Captain America: Brave New World is staggeringly the 35th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Created in 2008, the MCU has had a relatively long hiatus, with only Deadpool and Wolverine released in 2024 – although it was a very successful one. You would hope then, the return of a typical slate of films this year would be refreshing, like a good steak the MCU is well rested, but unfortunately Brave New World is tough, chewy and flavourless. You could say the brave new world is Marvel’s latest attempts to bring along an audience on for the second wave, after the peak of Avengers: Endgame.
The film opens with the acceptance speech of President Elect Ross (Harrison Ford), who takes over from William Hurt who passed in 2022. Accommodating his new face, this is Ross rebranded, a President trying to unite the country and work with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), who is also a newcomer to the Captain America moniker, having previously opposed the world of superheroes in both The Incredible Hulk and Captain America: Civil War.
5 months into his presidency Ross assigns Sam to retrieve a package with the aid of a new Falcon (Danny Ramirez). It turns out that the package contains adamantium, a strong substance taken from a celestial being that appeared at the end of The Marvels. However, as Ross attempts to create a treaty for global togetherness when it comes to this new tool, an assassination attempt is made, and Ross’s do-good demeanour suddenly turns against Captain America.
Brave New World then is not a film without its homework. It’s needlessly plotty and has a lot of new additions of past characters for the audience to get accompanied with – none of which are particularly interesting. There are some interesting ideas that could be explored here. From its basic premise, the idea of having two leaders of America – the democratically elected President and Captain America with potentially greater power, morally righteous and patriotic title that comes with it. This conflict of ideology and control is a nice little conflict that is significantly underutilised. Neither explored is Sam’s awareness that he is taking over the mantle, that he is somehow not as good.
This has the makings of a gripping espionage thriller, but it gets bogged down in the Marvelness of it all, the need to have a dull action scene every 20 minutes, the need to shove exposition down our throats like we’re competing in a Man v Food contest, or the need to constantly tie it back to the 34 other films. The latter used to be the franchise’s bread and butter, where the connections were what kept bringing the audience back, but now it just feels like homework – these films are just connectors where the MCU our ghostlighting us in the fear of missing out on one minute detail.
This isn’t helped by the fact the film moves at the pace of a tired sloth. It is a film of 1hr 50 that feels like an eternity, a bland slog where Cap and the new Falcon move from space to space unfolding a mystery that is neither interesting nor engaging. Whilst there are strands of plot that come out of nowhere and feel like they have been thrust into the film at the last minute. Whilst there is nothing necessarily dreadful with a decent central performance by Anthony Mackie, this is a lacklustre and lame MCU film. Brave New World is a completely uninteresting film that is only there to connect the dots, but it’s best just left to be summarised by Chat GPT before the next centrepiece event.
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