of all this plot is an interesting story struggling to breathe. Gasping and gasping for air.
Was I entertained? Sure. I enjoyed pieces of this movie. Some of the fights are great. Cap’s vibranium suit is cool. He’s basically a weird hybrid of Ant-Man, Falcon, Black Panther and Captain America now, but without any actual powers, so that’s kind of weird but also kind of fun. But overall, this is a pretty forgettable entry in the MCU. The whole is less than the sum of its parts. It’s the fourth Captain America film and the least impressive of the bunch. Disney and Marvel really need to get back to basics, starting with a halfway decent script. And maybe the MCU has outgrown itself. Maybe Disney is asking audiences to juggle too many shows and movies, all interconnected, and the result is an increasingly apathetic fanbase.
I really hope Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four: First Steps are better.
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