Film Review: Captain America: Brave New World
Film Reviews
Captain America: Brave New World
Director: Julius Onah
Marvel Studios
In Theaters 02.14.25
While I feel that I bend over backwards in ways that qualify as superheroic efforts to avoid spoilers for Marvel movies, this cinematic universe is always where I run the risk of getting someone angry at me. While you can rest assured that Captain America: Brave World is utterly devoid of any surprises to spoil, consider this your warning that I’m going to talk about the plot.
As Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker) fully embraces his role as Captain America, he finds himself at the center of a global crisis. Newly elected U.S. President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford, stepping into the role previously played by the late William Hurt), seeks to repair his damaged reputation by reforming the Avengers and negotiating a major international treaty over a newly discovered substance that promises to have major implications for word technology. This new age of peace is short lived, however, and chaos erupts when former super-soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly, Alias) unexpectedly attempts to assassinate Ross at the White House. As Sam and his young sidekick, Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez, Winner), investigate, they uncover a sinister plot involving the mercenary group Serpent Society, led by Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito, Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian), and scientist Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson, O Brother, Where Art Thou?), who is back with a vengeance.
Director Julius Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox) is working from a weak and messy script by five credited writers, and the story, while rather simplistic if you’ve followed everything from 2008’s The Incredible Hulk to the 2021 series The Falcon Winter Soldier — and is fairly accessible even if you haven’t — feels lazily slapped together. There are no major new developments propelling the Marvel Cinematic Universe forward, it’s basically just filler stuffed with action sequences that are fun but do nothing to stand out from films we’ve seen before. That’s the bad news. The good news is that it’s fast-paced, watchable throughout and an enjoyable enough diversion on its own to be worth seeing. and for me, a Black Captain America is reason enough to support it. But if you were hoping for a resounding moment that screams “The MCU is back on top,” it never comes.
Mackie steps up to the plate and carries the shield with honor, though he’s given little in the way of a character arc. The best thing about the film is Ford, who is far better suited to the role than Hurt ever was (if not quite as well as Sam Elliott was in Ang Lee’s perennially underrated 2003 version of Hulk). If you’ve seen any trailers or advertising over the past year (and if you’re a serious Marvel fan, of course you have), you know that big selling point of this movie is at last seeing Ross become the Red Hulk, and for anyone from my generation, seeing the action star who defined ‘hero’ to us becoming a giant growling rage monster is an absolute hoot, though I was disappointed that Red Hulk was always too far gone in his anger to do Ford’s trademark warning fingershake. Ramirez is likable as Torres, and he and Mackie make a good team. Nelson is a terrific actor, but Marvel has never used him particularly well, and his make-up design is less than impressive. Shira Haas (Unorthodox) is memorable as Ruth Bat-Seraph, a former Israeli agent who trained in same program as Black Widow. The protests and controversy over the character, who is never identified by the name Sabra is as she is in the comics, are overblown and unwarranted, as the character’s nationality doesn’t denote any kind of messaging on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While the timing of the release so soon after the most dangerously inflammatory suggestion on U.S. interference in Palestine in history was just made, we can’t blame Red Hulk for what Orange Hulk does in real life.
Captain America: Brave New World is just satisfying enough as a disposable superhero flick to see once, but the MCU still has its work cut out for it to win back the kind of enthusiasm from moviegoers that it took for granted. It’s not terrible, but if you’re looking for popcorn entertainment this weekend, both Paddington in Peru and The Gorge will give you more to marvel at for your money. —Patrick Gibbs
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