Tripwire Reviews Captain America: Brave New World

The House Of No Ideas

Tripwire’s senior editor takes a look at Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World out in cinemas now…

Captain America: Brave New World
Director: Julius Onah
Stars: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly

What is mesmerising, if indeed anything could be considered that in this movie, is how much less there is than meets the eye in it. And the filmmakers are aware of this as well – one key moment of moralising (out of many) in the movie takes place when future congressman Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) himself turns up for the briefest of token cameos to remind Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson / Captain America of why he is magnetically bonded to his sacred purpose as America’s hero: “He (Steve Rogers) gave you that shield not because you’re the strongest, but because you’re you,” he portentously (and emetically) declaims. “Did your speechwriters help you with that?” Sam replies. It’s one of the few moments in the film which takes time out from the relentless exposition that acknowledges that these characters are meant to have characterisation, but it fails, as it’s too knowing, too pat, and above all, too cynical.

Captain America: Brave New World, like all the Marvel movies that came before it, is an exercise in logistics – only on this occasion, and this is no doubt at least partly due to all the rewrites and reshoots, the need to cram in the cookie-cutter (and frankly ludicrous) storyline overwhelms everything else, reminding us grizzled old reviewers that when an MCU movie is bad, it has a tendency to be bloody awful. Although at just under two hours, it is surprisingly short.

Coming off what was a passable miniseries, Cap and new Falcon Joaquin Torres’ (Danny Ramirez, the usual gratingly annoying boy wonder sidekick) latest adventure involves them preventing an illegal sale of adamantium in Mexico. Cap is rewarded by being allowed to visit the original super-soldier, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly, more emotive than everyone else in the cast combined). He and Bradley are then invited to the White House to meet former general and now president Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford, badly miscast, sorry) to discuss reforming the Avengers, and according to Wikipedia (I didn’t spot this in any of the dialogue) making Cap “the face of the adamantium treaty”. Whatever. Then for no apparent reason, Bradley and four other bodyguards attack Ross, leading to his arrest and Wilson being arbitrarily fired.

Wilson and Torres investigate a hidden site in Virginia and discover that Big Bad Samuel Sterns / The Leader (Tim Blake Nelson, given far too little to do) used mind control on Bradley to attack the president, due to Ross reneging on his promise to release Sterns. Agent and former Black Widow Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas, odd casting choice to say the least)’s investigation also leads her to the site. After the threesome escape, Wilson is taken into custody.

And from there our patriotic protagonists head to Celestial Island to prevent a war between Japan and the USA (yeah, right!) and we learn that Ross has been unwittingly taking gamma ray spiked pills courtesy of the aforementioned Big Brained Bad, and that due to all the stress of having to learn all those cheesy, bland lines he then morphs into the Red Hulk and goes on the rampage.

A formulaic movie deserves a formulaic review, and so this is the bit where I mention the pluses. Well, there aren’t really any, save for Anthony Mackie –  a capable, charismatic, and excellent actor who can provide nuance and depth when given the opportunity, but there aren’t too many of those in this flick, although I liked the point about his opting not to have the super-serum that gave his predecessors the edge in battle. The film however just doesn’t give him a chance to shine, while the role of Thaddeus Ross was meant to be one of a gung-ho, maniacal super-patriot. Instead of that we get the all-too sensitive Harrison Ford, who although competent just isn’t right for the part, although at least his presence scuppers any notion that Ross is meant to be an analogue of a certain current orange leader (even when Ross turns red). And as for the producers pretensions regarding the movie being a paranoid conspiracy thriller – that would’ve required mood and a completely different style of direction.

Beyond the hyperkinetic action sequences (the mandatory destructive finale is decent, as these things go) there are just too many expository scenes, characters who are mere plot devices, and indeed characters who really didn’t need to be in the film at all. If Disney / Marvel genuinely want to bring the MCU back to its former pop cultural pre-eminence, it’s going to require a great deal more than this holding pattern exercise. Clearly there needs to be not just a formula shift but a tonal one – the MCU can only be rescued if chances are taken, and there are none in this entry, with the filmmakers, for all their hyperbole, barely engaging with their own project. It’s unusual for this jaded writer to get excited by comic-related product, although it has happened – the ambition and brio of Across the Spider-Verse, the wit and irreverence of Thor: Ragnarok, the humour, nostalgia and knockabout fun of Guardians of the Galaxy, and the scale and palpable cinematic pulse of Avengers: Infinity War. That’s the bar that the producers and executive button pushers need to be reaching for if an already teetering franchise can survive cultural changes, Covid, and what has been a complete loss of momentum, Deadpool & Wolverine aside. I wish them luck.

Captain America: Brave New World is in cinemas in the UK and US now. Here’s the film’s trailer

Marvel Studios Debuts New Trailer For Captain America: Brave New World