Movie Review – “Captain America: Brave New World” Gives Sam Wilson a Decent First Cap Film
It’s been a topsy-turvy couple of years for the MCU, with the success of 2023’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 bookended by the disappointing results of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and the MCU’s biggest box office dud ever, The Marvels - only for 2024 to then give Marvel Studios a huge new billion-dollar smash hit with Deadpool & Wolverine, the only film they released last year. Now, Captain America: Brave New World arrives, kicking off a run of three 2025 releases, but accompanied by a fair amount of negative online buzz, much of it fueled by talk of extensive reshoots and retooling behind the scenes. The final result? A movie that is… pretty good. It’s not an MCU standout by any means, but it’s a solid and entertaining film, albeit with some issues.
The first full adventure for Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) as Captain America, after he took on the mantle in the final episode of 2021’s The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Brave New World finds Sam attempting an uneasy alliance with an old adversary, the newly elected President of the United States, Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford). Things quickly go awry though when Sam’s friend, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) is one of several White House guests who attempt to assassinate Ross. Sam’s quest to find out what caused Isaiah and the others to do this intertwines with Ross’ attempt to form a treaty with multiple nations who wish to mine the petrified Celestial that’s been sitting in the sea since the events of Eternals for a valuable new resource it has provided - the seemingly indestructible alloy known as Adamantium.
There was some talk that Brave New World was attempting to go back to the feeling of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a truly standout MCU entry – I know I’m not alone in naming it as not just my favorite Captain America movie but my favorite MCU film – that injected a thrilling and more grounded conspiracy vibe into the story. In no way does Brave New World stand as nearly as strong a film as The Winter Soldier, though there are some admirable attempts made, as Sam and his partner, Joaquin Torres, the new Falcon (Danny Ramirez), go off the grid to investigate what exactly is occurring and find themselves in some notably scrappy fights, often without the help of their superhero costumes or flying gear.
Director and co-writer Julius Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox) doesn’t take to action as naturally as the Russo brothers did, and the early fight scenes here aren’t as dynamic or thrilling as in previous Captain America movies. Yet they are still often clever in conception, showing how Sam makes use of his Vibranium wings in battle to pull off moves that wouldn’t have been part of Steve Rogers’ arsenal. And the movie does a good job of depicting how things are often different for Sam because he never took the Super Soldier serum as Steve did. In a one-on-one brawl, especially without his Cap gear, things can be tougher for him and I appreciated how we see him need to fight in an a more intense and sometimes more vicious way than Steve tended to as a result.
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier made some big missteps by the end, but was commendable for how it dealt head-on with the complex feelings and hesitations Sam felt as a Black man asked to become Captain America. With Sam having mostly come to terms with those feelings by the end of that series, Brave New World doesn’t give him anything as engrossing to deal with on a personal level, but Mackie continues to do good work in the role. He adds some thoughtful touches as Sam, who knows he’s a very different Captain America from Steve but wants to still set a positive example in the same way the man holding that iconic shield always has.
Mackie is given able support by Ramirez, who gets to turn up the charm considerably from his smaller role in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. He provides a lot of sweetness and humor, showing how excited Joaquin is to get to be a superhero while reminding us of how fun a good superhero partnership can be. While her casting and the comic book roots of her character has been a source of controversy, Shira Haas is fine as Ross’ security head, Ruth Bat-Seraph – a former Black Widow – but the character ultimately feels rather extraneous to the story.
Taking over for the late William Hurt, the legendary Ford is very fun and certainly going for it as the temperamental President Ross, even as it’s impossible to not keep waiting to see him turn into the Red Hulk, given the film’s ad campaign has leaned so heavily on that eventually occurring. Ross’ past as a Hulk-hunting General with anger issues of his own weighs heavily on him, as he’s worked to rehabilitate his image. And given it was announced way back at D23 2022 that Tim Blake Nelson reprises his role here as Samuel Sterns, AKA The Leader, for the first time since 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, I don’t think it’s a shock to note that Ross and Sterns’ stories have some connections. For any longtime MCU fan, it is pretty, ahem, incredible to finally see such a big tie-in to that last solo Hulk movie happen after 17 years, even if Bruce Banner isn’t present for it. Ross’ actions in The Incredible Hulk are brought up multiple times and as awesome and trippy as it is to see Harrison Freaking Ford talking about Thanos’ snap or Adamantium, it also does make it unfortunate at points that William Hurt wasn’t alive to be in this movie, given his history as the character would have added a bit more emotional weight to a couple of key moments.
Even as it’s bringing in mentions of gamma mutations or Celestials that very much don’t relate to our world, it’s kind of impossible to watch Captain America: Brave New World without thinking of the current real-life divide in this country regarding politics in general and polarizing reactions to the recently elected president in particular, given the film mirrors those very subjects. The film delivers its best action in its exciting climactic fight sequence through Washington D.C. - along with some standout imagery that many will have a field day with in terms of analyzing and debating symbolism. The 2023 Hollywood strikes and the reshoots the film went through led to Brave New World opening much later than it originally was going to, but now it feels like it's either opening at the worst time or the perfect time, depending on your perspective.
As for those reshoots and the online chatter about how much was changed, Brave New World is ultimately far from the disaster some feared. It is somewhat frustratingly straightforward – there are few surprises to be found – yet the storytelling feels solid overall, even as it’s amusing to ponder how Giancarlo Esposito’s mercenary, Sidewinder, was only added in reshoots or how one other notable snake-named character from the comics received a Happy Meal toy and yet didn’t actually make it into the final cut of the movie. Many viewers won’t be aware of any of that though and the only thing that did stand out on screen that really pointed at the film’s changes were a handful of moments with a healthy amount of ADR present, as the camera stayed on the person listening because the person talking in the scene was clearly saying lines that were changed after initial production.
On one hand, Brave New World is the weakest Captain America film among the four Marvel Studios has made, but on the other, it’s still a decent enough movie in its own right and is certainly stronger than the most recent Ant-Man or Thor installments. Sam Wilson proves to be a worthy Captain America and while this won’t be an MCU film I return to a bunch of times, like my true favorites, it still made me welcome Sam’s next adventure as Cap.
I give Captain America: Brave New World 3.5 out of 5 flying shields.
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