‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Review: Anthony Mackie Takes the Lead, but Uninspired Marvel Entry Lets Him Down
While giving a press conference, the president of the United States loses control of himself, morphs into the powerful Red Hulk and proceeds to wreak destruction on Washington, D.C. No, it’s not Donald Trump’s fantasy, but rather a key sequence in the fourth standalone Captain America film, the first to spotlight Anthony Mackie in the big-screen starring role for which he’s been patiently preparing for a decade.
One wishes, then, that the results were worth the wait. Unfortunately, Captain America: Brave New World proves a lackluster Marvel entry that feels as if its complicated storyline has been painstakingly worked out without a shred of inspiration. (See the first reactions to the film.)
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Except, that is, for the casting of Harrison Ford as Thadeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (originally played by the late William Hurt), who has ascended to the presidency after serving as a U.S. general and secretary of state in previous Marvel films. The veteran actor with two legendary franchises to his credit has nearly as much screen time as Mackie and makes the most of it, even subjecting himself to the rigors of motion capture for his character’s extreme physical transformation.
Feeling similar to 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier in its paranoia-infused storyline involving shady government machinations and Manchurian Candidate-style brainwashing that turns people into ruthless assassins, the film features a plethora of callbacks to other Marvel films and surprise cameo appearances (not all of which will be revealed here since Disney knows where I live). The narrative revolves around Ross’ efforts to secure an international treaty involving “the world’s most versatile element” that was discovered on an island in the Indian Ocean (rewatch Eternals if you need your memory refreshed, but don’t say I didn’t warn you).
Ross and Mackie’s Sam Wilson have a complicated relationship, to say the least. One minute Ross is asking him to rebuild the Avengers (cue the fan cheers) and the next he’s snarling, “You’re no Steve Rogers.” Indeed, Sam isn’t, at least in that he wouldn’t take the serum that would have rendered him with superhuman powers, a decision that he amusingly regrets at one point in the proceedings. Instead, he gets by with his shield and wingsuit as well as his well-honed fighting skills to dispatch his opponents, of whom he has a lot.
The main plot is set in motion when all hell breaks loose after Sam brings his sidekick Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) and elderly former super soldier Isaiah Bradley (a terrific Carl Lumbly), both first seen in Disney+’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, to the White House for an international reception. Without warning, Isaiah suddenly attempts to shoot the president, his homicidal impulse apparently triggered by the Bobby Vinton recording “Mr. Blue” (for me, it would have been “Roses Are Red”). It turns out to be but the first in a series of such calamitous events as part of a nefarious global plot engineered by the very pissed-off scientist Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson, who obviously spent a lot of time in the makeup chair), last seen in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk and looking very much the worse for wear.
Needless to say, much mayhem ensues, including Captain America and Torres battling it out with several fighter jets (one of the film’s more exciting sequences) and the former nearly getting dispatched by the villainous Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito, in a more physical embodiment of evil than his sly Gus Fring in Breaking Bad). Throughout it all, President Ross gets upset, a lot, when he’s not pining for his estranged daughter (Liv Tyler). Also getting heavily involved in the action is Ross’ badass female security chief, played by Shira Haas in a marked departure from her acclaimed turn in the Netflix series Unorthodox.
It’s all about as perfunctory as it sounds, with the pedestrian screenplay — the work of no less than five contributors — featuring such witticisms as “Holy shit!” and “Suit up, we need to move!” (no points for guessing that the phrase “collateral damage” will be used at one point). Humor is in severely short supply, with the result being that Mackie’s reliable charisma doesn’t seem much in evidence. You feel bad for him; finally given the chance to prove he can fill the shoes of Chris Evan’s Steve Rogers, he’s let down by the writers.
At 118 minutes, Captain America: Brave New World thankfully runs on the short side for a Marvel movie, but under the uninspired direction of Julius Onah (Luce, The Cloverfield Paradox) it feels much longer. Even the CGI special effects prove underwhelming, and sometimes worse than that. It is a kick, though, to recognize Ford’s facial features in the Red Hulk, even if the character is only slightly more visually convincing than his de-aged Indiana Jones in that franchise’s final installment.
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