Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) finally takes flight as Captain America, in earnest, in Marvel’s engaging action drama “Captain America: Brave New World.” A political conspiracy thriller shaped in the vein of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” but less successful, it’s nonetheless much more adult and serious than recent Marvel fare that still retains a sense of humor while showcasing Mackie’s innate charisma.
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Directed by Julius Onah (“Luce,” “The Cloverfield Paradox”), the screenplay—credited to too many cooks, Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, Julius Onah, and Peter Glanz— can be a little creaky at times. It’s a film that’s evidently been reworked a lot and substantial reshoots were obviously made to include new characters and new action sequences.
But thankfully, the seams do not really show, and ‘Brave New World’ seemingly only benefited from extensive rewriting, reshooting and reworking. Because while the script isn’t perfect, it’s clearly improved from what they had and the action sequences are terrific, taught and feel dangerous.
‘Brave New World’ centers around geopolitical interests and conflicts. The calcified corpse of the Celestial Tiamut (featured in “Eternals”) protrudes out of the Indian Ocean and all the world leaders want its resources, particularly the newly discovered metal Adamantium (Marvel fans will recognize the Wolverine reference here), an alloy that is not owned by an isolationist state like Wakanda and their precious Vibranium.
President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (now played by Harrison Ford), understands that American control in Adamantium is crucial and helps form a treaty with other nation to share the metal and all profit in its abundant scientific, medical, technological possibilities.
But an old Ross enemy has other plans and the skeletons in the former U.S. Secretary of State’s closet, and deals with the devils to get to where his is, are soon to be exposed.
Meanwhile, the newly appointed President wants the Avengers reformed and reaches out with an olive branch to his former adversary Sam Wilson, Captain America, then known as the Falcon. Before Wilson can even contemplate the President’s offer to join forces—though with the Avengers under Presidential rule, a dubious idea—all hell breaks loose at a White House presentation where Ross espouses the virtues of the Adamantium treaty.
A guest of Wilson’s at the White House event, former Korean War super soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) suddenly loses control and tries to assassinate the President, as other U.S. soldiers and security try and eliminate world leaders from France, Japan and India.
Once the chaos ends, Bradley is jailed, and possibly up for the death penalty, but he has no idea what happened to him and why. A larger conspiracy is afoot and Wilson and Joaquin Torres, aka the new Falcon (Danny Ramirez from “Top Gun: Maverick”), go off the grid to investigate despite the President’s orders to stand down and let law enforcement agencies and judges to deal with the fallout.
This leads them to Samuel Sterns / Leader (Tim Blake Nelson) returning from the second MCU film, 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk,” pulling all the strings behind the curtain and manipulating everything so it’ll blow up in the President’s face.
A lethal bishop in this intricate game of political chess and longtail revenge is Seth Voelker, aka Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito), leader of the Serpent Society, essentially a deadly operative who quite nearly ends Wilson’s life in a thrilling and “oh sh*t!” intense action sequence.
As global tensions escalate with Isaiah Bradley’s life hanging in the balance back in the U.S., Captain America and the Falcon head out to the Indian Ocean to de-escalate conflicts between the U.S. and Japan due to Ross’ hot-headedness.
Of course, as you’ve seen from the trailers, in a fit of embarrassment, anger and painful exposure orchestrated by Sterns, The President transforms into the Red Hulk—another patient, long-game Leader-created deceit and manipulation—and shit truly hits the fan.
Also part of the narrative are Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), an Israeli former Black Widow and high-ranking U.S. government official who is President Ross’ right-hand woman and Leila Taylor (Xosha Roquemore), a Secret Service agent also under Ross’ employ who is a sympathetic Wilson ally.
Narratively, ‘Brave New World,’ for all its on-the-surface interesting geopolitical concerns is a little predictable. It’s pretty obvious who is behind it all—Sterns, the trailers already show this too— and the conspiracy behind it all is never surprising and or as intricate and complex as these ’70s-style thrillers ought to be.
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But where the plot gets relatively baggy, ‘Brave New World’ excels in other areas: fantastic action across the board, solid actors delivering convincing character convictions and a good story (not plot).
Because for all its political machinations and intrigue, ‘Brave New World’ is the story of Sam Wilson’s continued story as an ordinary man trying to maintain the honor and legacy of the world’s most respected hero. It’s a tall order and then some; a huge emotional, psychological and spiritual burden and as Wilson is just an ordinary person, for as commanding and confident as he can be—especially public facing— he’s also prone to grappling with self-doubt in private moments. It’s a key distinction, as a Black man, Wilson can’t show weakness or uncertainty to a country and world that is already suspect about his position and whether he can do the job. Wilson has to be unimpeachable and faultless at all times, which makes his heroic duty all the more challenging—something the movie isn’t afraid to address (all of these leftover themes and ideas from “The Falcon & The Winter Soldier,” a Marvel series, when it was at its best, was about identity and the struggle to live up to a impossibly large legacy).
All of this makes Wilson immensely human and Mackie shines in these moments of vulnerability and exposed humanity. He’s truly a charisma machine, and the jocular chemistry he has with Ramirez is great; they make for an excellent duo.
‘Brave New World’ also gently comments on today’s world of division and makes pains to reach across the aisles and make olive branches distinctly with the idea of not shaking hands with those unworthy of us or would seek to oppress us but genuinely have differences that don’t need to polarize us. That’s maybe a little jejune in the real world, but in the ‘Brave New World,’ context one of the key antagonists not only tries to be accountable for his actions, along the way, he comes to realize his road of good intentions were paved with self-interest and blinding arrogance. This antagonist is depicted as morally grey in the end and throughout; well-intentioned, but flawed, but not irredeemable either, and this sits very well in the end.
“Brave New World” is also a much more smaller-scale and human drama that will probably turn off more entitled Marvel fans looking for greater spectacle, but perhaps they should look for the depth, heart and soul that this Marvel film also possesses.
To that end, what are you complaining about in total (if you indeed are)? The last act Red Hulk fight, is bonkers, good, and thrilling—the way you feel the visceral power of what this monster is capable of is frightening— and the aforementioned Sidewinder conflict is brutal in the best way possible.
Ultimately, it’s the goodness and compassion of Sam Wilson that are his true superpower. While the hero is often unconvinced, he’s incapable of this monumental task—the mantle of Captain America without the super soldier serum and thus powerless in a world of super-powered beings. Wilson’s immunizer against evil isn’t a superior potion that makes him special, it’s the man himself and his heart, grit, leadership and determination.
If some of this hokey and delivered with contrived dialogue? Your mileage will vary, but I certainly loved all the sentiments within, especially in a world where having values of honor dignity, honesty and standing for something principled seem to be in short supply.
If ‘Brave New World’ has those kinds of flaws, it might be because of its earnestness, but call me crazy, sincerity is what we need today. One smaller issue that’s tiny but sticks in this reviewer’s craw is Shira Haas. An excellent actress (see 2020’s “Unorthodox”), and not to be a height-ist, but she is unfortunately just too tiny (5’1, looking like 4’11), to look like a convincing security detail (and changing that character into a former Black Widow is the attempt at a suspension-of-disbelief salve). It’s not her fault, and she also had health issues as a child, but perhaps the filmmakers could have at least tried to solve this cinematically just a bit more (if only because whenever suspension of disbelief throws you out of a movie, that’s never good).
Like its hero, “Captain America: Brave New World” is flawed, human and imperfect, but where it lacks in narrative complexity or enormous world-saving-scale takes, it makes up for in spirit, immense character integrity, humility and heart. It’s a B movie in its execution, but its idealism and essence is at least a B+.
“Captain America: Brave New World” opens February 14 via Marvel and Disney.