Captain America: Brave New World
A return to the boring old (cinematic) universe
Captain America: Brave New World had the chance to be interesting. Unfortunately, it commits the cardinal cinematic sin of pretending it has something profound to say when it really doesn’t. Oh, and it commits the other cardinal cinematic sin of being unbearably boring.
Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) has taken up the shield as the new Captain America. A conspiracy takes shape, with newly-elected President Thaddeus Ross at its center. When Sam and the new Falcon, Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) begin to investigate, some deep secrets begin to emerge on the part of the new President.
The film tries to channel the political intrigue of a previous Captain America film, The Winter Soldier. While that film was able to offer a mostly self-contained adventure, Brave New World continues the discouraging trend of relying too heavily on the myriad of movies and shows taking place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). One needs to have remembered the events of a forgettable show (Falcon and the Winter Soldier) while also remembering a key loose end from a 17-year-old forgettable film (The Incredible Hulk).
Because of this over-reliance, Brave New World can’t establish its own identity. Some of the actors are trying (Shira Haas as Ruth Bat-Seraph, Ross’s head of security); most are sleepwalking or completely wasted (Mackie, Harrison Ford, Giancarlo Esposito, etc., etc., etc.). This is perhaps partly due to a toothless script, that tries to provide a surface-level commentary on America’s current political predicaments, without diving too deeply into those ideas in order to not offend its expansive audience. The result? One of the most boring, insignificant entries in the MCU.
I remember when sitting in the theater before the beginning of the newest Marvel film would give me a jolt of excitement. I was hoping Brave New World would at least deliver some new and interesting thrills, while offering just a little bit of thematic intrigue. It failed to do either.
Rating: 2/5
The lack of Chris Evans did it for me