It is no secret that the most successful movie franchise of all time, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), is at what “Deadpool” would politely describe as a “low point.” With so many Marvel projects coming out every year and to varying degrees of quality, fan interest has become a rollercoaster for Marvel. As of late, Marvel went from having their least successful film ever with “The Marvels” in November 2023 to having one of their biggest successes in years with last July’s “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Clearly, moviegoers are still interested in the MCU, Marvel just needs to keep giving audiences a good time at the theater with their films.
“Captain America: Brave New World” is Marvel’s latest production serving as the fourth film in their Captain America franchise and the 35th film overall in the MCU. “Brave New World” sees the theatrical debut of Sam Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie, who becomes the new Captain America after taking the mantle from Steve Rogers, played by Chris Evans, at the end of “Avengers: Endgame.” Mackie’s character also got his own Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” Despite Steve Rogers being regarded as the Captain America for fans of the Marvel Universe, this film not only proved that Sam Wilson is a worthy successor of the Captain America mantle, but that Mackie is also a movie star and a worthy lead for this movie. While Sam’s first flight as Captain America is entertaining, there are also some issues that prevent this movie from being great.
For starters, the movie was impacted by the writers’ and actors’ strikes that took place in Hollywood two years ago. Marvel went into production with a not-so-great script and actors became unavailable for additional shooting that summer. This would lead to “Brave New World” being pushed from its original summer 2024 release to February 2025 as Marvel spent a lot of time last year making changes that they hoped would improve the film’s quality.
The movie’s plot follows Sam as he uncovers an international conspiracy, which is a refreshing storyline itself after having plenty of Marvel movies set in space, the quantum realm or traversed across the multiverse. It is nice to watch a Marvel movie that is mostly grounded in scale, until Sam is taking to the skies of course. Unfortunately, the problems with the movie are somewhat obvious with the inclusion of Giancarlo Esposito as the antagonist Sidewinder, despite not being involved with the film initially, lackluster hand-to-hand combat that feels reliant on fast cuts and expositional dialogue that comes off as clunky instead of natural. However, while the practical action is not spectacular, the film makes up for it with an intriguing conspiracy and tremendous spectacle.
The big thing about the conspiracy is that it has significant ties to past Marvel movies that previously did not hold much significance in the MCU canon such as “Eternals” and, most importantly, “The Incredible Hulk.” These connections serve as the movie’s double-edged sword as it is really cool to see Marvel finally make things matter in their universe again, but it also overshadows the importance of Captain America in this story. If anything, the main character of the movie is President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, who was originally played by William Hurt in “The Incredible Hulk” and other MCU movies onward until his death in 2022 led to the role being recast to Hollywood legend, Harrison Ford.
Ross’ arc sees him wanting to be a better man after being an antagonistic figure in the MCU by being the President. Ford fills Hurt’s shoes immensely and gives his all in the performance even before he eventually changes into the big, fiery, red rage monster, the Red Hulk, as presented in the film’s marketing. In hindsight, it is weird that Marvel focused the marketing on Sam and Red Hulk’s fight despite the conspiracy being the main plotline, but, possibly, a conspiracy thriller might have been a tough sell without showing off the movie’s grandest action set piece.
At the end of the day, “Brave New World” is not a perfect movie, but it is a solid introduction to Sam Wilson as Captain America, who has come a long way from running laps with Steve Rogers on his left in Washington D.C. Why it took Marvel four years to bring their new Cap back on the screen? The world may never know but one thing is for sure, whether you like the film or not, Sam Wilson is Captain America, and his journey has only just begun. Hopefully, this film can be the start of Marvel’s comeback story in 2025 as they anticipate the releases of their next couple of films, “Thunderbolts*” on May 2nd and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” on July 25th.
