The Marvel Cinematic Universe is having a bit of a midlife crisis. Marvel Studios culminating a decade’s worth of story, characters, and post-credits teases with the epic two-part crossover event of the 21st century, Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), is the equivalent of peaking in high school. Unfortunately, like those 40-year-olds who were once the star quarterback or head cheerleader, Marvel is desperate to relive its greatest hits and scared to let go of the past.
This desperation is all over Captain America: Brave New World, which is trying so hard to be a political thriller in the vein of The Winter Soldier. For the most part, it succeeds; several scenes feel like they could be deleted scenes from The Winter Soldier from the assassination attempt on the world’s leader at the White House to any time Anthony Mackie‘s Sam Wilson / Captain America and Harrison Ford‘s U.S. President Thaddeus Ross are just in a room together.
Brave New World even has the perfect plot point to build its entire narrative around: the emergence of Celestial Island, a.k.a. the adamantium-filled remains of Tiamut the Communicator from Eternals. Marvel has never had an issue with connecting the dots, so a Captain America movie dealing with something that occurred in an Eternals movie isn’t strange. What is though is that the movie isn’t solely about Captain America being caught in the middle of an escalating conflict between multiple countries over who gets to claim ownership of the island’s main resource, adamantium — a new metal that is stronger than vibranium but more importantly isn’t controlled solely by Wakanda.
Unfortunately, Celestial Island is treated like an afterthought in Brave New World, with most of the movie instead focused on serving as the long-awaited sequel to The Incredible Hulk (2008), once considered the black sheep of the MCU. Marvel has never brought up the events of The Incredible Hulk as much as they do in Brave New World, with the movie constantly reminding the viewer that the Hulk and Abomination destroyed Harlem.
The movie also finally explains what happened after the credits rolled on The Incredible Hulk, with Tim Blake Nelson‘s Dr. Samuel Sterns being used as a scapegoat for the Harlem incident. Sterns, who has gained advanced intelligence after being exposed to Bruce Banner’s blood in the 2008 movie, is locked away and used by Ross to help him get into the White House. While Sterns’ evolution into the Leader has been a development that MCU fans have been patiently waiting for since 2008, it feels a little out of place in Brave New World.
But at least Sterns has some company in that “why am I in this movie?” department. Shira Haas‘ Ruth Bat-Seraph is such a nothing of a character that it’s surprising she survived the reshoots when others like Rosa Salazar and Seth Rollins had their entire performances removed from the final cut.
Although maybe it’s not too surprising since Brave New World makes it so obvious that Ruth is there only to fill the “former Black Widow role” that Natasha Romanoff served in The Winter Soldier, with Danny Ramirez‘s Joaquin Torres now in “the sidekick / Falcon role” and Mackie as, of course, Captain America.
Where Ramirez and Mackie have pretty good chemistry with one another, and with Carl Lumbly, who is back as the Captain America of the Korean War, Isaiah Bradley, Haas brings “meh” effort to Ruth. Her acting is stilted, and any humor she attempts is dry and just plain awful, which is more a shot at the writers than her. However, probably the biggest thing working against the character is Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova. It’s hard to care for an ex-Black Widow with no personality when Pugh is bringing so much vibrancy and quirkiness to Yelena.
Joining the Leader and Ruth as the final “why are you in this Captain America movie?” is the Red Hulk, not President Ross, just the Red Hulk. Up until his debut, Brave New World sort of pulls off acting as both a sequel to The Incredible Hulk and the limited series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which is where Mackie’s Sam Wilson first took on the mantle of Captain America. However, once the Red Hulk appears, Brave New World begins to feel like a “We couldn’t make a new Hulk movie for ‘reasons,’ so we instead hid one in a Captain America sequel” movie.
It’s very weird to introduce the Red Hulk in a Captain America movie, let alone have that title hero defeat him instead of the Hulk. But that’s not the biggest mistake Marvel made with having Red Hulk in Brave New World. No, that honor goes to the marketing department, which used the Red Hulk in EVERY SINGLE PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL. Imagine the first teaser trailer for Avengers: Infinity War showing Thanos with all six stones and snapping his damn fingers, that’s how baffling of a decision it was to have Red Hulk to be the face of the Brave New World marketing.
Much of Brave New World is building toward the shocking third-act twist that The Leader has been poisoning President Ross with gamma-tainted pills. While Ross believes the pills are keeping his heart from failing, which they are, the Leader has been slowly increasing the dosage of gamma to the point that when Ross finally gets angry enough, he hulks out, leading to a mildly entertaining fight scene hampered by poor VFX and green screen. Unfortunately, any tension there might have been with seeing Ross unknowingly hulk out was spoiled in the marketing.
Honestly, the best parts of Brave New World are its quieter moments, like when Sebastian Stan stops by as future congressman Bucky Barnes for a much-needed heart-to-heart with Sam Wilson, reminding him (yet again) why Steve Rogers chose him to be the new Captain America. Chris Evans’ Captain America trilogy was full of moments like this and they are sorely missing in Brave New World outside this scene.
The movie could also do with some more memorable action sequences. Outside of the aerial battle around Celestial Island, which felt very Top Gun-esque (and that’s meant as a compliment), Brave New World doesn’t make good use of the fact that the new Captain America has a pair of wings strapped to the back of his Vibranium suit.
Ultimately, Anthony Mackie deserves a better Captain America movie than Brave New World. This was Marvel’s chance to show audiences why Sam Wilson deserved to not only be the new Captain America but one of the faces of the MCU moving forward. Yet the studio failed it thought what audiences wanted to see in Brave New World was the Red Hulk or another Black Widow or Giancarlo Esposito‘s Sidewinder and his lackluster Serpent Society when what people actually want to see is a good movie, which this was not. If Marvel continues down this path of prioritizing “popcorn spectacle” over good storytelling then it may be time for fans to find a new franchise to support in the long run.
Have you seen Captain America: Brave New World? Share your thoughts on it over at the movie’s dedicated spoiler thread here.
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