I was frightened to see Captain America: Brave New World when its first reviews were published. They talked about the film being similar to what we’ve seen with recent Marvel projects and containing a lot of loose ends and characters that didn’t align with Marvel’s goals. With that being said, Marvel had a giant mess to clean up with some of their recent flops. They began cleaning this mess up with Deadpool and Wolverine. They have continued their work with their most recent installment of the Captain America franchise—the first movie starring Anthony Mackie’s Cap as the title character. The movie ties up several loose ends and even gives us a long-awaited tie-in to one of Marvel’s earlier films.
As mentioned, Brave New World is the first Captain America movie where Sam Wilson takes the mantle of Captain America. He previously served as Steve Rogers’ sidekick, Falcon. This casting worked surprisingly well as Anthony Mackie stepped up to the task of being the main character. The casting also allowed Wilson to fill the role he was given in the series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier after the U.S. Government attempted to make John Walker the new Captain and failed. The movie picked up right where the series left off, with Sam fighting crime on the government’s side.
The film’s opening act follows Sam as Cap and the new Falcon Joaquin Torres as they get sent by President Thaddeus Ross to stop the illegal sale of an unknown product. The product was stolen by Sidewinder, who was portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito as he made his Marvel debut. They were able to recover the package, which only started their problems. They got invited to the White House to witness the signing of a treaty that allowed fair distribution of the contents of Celestial Island, a giant creature that tried to emerge from the earth in the movie Eternals. The two decide to bring their friend Isaiah Bradley, a super soldier imprisoned and tested on by the government, to recreate the serum used by Shield to turn Steve into Captain America during WW2. We learn that the Celestial contains Adamantium, which is even stronger than Vibranium, and thus explains why there is an arms race for the island. Things turned south when several attendees of the conference, including Isaiah, shoot at the president and other world leaders. Bradley got sent back to prison.
The second act revolved around Wilson and Torres figuring out why the attack happened, which is later traced to a base called Camp Echo One. It is there that we learn about how Samuel Sterns (aka The Leader) figured out how to brainwash people through lights on their phones, thus allowing him to control them when playing the song Mr. Blue by The Fleetwoods. We also learn that Sterns had been giving President Ross gamma pills to keep his heart beating, in exchange for a pardon when Ross was elected president. Sterns had been physically disfigured by his exposure to Bruce Banner’s blood during the final fight in 2008’s Incredible Hulk. However, he gained serious intelligence and was able to see every outcome of every scenario he thought of, which he remarked on several times throughout the film. He later escaped his camp while our heroes barely escaped with their lives. Meanwhile, the treaty was falling apart as a trip by Ross to Japan failed and convinced Japan to sail their navy to the island to guard it. The U.S. did the same, and we as the audience realized that Stern’s plan was working.
The third act takes place around Celestial Island and is mainly a dogfight between two Japanese fighter jets, two brainwashed American jets, and of course Captain America and Falcon. During the battle, we watch as Wilson and Torres take down the American jets before they can kill any Japanese soldiers. They manage to do so, Stern’s plan is ruined and he lets the audience know with a loud yell, and the sides of the treaty realize it needs to happen, but Falcon is critically wounded during the fight and is thus out of action for the rest of the film. This leads to the final act and arguably one of the best fight scenes in Marvel’s history.
During a press conference at the White House, Samuel Sterns was arrested after a talk with Sam Wilson. Shortly after, he got onto the loudspeakers at the conference and got Ross to snap. Ross turned him into the Red Hulk and caused him to go on a rampage that destroyed a large portion of the White House. Captain America was forced to fight him, which culminated in a fight in Washington’s Cherry Blossom forest. Sam eventually got the better of Red Hulk and used his shock-absorbing wings to end the battle by blowing up the area around them. Ross returned to normal and later resigned as the president of the U.S. We saw that Torres was okay and the movie ended. In a post-credit scene, Sam visited The Leader, who was being held as a prisoner in the Raft prison. The prison was last shown in Captain America: Civil War. He warned Sam of coming threats from other worlds.
Overall, the movie was really good at doing what it intended to do. We finally had a film that addressed the giant Celestial Island and making its contents adamantium now allows a perfect setup for Wolverine and later the X-Men, so it was a great move to tie that end up. We also had the storyline from The Incredible Hulk finally incorporated officially. It had never really been clear if that movie was part of the MCU, but now it is connected, and bringing Sam Sterns into the film made for a perfect overarching antagonist. I am a little disappointed at how they used Giancarlo Esposito though. For as good of an actor as he is, I’d argue that he should have been saved for a way bigger villain role like William Stryker. The dude is straight-up good at being a villain and while I think he fits Sidewinder’s character perfectly, he should’ve been used better, not just as a distraction from the main villain.
Harrison Ford as Thaddeus Ross wasn’t a bad casting either, the only problem I have with it is that it wasn’t William Hurt who unfortunately passed away in 2022. Hurt felt like a character who belonged in the role and, unfortunately, he couldn’t finish it. Other than that though, Ford did a great job of portraying Ross and later Red Hulk.
As mentioned earlier, the early reviews of the film did not paint a good picture, Lots of them seemed to be based on the fact that Sam Wilson is now Captain America. Many people can’t sit with this fact, but the comics made that a thing in 2014 and lots of people loved it, so it’s hard to understand why movie-goers hated it this time.
Overall, Marvel used Captain America: Brave New World as another movie in its bounce back and it was able to achieve what it was supposed to. A low-stakes movie that deals with mounting political tension and shows what happens when bad people are able to get a small grip on control. Good work Marvel.
