Captain America: Brave New World

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The new Captain America has to deal with a shadowy threat to the US President in Captain America: Brave New World. Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) has taken up the mantle of Captain America, with Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) becoming the new Falcon. The two manage to stop the sale of classified stolen items being conducted by Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito) of the Serpent Society. Wilson and Torres are invited by new President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) to summit of world leaders at the White House, bringing along legacy super soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly).

At the summit, Bradley is seemingly hypnonized to attempt an assassination of Ross. Along with, former Black Widow, Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), Wilson tries to get answers for why Bradley attempted to take the President’s life. This leads them to Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), a Gamma-infected cellular biologist, secretly pulling the strings behind the scenes. At the core of Sterns’ plan is to show the world who Thaddeus Ross truly is.

Captain America: Brave New World Synopsis

Captain America: Brave New World is the fourth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise and the first since Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson officially became Captain America in the 2021 Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The film, directed by Julius Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox), brings back some of the characters introduced in the series, including Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres and Carl Lumbly as Isaiah Bradley. The film also co-stars Harrison Ford, who takes over the role of Thaddeus Ross from William Hurt, who passed away in 2022.

The plot of Captain America: Brave New World directly references events from 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, which includes bring back Tim Blake Nelson as cellular biologist Samuel Sterns, who is now the super-inlelligent Gamma-infected villain Leader. The film also returns to “Celestial Island” from the film Eternals, where a new metal called adamantium was discovered. In the fight to keep adamantium from getting into the wrong hands, Sam Wilson learns that Sterns has a trump card in the form of the Red Hulk.

My Thoughts on Captain America: Brave New World

In the years since the release of Avengers: Endgame, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come under increased scrutiny and criticism. Some of the criticism has been valid, such as there being no real sense of direction following the conclusion of the decade-long Infinity Saga. However, other criticism has been steeped in racism and/or sexist undertones, rather it be female-led films such as The Marvels or, in this case, a black Captain America.

Sadly, I found Captain America: Brave New World to be a disapointing mess that is about the general lack of direction, rather than the latter criticism, which I’ll choose no longer to address in this review. If it was fleshed out, Captain America: Brave New World might have made a decent second season of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (or Captain America and the Winter Soldier as it would probably be called). However, with one of the shorter running times of the MCU, at just under two hours, the film comes off feeling rushed.

One of the issues of Captain America: Brave New World is that the titular hero all but takes a backseat to what is essentially a backdoor sequel to The Incredible Hulk, which can’t get a standalone sequel due to rights issues with Universal Pictures. This includes the return of Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns, who is one of many antagonists to be featured in this film, which also includes Giancarlo Esposito as the mercenary Seth Voelker, aka Sidewinder, as well as Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus Ross transforming in a Red Hulk for the climatic battle. While the role of Ross was recast out of neccessity, there is a major disconnect seeing Harrison Ford take on the role, after the character was played in multiple films by William Hurt.

The reintroduction of Samuel Sterns after sixteen years also turns out to be a major disapointed. The decision was made to depict enlarged brain mutations of Sterns as Leader practically, which somehow comes off as more uncanny valley than it would look done with CGI. He’s also not in the film enough to be considered a true threat.

While there are some who’ll likely attribute other reasons for the failures of Captain America: Brave New World, it ultimately comes down to Julius Onah being an unproven director of big action tentpole films and this film being written by a commitee of no less than five credited screenwriters. I’m actually rooting for Sam Wilson to succeed as the new Captain America. Sadly, Captain America: Brave New World just doesn’t do it.

Trailer for Captain America: Brave New World