Captain America Brave New World Movie Review: The new world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues bravely and does not seem to have any intention of stopping, but rather of changing skin, shaping its own perspectives and giving itself new life.
Captain America: Brave New World is in fact everything old that tries to refresh itself, with Anthony Mackie who, after the miniseries The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, once again dons, and for the first time in a film, the role that for three feature films had been played by the late Captain Steve Rogers (Chris Evans).
Directed by the Nigerian-born American actor and director Julius Onah, six years after his previous Luce, and written by Matthew Orton, Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson (the latter already authors of the previously mentioned miniseries), the 35th film in the cinematic saga that began in 2008 with Iron Man also sees the participation of Harrison Ford, Giancarlo Esposito, Liv Tyler and Tim Blake Nelson, as well as a brief appearance by Sebastian Stan (Winter Soldier), who we will soon see at the cinema in Thunderbolts*.
While Ford replaces William Hurt – who passed away in 2022 – two other actors mentioned (Tyler and Nelson) return to play the characters who, about twenty years ago, alongside Edward Norton, were the protagonists of Louis Leterrier's The Incredible Hulk, the second film of the MCU in chronological order.
And it is precisely by recalling the events that gave birth to the evolution of Professor Banner that we delve into the fourth chapter of the saga dedicated to Captain America (the first with Mackie as the protagonist), who finds himself having to deal with the burden left to him by Steve Rogers against the backdrop of the rise to power of the new president of the United States, the discovery of a new resource apparently unparalleled and the threats made by villains until yesterday unknown to most.
Captain America Brave New World Movie Plot:
Officially assuming the investiture of the new Captain America, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), supported by Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) who replaced him as Falcon, is in Mexico to foil a special operation by the Serpent Society, a team of mercenaries led by the feared Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito).
Neutralized the attempted theft, Sam, Joaquin and Isaiah Bradley - an African-American man of arms, subjected to an experimental version of the super soldier serum in the 40s - are invited to the White House by the newly elected president Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) for the conference to present a sensational new discovery: adamantium, a new metal capable of guaranteeing even more efficacy and safety than the now ancient vibranium, still under the full control of the Wakandans.
During the conference, Isaiah and other officials present in the room improvise a terrorist attack that is soon discovered to have been plotted and controlled by Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), a scientist with extraordinary intelligence, due to the contamination described in 2008 by The Incredible Hulk.
The international tensions resulting from the attack, the uncertainties related to the president's actions and the imprisonment of his friend Isaiah force Sam to operate in secret to reveal all the cards and get to the origins of the plot orchestrated by the new villain, also known as Leader or Mr. Blue.
As anticipated, there are many returns, as well as several new features that enrich this new Marvel chapter. Captain America: Brave New World has the great honor of bringing another sacred monster of Hollywood into the immense cinecomic universe, Harrison Ford, who, in replacing the almost forgotten (about the franchise) William Hurt, carries with him the weight of change, just as Anthony Mackie finds himself in the very uncomfortable position of having to fill the immeasurable void left by Chris Evans' Steve Rogers.
If the former finds himself having to demonstrate his moral evolution and the ability to manage a seemingly unmanageable diplomatic situation, the latter must prove, first and foremost to himself, that he is up to the task, that he can be that emblem of hope that all American citizens need in the face of intimidation and attacks by the violent and the defeated.
The enemies are nothing more than this: men in oxymoronic symbiosis with the protagonists, bearers of resentment, seekers of revenge, useful for showing the misery of the past as a driving force for possible future glories.
Captain America Brave New World Movie Analysis:
Change is everything, progress and evolution are the keys, they are the essence, and it is in their function that Marvel must act, that America must act and that the whole world must act. The superpowers in dialogue on the exploitation of new resources need conciliatory paths to travel and, to achieve this, they need a renewal that, however, never forgets what tradition is, and that never betrays some of its principles.
The old and the new here confront each other, challenge each other, help each other, and this happens both in terms of plot and, even before, in terms of casting. In fact, that line, adopted for some years now by the MCU, continues, which provides for the reintroduction of actors linked to the past, to tradition, to that almost emotional sphere that binds many spectators to the first films proposed by the comic book production house and that can certainly guarantee greater success at the box office; this happens punctually when in parallel, the industry decides to impose the centrality of a new face, as had already happened recently with Deadpool and, even before, with Spider-Man, thus seeking an affirmation that is strengthened by a sort of handover.
And so we return to the two protagonists: Sam Wilson and President Ross, two sides of the same coin, both apparently moved by good intentions but hindered by the ruinous becoming of things, by the threats of a world that rather than change seems to want to always fall into the same mistakes, to continue to be a victim of the same problems, of the same defects.
We project ourselves into the future, continually clashing with the past, believing that we cannot overcome those impediments that have never allowed us to conquer the next greatness, those impediments that for a long time have convinced us that they can never actually be protagonists but only followers, only subordinates.
Now that the opportunity arrives, the legs begin to plot, and certainties risk diminishing dramatically, but it is determination and courage that must triumph to accompany the necessary rise of these two perhaps unwanted heroes. They must now be the bastions of hope, they must now be the ones to hold the real power and to orient it in the right direction, breaking down every uncertainty that has arisen along their path.
And even if the key is correct and the reading on a not so dissimilar present is clear, indeed obvious, what Captain America: Brave New World manages to achieve in its plot - to all intents and purposes, however, rather predictable once started and lacking in particularly pathetic moments - does not happen in more general terms on the narrative progress of the entire project, that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe which, for too long, seems to suffer from a torpor from which it cannot emerge, despite trying to wink at the viewer through the most unlikely gimmicks and despite carrying on an increasingly massive production, without ever hinting at a slowdown.
Captain America Brave New World Conclusion:
In its attempt to continue renewing itself, Marvel continues to fall into the usual errors that see confused writing, which itself seems not to know where to orient itself, where to risk and where to insist.
Julius Onah's direction does not stand out in any way, it remains aseptic, vain, ineffective, the perfect reflection of what this film turns out to be in its completion: an accessory operation, far from indispensable and that we will hardly remember, unlike much of what preceded it, starting from The Falcon and The Winter Soldier itself which seemed to have laid much more promising premises.