“Captain America: Brave New World” is the not-at-all anticipated follow-up to Disney+’s disastrous “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” and stars Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson as the new Captain America. The film follows Wilson uncovering a sinister international plot that could disrupt the new world order, all tied into the new POTUS Thaddeus Ross, played by Harrison Ford. And then Red Hulk shows up at the end… hooray.
As one could easily gather from that synopsis, I could not be less excited for this film. I thought the aforementioned Falcon show was the single worst piece of superhero content ever created. No entertainment crime is greater than a series marketed toward children that actively supports terrorism. Beyond and including that series, the MCU has crumbled beyond recovery. Brave New World‘s franchise stakes are all compounded by this movie’s impossible challenge of following up the greatest comic book movie trilogy of all time in the original three Captain America films, the second flick “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” being not only my favorite MCU film but one of my all-time favorite movies period.
So, was “Captain America: Brave New World” the apocalyptic abomination I anticipated? No, not at all — but it remains a misfire nonetheless. Let’s start with its strongest feature: Harrison Ford’s truly first-rate performance. Ford’s Ross is a surprisingly layered and decently written character, a man whose past mistakes have yielded both massive triumphs and devastating personal consequences. His time as America’s most aggressive general won him the presidency, but also disintegrated his relationship with his daughter. Ford brings a sense of overwhelming pain and guilt to Ross, making for one of the MCU’s most tragic characters. He hits all the emotional beats: the quiet broken solitude, the infuriated screams, and even full-on tears. This may be Ford’s best work since “Blade Runner 2049,” maybe even further back. I was bewildered by his commitment.
That said, the rest of the movie is hundreds of meters below Ford/Ross in terms of quality. Firstly, the abysmal action boggles the mind. Since this is a formulaic popcorn flick, one would assume the filmmakers would at least get the action right, but these fight scenes are shockingly incompetent. Director Julius Onah is completely out of his depth, filming the combat sequences in close-ups and/or shaky cam that prevents the viewer from identifying anything onscreen, all worsened by the quick-cut editing. The sloppy visuals go beyond the fights too; this may be the weakest looking film of the MCU. Onah’s addiction to close-ups is absolutely infuriating, making for an utterly awkward movie… not to mention the plethora of both out of focus shots and hilariously awful green screen. In short, “Captain America: Brave New World” looks utterly disgusting.
Then we have the groan-worthy script. While the plot is generally less convoluted than most MCU films of the past few years, the dialogue is easily the worst of the entire franchise. I have not heard more obvious, clunky, ear-grating exposition in quite a long time. Thaddeus Ross must have repeated the line “We need this treaty” about 20 times — this is not hyperbole, I promise. Every character has at least one scene where they dump these appallingly lazy lines delivering information that the characters themselves already know, so it could not be more obvious that the dialogue exclusively serves to educate the audience on whatever gobbledygook drives the plot.
Plus, the film continues the Isaiah Bradley storyline from “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” which is as close to a war crime as a movie can get because that character is truly overdramatic and odious. Equally if not even more odious is the new Falcon played by Danny Ramirez, whose exasperating quips make you want to shatter the screen.
Yet the film’s greatest flaw is its most simple: Sam Wilson. What an insipid protagonist. He has never been less interesting. This is a wooden, bland, dopey, pathetic, forgettable character who doesn’t hold a candle to Steve Rogers. Wilson lacks any personality or identifiable characteristic other than his self-righteous lack of superpowers. Ultimately, because our protagonist is so suffocatingly dull the movie succumbs to monotony alongside him. We have no one to relate to or root for. I could not care less about this guy. At the end of the day, these movies are held together by the lynch pin that is their superhero lead. We no longer have Iron Man or Black Widow or the actually compelling Captain America in Steve Rogers. Now we have Mr. Plank of Wood Sam Wilson.
What amplifies this film’s many, many flaws is the fact that it’s part of a truly legendary Captain America franchise. The Winter Soldier has some of the most exhilarating action sequences in cinematic history, held together by a mature tone and adult themes about the loss of innocence and classic patriotism in post-Iraq War America. None of that film’s brilliance reaches Brave New World. Not a speck. So, despite Harrison Ford giving the movie his blood, sweat, and tears, he cannot save the audience from this grating tedium. At least this film is a step up from most Phase 4/5 MCU projects, but that’s not saying much.
D+