The Plot: Having taken up the shield from Steve Rogers, the new Captain America Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) has teamed up with the new Falcon Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) to retrieve an important package. However, the duo find themselves going off-grid when there’s an incident at the White House. Sam is once again butting heads with Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford), who also happens to be the US President. The duo set out to investigate an emerging conspiracy. However, President Ross has a particular way of dealing with his anger management issues…
The Verdict: It’s time to Make Marvel Great Again. Or so it goes… After some questionable creative choices and a string of surprising misfires that shook the seemingly impenetrable firmament of the superhero company to the core, Marvel took some time out last year to reflect. They let motormouth himself, Deadpool, hog the limelight and do all the talking – with some help from Wolverine – to the chirpy tune of $1.338bn. But what of the current Phase Five of Marvel’s grand plan for global cinematic domination? It’s not on the most solid ground. Perhaps the old adage that too much of a good thing can be bad for you still applies… but Marvel are at least attempting to regenerate, re-energise and restore their mojo. One has to admire their pluckiness in pushing on, now with the previously postponed release of Captain America: Brave New World.
In the trailer, President Ross bluntly tells Sam that he’s not Steve Rogers, to which he replies ‘You’re right – I’m not’. The latter line is missing in the final film and one can perhaps see why director Julius Onah took it out. The weight of legacy is bearing down on Mackie’s shoulders, inheriting the shield from Chris Evans but with more seriousness and a business-like attitude to saving the world. You’re not going to find him delivering pithy lines like ‘I can do this all day’. Mackie is striking out on his own here and that’s actually a good thing for his take on the patriotic supersoldier. He’s a dependable presence in the film as he investigates a high-level conspiracy that sees all manner of twisty knots being turned further. Not to mention further turning of the screws and palpable tension between Sam and President Ross that escalates into a burly battle of wills.
The script by Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson isn’t the most sophisticated of things. A lot of it is about moving Sam and Joaquin across the game board to the next point of conflict. Insert action scene here. Copy and paste fist fight here, then there. There’s a mysterious character pulling strings in the background, so that only adds to the idea that hardly anyone is in control – least of all President Ross himself. Onah tries to paper over the plot holes and apparent narrative amnesia by quickly escalating international conflict in the second act. It’s still an action-packed sequence, but all the film really needs to do is to focus on that core relationship between Sam and President Ross.
Harrison Ford, taking over from the late William Hurt, brings similar A-list gravitas to anchor the film in a relatable reality. He’s easily the best thing about the film, even poking through the pixels at one point to give his conflicted President three dimensions. Ford and Mackie crackle on screen, but it could have used more of them barely containing their hostility towards each other. Captain America: Brave New World isn’t going to re-invent the Marvel wheel, nor will it be this year’s Marvel Jesus. What it is though is a reasonably entertaining slice of orchestrated, mid-level Marvel mayhem that does what it says on the tin (or rather shield). That’s enough for Marvel to at least be crawling back to find its mojo and hopefully reinforce it with adamantium. They’re getting there.
Rating: 3 / 5
Review by Gareth O’Connor
