On February 13, the next Marvel movie «Captain America: Brave New World», starring Anthony Mackie in the title role, will hit theaters after the epic blockbuster «The Avengers: Endgame» (2019), replaced Chris Evans as Cap. Read the review below to find out whether the filmmakers managed to somehow refresh the well-worn cinematic universe and bring something interesting to it.
Pluses:
Harrison Ford's presence in the frame; one more or less large-scale action scene; the battle with the Hulk is not bad, but nothing special;
Minuses:
no interesting characters, including the protagonist; the Red Hulk was deliberately spoiled before the film's release; the film refers to the ancient «The Incredible Hulk», whose events few people remember today; the film fails as a political thriller;
«Captain America: Brave New World»
Genre superhero action, political thriller
Director Julius Ona
Starring Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Carl Lumbly, Shira Haas, Tim Blake Nelson, Giancarlo Esposito, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Rosa Salazar, Harrison Ford, Liv Tyler
Premiere movie theaters
Year of release 2025
Website IMDb, official website
Thaddeus Ross, a former supporter of the Sokovia Accords, has become President of the United States, and Sam Wilson, meanwhile, is working for the government with his assistant Joaquin Torres. At a gala event, Ross informs Cap, much to his surprise, that it would be a good idea to revive the Avengers. But after a daring assassination attempt is made on the nation’s leader right in the middle of the White House, and his friend, super-soldier Isaiah Bradley, is among the attackers. The protagonist faces a much more complicated problem than the revival of the superhero team.
Over time, it becomes apparent that a mysterious puppeteer is behind the crime, pulling the strings for his interests. In doing so, he risks not only exposing the newly minted president’s terrible secret, but also using Adamantium to start a war between the United States and Japan.
The subtitle of the 35th film in the immortal Marvel Cinematic Universe, «Brave New World», is wishful thinking — there is no «new world», let alone «wonderful», in sight. The film’s creators work in the usual way, like factory workers who have to go through the motions of a conveyor belt. The new «Captain America» is not only incapable of surprising — one cannot dream of such a thing today — but also fails miserably as an entertaining movie due to its total secondary nature, predictability and a tired view of the genre.
And if the filmmakers themselves are tired of superheroics, which in this case feebly pretend to be a harsh political thriller (at least during the screening, one gets a strong impression), why should the viewer who is saturated with comic books be interested in this?
The problem is that it’s not enough to drag the legendary Harrison Ford to the set and hope that his mere presence will do half the job — the latter «Indiana Jones» will not let you lie. It’s not enough to hand a minor character the shield of an iconic hero and expect him to be interesting a priori. It’s not enough to dredge up all the forgotten characters from «The Incredible Hulk» (2008), which was at the origin of the future cinematic universe, and use them as the foundation for new conflicts. After all, it is naive to claim the effect of novelty by replacing a cucumber with a tomato.
In fact, the fact that the «effective» marketing people allowed themselves to spoil the plotline concerning Ford’s character in the promotional materials is a huge mistake, because they completely destroyed any maneuver for surprise. The only thing left to do is enjoy the typical flashing Marvel CGI, and it doesn’t appear on the screen that often.
At the same time, it’s better not to mention the political thriller efforts at all because local conflicts do not inspire tension, but sheer boredom. And with regard to the current political agenda in the United States, Marvel is surprisingly restrained, if not timid. The moment with the attempted assassination of Thaddeus Ross, which in the original trailer matched with the last year’s attempted assassination of Trump is, in fact, the only common feature. It can serve as a parallel between the on-screen president and the real one. Otherwise, — no interesting comments on the activities of the then (meaning at the time of filming) potential and now newly elected head of state, not with the occasional Sebastian Stan be it said.
In general, to be as cowardly as the creators of «Brave New World» and try to get away with it at the expense of old achievements is a kind of cinematic masochism. Baron Zemo can sue the local villain for stealing his brilliant plan — to brainwash the right people to create division and unrest, setting the two sides against each other. In the memorable «Civil War» (2016), it was Captain America and Iron Man, here — Japan and the United States, who are very familiar with each other. Plus, the motive is the same — revenge.
To fully understand the story, it’s better to remember not only the nondescript series «The Falcon and the Winter Soldier» (2021), but also «The Incredible Hulk» (2008) with Edward Norton. Otherwise, you risk asking yourself questions like «who the hell are all these people and why are they so boring to watch? New characters, such as another Black Widow, Ruth Beth Saraf, do not add to the joy.
As a result, the movie barely reaches two hours with the credits and the post-credits scene, but it seems to drag on forever. It’s typical Marvel, but typical in a bad way, in the spirit of recent unsuccessful projects. Still, with that proverbial click, Thanos took away not only half the universe, but also the ability of authors to produce sane superheroics that go beyond fan service or repetition of the past.
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