Captain America: Brave New World (2025)


It used to be that I looked forward to the Captain America films.  The First Avenger was a welcome surprise, while The Winter Soldier was a nice throwback to the old '70s espionage thrillers with Robert Redford, a veteran of those films, showing up in a major role.  It was pretty much a series of movies that couldn't miss.

But then the original Captain finished what he had to do and, finally growing old and passing away, gifted his shield to Sam Wilson.  A million fanboys whined about a black Captain America, and the introduction to the character was dragged through the so-so limited series of Captain America and the Falcon.  Still, I head some hope that the movie version would put things to right.  What I forgot is that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has long overstayed its welcome.

Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) has managed to redeem himself in the eyes of the nation and become President.  Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) pretty much toes the line for him, helping with missions along with his sidekick Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez).  After one such successful mission Sam decides to bring Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) with him to the White House but, suddenly, Isaiah and a number of others in the room try to kill Ross.  Isaiah is captured and faces the death penalty, while Captain America and Joaquin try to unravel what happened.

It turns out that the one behind the killings is Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) who, during the events of The Incredible Hulk, experienced an expansion in mind powers due the gamma radiation that had transformed Bruce Banner.  He plans to get revenge on Ross by publicly humiliating him just as an important treaty is about to be signed among nations to share the adamantium present on Celestial Island, the remains of the dead god that hatched at the end of Eternals.  

It seems that director Julius Onah and the army of writers behind this had a mandate from Disney to make both The Incredible Hulk and Eternals relevant, perhaps hoping people would once again check out two of the most disappointing entries in the MCU.  Instead, they ended up making something even more mediocre.  Harrison Ford is good as the conflicted Ross, Anthony Mackie and Danny Ramirez shine as the main heroes, but the movie they are dropped into fails them. 

The problem is the absence of a strong villain.  Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito) is introduced early but then dealt with after a short action sequence.  Sterns talks a lot and then pretty much gets apprehended before the big finale rather than being directly involved.  There are two major action scenes, one involving the Captain and Joaquin helping to prevent a war between the U.S. and Japan over Celestial Island and the other the much-lauded battle between Sam and Red Hulk.  The latter lasts only a few minutes and is solved by using the power of love. 

Sam is also not done any favors by the script.  He often speaks in Hallmark greeting-card platitudes that, I guess, are supposed to show how he is such a caring character.  Instead, it makes him just this side of a Gary Stu, with everyone except Ross treating him as if he is perfect and can do no wrong.  Even Bucky (Sebastian Shaw) shows up to tell him how great he is.  It gets quite sickening toward the end, especially since the President's security adviser, Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas) seems almost equal in power to Sam.  She's also another interesting character that is introduced and then left with nothing to do.

That is my main problem with Captain America: Brave New World.  The movie can't really make any real case for why it exists.  It's either to set up plot for future films or to fix holes in the MCU.  Either way this could have been done much better without introducing characters that do next to nothing and moving the few parts of the plot along with predictable devices.  It is like the MCU has become a machine, stamping out movie after movie, without anyone bothering to check if the product still has any quality left.

Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
Time: 118 minutes
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly, Giancarlo Esposito, Tim Blake Nelson
Director: Julius Onah

 

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