A bit Sixties, a bit Eighties and a bit all over the place, Captain America: Brave New World is a strange mishmash of a movie. According to Variety, it wiped the floor with Kraven the Hunter at the box office. Which says more about that movie than this one, having seen both of them.
First up, it’s a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie (Kraven was Marvel but not canonical MCU, if these theological niceties mean anything to you). Second up, Chris Evans has been replaced by Anthony Mackie as Captain America, least interesting of the Marvel superheroes. Third up, the story harks back to The Incredible Hulk of 2008, which heavily featured General “Thunderbolt” Ross, then played by William Hurt, now played by Harrison Ford. Ross is now the US president and in need of the Avengers’ assistance, which requires some screenplay shenanigans by the writers – lorehounds will remember that Ross and the Avengers didn’t see eye to eye on very much. But needs must in a dangerous world. Apparently something called the Celestial Mass has risen from the oceans off Asia and is threatening something, something, something. Once mentioned, the Celestial Mass then disappears for most of the movie, but returns again towards the end, by which point President Ross has been overtaken by rage and has turned into something that looks like the Hulk, except he’s red. And him a Democrat and all.
It’s easy to be flippant because there is really so little going on in this movie. Mackie is bland but gives off the vibes of decency, which is a superpower of sorts, but there isn’t very much for him to do, certainly not in the way of action, and the bromantic subplot between Captain America and Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), who is now the Falcon, or Falcon in waiting, is also territory staked out, then forgotten about, then re-entered towards the end.
The Sixties stuff is the mind-control bit of the plot – an assassination attempt on the US president triggered by an old 1950s song, which will later compel various other people to do various bad things which will put the world into immediate jeopardy.
The Eighties stuff is the centrality of Japan to the story. As geopolitical tensions mount over the Celestial Mass (whatever it is), the US and Japan are nearly propelled into all-out war. Japan, not China. If it looks like throwback plotting, it’s much more likely a business decision taken so as not to exclude a potentially lucrative market.
A superhero movie that’s not particularly heroic then. With some badly choreographed fights – Mackie’s clearly fit and has obviously been doing his burpees at the gym, but he’s not a martial-arts athlete and looks awkward and not quite nimble enough in the fights.
There’s mention of Adamantium, which is stronger than Vibranium, the Wakandans’ secret metal, there’s Giancarlo Esposito wandering into and out of the story as Sidewinder. There’s Tim Blake Nelson doing the same as the mutated villain Samuel Sterns. And Liv Tyler pops up towards the end to keep the connection to The Incredible Hulk alive, though there are so many connections in need of life support at this point that you wonder what the hell is going on at the Marvel Mothership.
Brave New World neither advances the MCU’s storylines nor establishes Mackie’s “Cap” as a compelling figure. It is verbose and so much of it takes place in corridors and in nondescript offices that the suspicion starts to arise that someone wanted to do an Aaron Sorkin on the whole superhero thing. Brave New West Wing.
Director Julius Onah has an eye for a moody image but he’s not been given his head here. He’s no director of action but he does get a good performance out of Harrison Ford, who manfully tries to rescue the entire movie by being charismatic. A superpower of sorts too.
Nerds assemble. This is one only you will be bothered with.
Captain America: Brave New World – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2025
