Captain America: Brave New World is the latest installment in the MCU franchise, and one that has been met with much criticism from both critics and fans of Marvel alike.
Dissatisfaction has been more of a trend than most Marvel and Disney execs would like to admit, and it is fair to say they have produced some disappointing projects since their last climactic entry in the Avengers series, Avengers: Endgame (2019). Recently, it has been misfire after misfire for the formerly oh-so-consistent Marvel Studios.
Is this the worst movie ever? No. It’s probably not even the worst Captain America movie, counting pre-MCU Captain America (1990). Brave New World still functions like most Marvel movies do: wisecracking heroes team up to save the world from a “villain-of-the-week” style supervillain seeking revenge. It’s a formula that has worked in the past for Marvel, so it’s not surprising to see more of the same here. However, its formulaic nature results in another mostly bland viewing experience.
The best thing that Brave New World has going for it is some fun performances. Anthony Mackie thrives in his new lead role, both in-universe and in the credits. Harrison Ford also does a solid job, and is always a fun grump to watch. The real standout was Carl Lumbly, who even in a small role soaked up his opportunity and stole the spotlight in every scene. He was fantastic.
In the flaws column, this movie has a number of offenses. It never finds a smooth flow between its diverging plotlines, and can’t maintain a good pace. Scenes consist of either exposition sludge or quick-cutting action sequences, with little middleground to be found. Despite ringing in at just under a two hour runtime, this movie felt just as long as the three-hour Endgame did, if not longer.
The special effects in this movie stuck out in a bad way. Marvel has produced a number of TV series for Disney+ since the launch of that streaming service, and the effects in this movie looked worse than some of their TV work. It looked straight up out of date, and some effects came off as borderline comical.
There are some attempts at some muddied political themes, and some of the imagery and dialogue is very on-the-nose in the overall critique of corruption in the Oval Office that is a point of focus throughout. The issue isn’t the theme itself, but the presentation which is less than stellar.
The biggest issue with Captain America: Brave New World is it never dedicates to continuing in the footsteps of the MCU’s tightly written action-comedies nor taking a bold stride into becoming the full on political thriller that it seems to want to be. The result is another milquetoast chapter in the new phase of Marvel Studios that feels more like a never-ending epilogue to their Avengers saga than it does an exciting beginning of a new adventure.
Ethan is a great and entertaining pop culture writer. Glad to see fresh articles published this semester on the Commuter!