Running Time: 118 minutes
This feature film from Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Marvel opens exclusively at theaters and on IMAX screens February 14th.
First of all, the Marvel cinematic universe has been a remarkable achievement, combining superhero stories into a continuous storyline since 2008. While there have been marvelous films, the 2020s have been inconsistent. In recent years, there have been just as many whiffs as hits. It could just be the overly familiar stories and characters, as well as the massive number of pictures that has led to a slight decline. Still, the series has continued forward. The latest attempt to get things back on track is Captain America: Brave New World, which combines action and political intrigue into its storyline.
The tale begins with ex-U.S. Army General/ex-U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford, taking over from the late William Hurt in previous Marvel films) being elected President and attempting to broker an international peace deal over an enormous deposit of the powerful steel alloy Adamantium in the Indian Ocean. After receiving the assistance of Sam Wilson/Captain America (Anthony Mackie) and Joaquin Torres/Falcon (Danny Ramirez) on a secret mission, he invites the pair to a special event at the White House.
The superheroes take along old chum Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), who still harbors doubt as to whether Ross is a good man. During his time as a general, the figure approved nasty experiments involving gamma radiation tests and shared anti-superhero views. When Bradley suddenly attempts to assassinate the President, a shocked Wilson and Torres set out to discover what really happened and prove their friend’s innocence. The trail puts them in the path of criminals like Seth Voelker/Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito) and Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson).
Star Mackie has been playing the latest iteration of Captain America since the 2021 miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and continues his run as the charismatic and likable lead. The character relays the pressures of being a hero and the toll it takes on him, adding an element of humanity to the character. And since he and his cohort Falcon are not super-soldiers and can be injured, there is some tension as potentially life-ending events play out.
The film has two exceptional action sequences. One involves the characters in their flight suits trying to stop a major conflict between two nations at the site of the Adamantium, and the second details a climactic battle between the lead and a monstrous beast in Washington. The visual effects are at times noticeably computer-generated, but these scenes are still exciting and entertaining to watch. This is also a shorter picture by Marvel standards and keeps a brisk pace throughout.
Alas, it isn’t without a few problems. For all the intrigue that is introduced, the screenplay quickly points out who the real villain is. It’s certainly a stretch when the reveal of how the characters are manipulated and controlled is delivered. The same goes for the motivation of the central baddie. He speaks of his anger at being used by the government, wanting to ruin the legacy of a character, and get two specific persons killed in the process, but as written his speeches come across as silly, and his evil plot needlessly complicated. It would have been more entertaining to see him physically involved in the events instead of watching at a distance and commenting on mathematical probabilities.
The film also closes in relatively undramatic fashion, with a majority of characters simply waiting to be reintegrated into future plotlines (those looking for a big post-credit scene will have to wait until the end of the picture, which only offers a mere tease at what might be coming).
Captain America: Brave New World is a reasonably diverting superhero film with a few funny moments and a couple of solid action scenes. It certainly isn’t a bad picture, especially considering the fact that it is the 35th title in a series. And, the movie is superior to several “Phase Four” and “Phase Five” releases in the Marvel cinematic universe. Comic book fans will definitely find things here to enjoy. But one still can’t help but feel that, while serviceable, this chapter may not linger in the brain for a particularly long while after leaving the theater.