Even though it’s starting to feel like I’m just repeating myself at this point, the path through the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s fourth, fifth and sixth phases continue to be as inconsistent as a gamma irradiated heartbeat. After the deafening silence that followed The Marvels, cinema’s most gargantuan franchise followed it up with a two hit combo with the fan baiting and brutally funny Deadpool & Wolverine. It seems that once again, it falls to Captain America to bring balance to a noticeably unstable world order, but for his first feature after taking up the mantle in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson seemed to be beset with more behind the scenes obstacles that a shield and a pair of vibranium wings could possibly protect him against.
Never mind shadowy conspiracies, mind control and political backstabbing, the real danger here seems to be poor test screenings and endless reshoots that seemingly rebuilt the movie more than Avengers tower after an alien invasion. But then isn’t that what Captain America is all about; overcoming adversity?
A lot has changed in the few years since former Falcon Sam Wilson took on the mantle of Captain America. Not only has former Hulk chaser and notorious hero hater Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross climbed the ranks from general, to secretary of state, to President Of United States, but thanks to some cosmic chicanery, the lifeless body of a bloody great celestial is being stripped mined by various countries who want to get their hands on this new mineral dubbed “Adamantium”. As a result, political treaties between the various countries has become a little shakey and when a batch of the game changing metal is stolen from the Japanese by a mercenary fraction named the Serpent Society, Sam and his new, literal, wingman, Joaquin Torres, are sent in yo get it back.
In the aftermath, Sam and Joaquin are invited to the White House to celebrate and invite Isaiah Bradley, the supersoldier that history did dirty, along. However, when a seemingly brainwashed Bradley suddenly goes all John Hinckley Jr. and tries to assassinate President Ross, it soon becomes apparent that there’s a worrying conspiracy at work that’s trying to discredit the head of state.
However, as Sam attempts to unravel this, it means that some of Ross’ more filthier laundry may be aired out in places the President doesn’t want them – after all, Ross barely managed to get out of the whole Hulk/Abomination debacle that leveled Harlem over a decade ago.
With enemies piling up, can Captain America manage to break this insidious plot while simultaneously stopping numerous countries going to war over invaluable space metal? And even if he does, can he manage to calm the President’s escalating rage issues that lead Ross to see red in ways you can’t even imagine?
So let’s not pull any punches, Captain America: Brave New World turns out to be mid-tier MCU at best that carries with it the rather tentative feel of a phase 2 release rather than the swaggering confidence of a phase 3 entry and the main reason for this is, from what I can tell, all the vast amounts of reshoots that may have salvaged the release, but have left the movie feeling weirdly low stakes considering full scale war is the endgame here. It becomes very apparent in a very shortvspace of time that Brave New World desperately wants to be Captain America: The Winter Soldier so bad, it’s willing to copy huge sections of plot in order to try and make that happen that induce the odd blast of deja vu when it should be ploughing dangerous new territory. There’s an early mission with a new, secondary villain that’s tenuously connected to the main plot to allow our new Cap to stretch his legs (or wings), there’s a high street shoot out, there’s a trip to a mysterious goverment compound where the evil plot is revealed and there’s even a late in the day action sequence that sees Wilson zipping around being chased by missiles, but despite strenuous attempts to graft in backstory drafted in from The Incredible Hulk and Eternals (two lesser loved MCU entries, it has to be said) nothing much about Brave New World actually seems that new. Also, while needs to be said that a film with this many reshoots under its belt remains even remotely cohesive is something that really should be applauded, but as an unavoidably result, a lot of the various threads feel incredibly disjointed and flows as awkwardly as an uphill waterfall.
It’s a shame, because if you examine a lot of those threads, there actually quite a lot of solid shit to be enjoyed with Mackie using the full force of his empathy-laced charisma to desperately hold everything together. Smartly choosing to remind us that Wilson is just as much a PTSD counsellor as he is a dude who rockets around in a vibranium suit bouncing shield off the skulls of evil doers everywhere, his relationships with Danny Ramirez’s eager student and Carl Lumby’s wary mentor are both perky and moving respectively. Elsewhere, Harrison Ford fills in for the late William Hurt admirably as a way more flawed version of the commander in chief than the one he played in Air Force One (or should that be Clear And Present Anger?), who is desperate to prove to the world and his estranged daughter that he’s moved on from the rage-fuelled general the press has dubbed “the Hulk hunter” only to find that his past has come to haunt him in the Mars Attacks-headed form of Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns who hasn’t been even mentioned in the MCU since 2008.
Still, despite the clunky nature of the pacing and the inevitable plot holes caused by large amounts of post production patch jobs, when this new Captain America knuckles down, it serves to be as solid as Hulk hide. Wilson busts out an endless array of moves that one minute invokes Steve Rogers himself, then shifts into more Top Gun: Maverick territory as he seals the deal to hold the shield with gusto and while some may question exactly why a movie would base so much of its runtime seemingly clearing up unresolved plot threads from lesser loved movies (surely the re-intergration of The Incredible Hulk fully into the MCU must be complete by now), that’s exactly what a connected universe is supposed to do and I didn’t hear anyone else complaining when both Avengers: Endgame And Thor: Ragnarok did the same for Thor: The Dark World.
Things finally manage to click fully with the film’s final set piece which (bizarrely for the spoiler-phobic MCU) has mostly already been spoiled by countless ads and sees Ross rage and Hulk issues finally catch up with him in spectacular fashion. Having a Hulk rampaging back in the MCU is not only a sight that warms the comic book soul, but it also has the face of Han fucking Solo to boot. But even as Cap and Red Hulk tear up Washington DC, you can never shake the fact that is just a reheated reserving of Captain America’s previous benchmark, The Winter Soldier (The Autumnal Soldier, anyone?).
It won’t convert anyone still convinced that Marvel’s crown is continuing to slip and it’s choice to be a political thriller with no discernable politics smacks of not wanting to rock the boat, but Mackie makes a good Cap, Ford makes a good Hulk and if nothing else, the MCU gets to check a few outstanding plotlines off its growing list. It’s just a shame that this Brave New World may be as solid as a vibranium shield, but it’s certainly nowhere near as versatile.
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