In a country and world filled with inequities and conflict and societal issues, what is appealing about a superhero? Surely this larger-than-life figure could never relate to us average folk. Surely the space aliens they’re fighting are too otherworldly for us to feel any true stakes. For a good near-decade, the movies comprising the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) proved this notion wrong.
MCU films have always been unsubtle and occasionally gaudy. But their characters have at least been, for the most part, interesting. Tony Stark is interesting not because he’s a “genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist,” but because his most grave fears manifest in his actions, and because his deep imperfections as a person make him compelling to watch on screen — let alone the fact that Robert Downey Jr.’s chops as an actor bring Stark to life. Similar could be said for Steve Rogers (Chris Evans); he’s not interesting as an embodiment of polished American patriotism, he’s interesting for all the ways he isn’t. Sam Wilson, then, the new face of that red-white-and-blue getup, is interesting because he’s human. But maybe he’s just a little too human.
There is an almost endless list of issues with “Captain America: Brave New World,” but who Sam Wilson is as a person, is not one of them. First introduced in the second Captain America film (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”), Anthony Mackie has always brought a level of wit and empathy to Sam that used to complement well with the characters around him. There are hints of those previous performances here, especially in the first half hour of the film; every time someone refers to Sam as “Cap,” there’s a soft shift in Mackie’s facial expression and body language. He stands a bit straighter, the slight tension in his brow disappears and sometimes, a flicker of a smile nearly forms on his lips.
But for all the compassion Mackie might be able to bring to a character such as Sam, it makes no difference if the plot of the film can’t meet him halfway or support his narrative.
Roughly 34 films and four-ish TV shows is what you’d need to see in order to be fully up-to-date with the Marvel media preceding “Captain America: Brave New World.” But really, fewer will do, if you just want to understand what’s going on — and the list of media directly relevant to the plot of this new film sure is a strange one. On a basic level, it’s a good start if you’ve seen any of the “Captain America” films, especially “The Winter Soldier.” The 2021 Disney+ TV show, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” is perhaps the most direct prequel to where we find the characters of this film. But then, oddly, it’d also be helpful if you’ve seen 2021’s “Eternals” and 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk” (yes you read that right).
So much of the plot of “Brave New World” depends on the events of “The Incredible Hulk” that it’s actually a bit baffling. For years, the 2008 film has been jokingly referred to as the worst Marvel movie (though the recent MCU iterations could probably give it a run for its money), and it is likely largely forgotten by general audiences. This conundrum leads to a disgustingly expositional first act of “Brave New World,” in which viewers are brought up to speed on the events of the older film: A newscast reminds us that now-President Ross (Harrison Ford) tried to kill Bruce Banner/the Hulk, and that Ross’ daughter is Banner’s ex. And Ross, in the first lines of the film, asks an aide, “Have you seen Betty? Have you seen my daughter?” since we haven’t actually seen her in over a decade.
Beyond callbacks to a nearly 20-year-old film, one of the largest issues in “Captain America: Brave New World” is its utter lack of plot. I’m going to boil it down for you, ready? Okay, here goes: After an apparent presidential assassination attempt, super-soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) is wrongfully imprisoned for the second time in his life, leaving Sam Wilson as the newly-anointed Captain America to exonerate him outside the law, despite the fact that everyone knows (and eventually finds out on their own) that Bradley is innocent. Oh and the President turns into a giant Red Hulk, but that only becomes an issue when there’s half an hour left of the film. Got it? Great! Now you don’t need to see the movie, because that’s literally all that happens. There is no major character growth, the villain of the film will just be put back in the MCU-cryo for another decade and other than the White House needing some major renovations, everything comes back to where it began.
Much of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” series deals with the sudden weight put on Sam’s shoulders after Steve Rogers passes the Captain America helm onto him. Part of that battle is internal, as he wrestles with the question of whether or not to inject himself with the same super-soldier serum that gives Steve, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and Isaiah their super-human strength and qualities. The other part of that battle is external, as Sam is suddenly the face of American patriotism and superheroes as a whole, but he is also a Black man in America, and those two facts are at odds with one another.
These battles are explored but not resolved in the TV show (which is chock-full of its own issues), and sets up where Sam is emotionally in “Brave New World.” The problem is, those emotions are barely explored. He goes through the same debate about the serum, and the people around him continue to microaggress him for taking the place of America’s golden boy, yet no real change happens, internal to Sam or external to the plot.
Sam is a good character, but he used to be a side character. In bringing him up to the level of main, we need the same emotional depth and understanding that previous MCU mains have received, but Sam doesn’t get this treatment. It’s fine for him as a character to be unsure of his place in his world, but it very much feels like the film is unsure of his place in its world.
In the opening scene of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” Steve and Sam, not yet acquainted, run around the National Mall. Steve laps Sam repeatedly, each time telling him, “on your left.” This film effectively establishes Sam as Steve’s right-hand man, and right now, he’s still being treated as such, despite Steve no longer being in the picture. There’s also a moment in “The Winter Soldier” where Sam tells another character “I do what he [Steve] does, just slower.” It’s funny in the moment, but painfully present as an idea in “Brave New World.”
The fight sequences in this new Captain America iteration come across as lethargic and uninteresting, Sam bogged down by the literal weight of both his wings and his shield. There is no distinct style to the way he fights now, where there once might have been in previous films. We learn nothing about him as a character through his fighting style, which is quite an oversight considering that this is an action film. The way a person fights tells you so much about who they are; “The Winter Soldier” knows this and excellently showcases Steve’s strategic prowess, as well as Bucky’s no-punches-held, ghostlike mystique as the title character. This is a recipe the MCU once knew, but seems to have forgotten over time.
Functionally, “Brave New World” should have been Sam’s “The Winter Soldier,” since narratively there are massive parallels between the two films. Both stories deal with potentially corrupt governments and having to investigate an issue independently out of safety and lack of resources. Both films are essentially the second time the story is focused on each respective Captain America. “The Winter Soldier” succeeds because it clearly establishes Steve’s position when it comes to government surveillance and control, as well as his position when it comes to his friends. “Brave New World” fails for these same reasons; by the end of the film, we have no idea how Sam really feels about working for the government, and while he’s protective of his friends, there’s a lack of a meaningful connection between them. He’s alone, but the film seems to not want us to think so.
Even somehow putting aside the egregious character issues that make “Captain America: Brave New World” lose any of the little impact it might have had, it’s also a shockingly poorly-made film. The score is frequently at odds with the scenes it plays under, going as far as to not only feel incongruous with the plot, but often actively working against it; in one particularly terrible moment, a sort of triumphant rise happens in the music just as Sam is visiting Isaiah in prison, the latter man potentially up for the death penalty.
The writing on the whole is quite poor, the script filled with strange lines. Aside from Ross’ expositional questions regarding his daughter, later when Sam and Joaquin (Danny Ramirez) walk into a hidden lab under a prison, the audience is treated to the line “Why is there a lab in this prison?” It’s almost a joke how obvious the line is — almost, because it’s not meant to be funny, and no one is laughing.
The actors’ performances in this film are nothing to write home about, often landing somewhere between “okay” and “needed more rehearsal time.” Lumbly is great and grounding as Isaiah, but his lack of screen-time leaves him at a loose end. Mackie is punching above his weight with no backing from the script, Ramirez is just fine as a supporting character and Shira Haas as Ruth Bat-Seraph — aside from the morally-reprobate political complications associated with both her character and her as a person — is so blank-faced it’s actually impressive. In an uncredited cameo, Sebastian Stan acts circles around everyone in the film, both the familiarity of Bucky and the ease with which Stan portrays him feeling like a breath of fresh air. Harrison Ford seems to be having fun, at least.
And if you read all of this and thought, “well, maybe it’s a visually interesting film,” then you’d unfortunately be wrong. Cinematography can’t save the story or characters here, because even that is sorely lacking. Shots feel unmotivated, telling us nothing about the characters or situations (blocking is also an issue, and in one scene Sam forcibly moves another character out of the way to step forward, in a manner so strange that it’s unclear whether it’s a written action or a blocking mistake that somehow made it into the final film).
Much of the film employs a very shallow depth of field, with just small portions of shots in focus. While uninteresting to look at for its consistency, this also becomes an issue in that the edges of shots are blurred in a kind of vignette. The plain center-framing that a lot of this film utilizes means that the vignetting largely isn’t noticeable, but there is a shot at the beginning of the third act where neither Sam nor the person he’s talking to are centered, meaning neither of them are in focus.
Even shots that try to do something different come across as shallow. When Sam and Joaquin first go off to try to save Isaiah, the camera flips upside down as they drive down a long road. Shots like this have been used countless times across film history, usually signifying that the road ahead for these characters will be riddled with puzzles and that things will not be what they seem. (“The Brutalist” uses this technique stunningly, its flipped shot combined with its score exuding a sense of dread.) In “Captain America: Brave New World,” though, the idea suggested by this shot never goes beyond its surface. There is no emotion behind the image.
If the cinematography in this film leaves much to be desired, then at least the CGI matches it (this is not a compliment). The CGI of recent Marvel films has been difficult to watch, and this film is unfortunately no exception. Red Hulk appears to be a different size in every shot, and while the (green) Hulk sometimes manifests in different sizes depending on his anger level, there is nothing to narratively suggest that this same principle applies to Red Hulk. In a final battle between Sam and the Red Hulk, the sun setting and the two of them framed by cherry blossoms, the lighting is incomprehensible. It’s oversaturated and just odd, somehow neither fantastical nor aiming for realism. Something about the graphics in this final fight evoke the dull end of “Free Guy” or perhaps the ghastly Stonehenge marriage in the series finale of “Ted Lasso” (again, this is not a compliment). People have never been less in a real place before.
Ultimately, even for how downright bad a lot of “Captain America: Brave New World” is, the real shame is that much of it is also just boring. And it’s ironic, since when Sam and Joaquin first come face-to-face with the antagonist of the film, he says “don’t be boring.” That’s the same plea one has when watching this film, which is so plot-less and unengaging that even children were getting up repeatedly throughout my screening to kill time at the concessions stand.
Time that could have been used to tell a story of any kind is instead used in service of a quasi-war between the U.S. and Japan, furthering the MCU-wide plot but adding almost nothing of value to the story of this film. Isaiah’s story, which is already short-changed when he is first introduced in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” continues to serve as a mere backdrop to this film. No one is asking Marvel to be a leading voice when it comes to dismantling institutional racism in the United States, but for having started the conversation in their universe by making Isaiah a supposedly significant character, it isn’t unreasonable to expect more follow-through.
Aside from this issue, there is simply no heart in this film, and nothing to connect to. The MCU has felt disjointed post-“Avengers: Endgame,” but it really does feel like there’s no person to root for. Which is a shame, because Sam was a character who used to be easy to like. His introduction in the opening sequence of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is beloved, doing so much to characterize him with just a few lines. That kind of empathy and clean writing is nowhere to be found in this film.
It’s especially mournful because this is a Marvel film with a Black lead character, whose story, to some degree, revolves around the issues he faces due to his race — and this is a poor film, but certainly not for those reasons. Given the way that certain close-minded viewers like to think, Sam will get the blame for not living up to his predecessor. But this is a writing issue, not one inherent to the character. Sam is not Steve Rogers and that’s a good thing. He isn’t a super-soldier, and that’s also a good thing. It’s just that the film seems to be conflicted on that matter.
I won’t lie and say that this could have been a good movie if not for X, Y or Z reasons. On some level it does feel like it was doomed from the start, what with its (necessary) title change, position in a historically terrible run of Marvel films, or the fact that crew members have said the set they worked on was painful and toxic, and the film itself was stuck in (expensive) reshoot purgatory for far too long. It was, however, a story that had the potential to be something real, something that many people could have connected to. Sam Wilson is a wonderfully human character in a world of robots and aliens and witches and more, but instead of celebrating that fact, he’s punished for it, not just by being centered in a bad movie, but by being centered in an utterly boring one.