The release of “Captain America: Brave New World” brought very mixed reviews. Some praised the film as a step back to the “old” Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), beloved by millions, while others claimed it was in line with the more recent, poorly received MCU films. While it is not comparable to my favorite pre- “Avengers: Endgame” movies, it’s a step in the right direction.
This film didn’t lean on cameos throughout the film like many recent MCU films have done. Instead, it continued the story of a well-known character who has been around in the franchise for years, and didn’t introduce many new characters. The film was on a smaller scale compared to the other recent movies, which have tried to up the stakes since “Endgame”—which is pretty much impossible. The MCU has been too focused on the number of lives at stake, as opposed to creating characters and storylines that we care about because of who and what is on the line. In this movie, we see more of this small-scale action.
The movie also didn’t lean on creating overpowered characters to force a story to be more interesting. We have seen all the abilities we saw in this film before, which was a positive for me. The creators didn’t lean on cool effects or new abilities, instead focusing on the story and characters. Whether they fully accomplished the creation of a solid story and development of interesting characters is a different story.
The creators also delved into an interesting aspect of Sam Wilson’s story by exploring his complicated feelings as the new Captain America. Wilson feels he has an impossible standard to live up to and that he couldn’t possibly take on the mantle of Steve Rogers. While I think they could’ve done a better job at approaching this interesting idea, I’m glad they addressed it, as opposed to ignoring that very real feeling.
Something I appreciated about the earlier MCU films was the nuanced approach they took to various issues. This mostly included ideas about the military and government, but also more everyday feelings on responsibility, guilt and being a good person. This movie, while focused on war and the government, doesn’t seem to take a nuanced approach. They opted to take both sides and make evil characters redeemable in cheap ways. For example, the president ultimately redeemed himself because he has a daughter.
Some of the effects weren’t great, but I thought they looked better than in other more recent MCU movies. The character Red Hulk looked great, in my opinion.
I was hoping Sam would remove a glove and hold Harrison Ford’s Hulk hand in his own, surprising everyone with his newfound ability to dehulkify as Natasha could, setting up the stones on the path of becoming a stepfather to Betty. However, the MCU refuses to focus on the relationships all of us fans want to see.
Anthony Mackie did a great job, as he always does while playing Wilson. Mackie brought a lot, if not all, of the emotion and complex views on the conflicts. Wilson had to balance the weight of expectations people created for Rogers, as well as fighting for what he knew was right, despite not having a team behind him.
Many people have noticed how similar this movie is in premise to the film “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” That movie happens to be one of my all-time favorite MCU films, as it is for many other Marvel fans. It does become apparent very early on in “Brave New World” that they’ve borrowed a lot of the concepts from “The Winter Soldier” in an attempt to recreate the Marvel magic of its time. While the execution was nowhere near as amazing as “The Winter Soldier,” I respect that they looked to a movie that was beloved by fans for inspiration in trying to make this movie. It also establishes Wilson as more similar to Rogers than some may think, though whether or not that’s good is up for interpretation.
The comic-relief side character, Joaquin (played by Danny Ramirez), was annoying. This, mixed with them using the same concepts explored in “The Winter Soldier,” suggests attention was only paid to certain aspects of the film. They seemed to retry or copy a formula that worked before, rather than focus on balance. In “The Winter Soldier,” everybody contributed to comedic scenes, but in this movie, it felt like they threw in this sidekick only to crack jokes—which weren’t even funny.
This movie wasn’t perfect, but I enjoyed it. It was a nice change of pace, seemingly stepping in the right direction for the future of the MCU. I’m glad we were able to explore Wilson further now that he’s fully taken on the mantle of Captain America, and I’m excited to see more of him.