Captain America: Brave New World isn’t the disaster it was rumored to be, but this dull, lifeless film won’t course correct the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
If you’ve been following the trades, then you know Captain America: Brave New World went through several script and reshoot iterations to its final destination. Five years ago, the Marvel Cinematic Universe seemed unstoppable. Marvel impresario Kevin Feige appeared to have the magic touch and built a world while making oddball properties like Ant-Man box office hits. Today, what once felt so effortless now seems belabored and clumsy. After the disappointments of Ant-Man: Quantumania and The Marvels, panic allegedly set in, forcing Marvel Studios to retool much of their new Captain America film.
In some ways, it worked. Captain America: Brave New World, at its best, absolutely feels properly oriented within the Marvel world. No longer are they ignoring the giant stone Celestial that appeared in The Eternals only to never be seen again. They also avoid introducing random new characters only to never use them again. They make an attempt to establish a new Avengers roster.
But I would never have imagined they would hang all of that — and in some ways the future of Marvel and the Avengers — on a spiritual sequel to 2008’s The Incredible Hulk.
Captain America: Brave New World stars Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, the former Falcon who Steve Rogers handed down the mantle of Captain America. The discovery of adamantium, an incredibly strong element used to make Wolverine’s deadly claws, on Celestial Island sends multiple world powers into a frenzy to claim territory and the rare element. Enter newly elected President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford). He initially seems to want to work with Wilson, but following an assassination attempt, Ross seemingly runs rogue, eventually falling prey to a mysterious villain from the past. Enter the Red Hulk.
The most offensive aspect of Captain America remains its dogged refusal to give Anthony Mackie his own story. Granted, the character of Sam Wilson never felt particularly like leading man material. He worked best in tandem with other heroes. That was best evidenced in the Disney+ TV show Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Yet, here, the filmmaking team seem to lack confidence in building a compelling story around Wilson. The film layers tired characters and cliches from other, weaker Marvel Studios films — namely The Incredible Hulk.
Why not push the Marvel Cinematic Universe forward with a new story?
Sam Wilson as Captain America is not a new concept. He became Captain America in the comics years ago and had independent story arcs from which they could pull. Give us a new story. Wilson’s self-doubt as briefly explored in Brave New World makes sense. Can he live up to Steve Rogers? To the audience’s expectations? As presented, the theme feels short-changed, echoes of a first draft of a now mangled script. It makes no sense to layer remnants of The Incredible Hulk on a Captain America story. Save that for the Hulk sequel we’ll never see.
And the presumed rewrites didn’t help. Elementals elements layered over a Captain America film that serves as something of an Incredible Hulk sequel feels as if three scripts were tossed in a blender. Nothing makes sense. Nothing holds our interest. The entire film feels constructed out of B-side characters. Ironically, after so many reshoots, it fails to advance the MCU in any meaningful way.
Anthony Mackie (and the audience) deserve much better.
Captain America: Brave New World is now playing in theaters everywhere.
