Director: Julius Onah
Actors: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Tim Blake Nelson
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Rating: M
‘Captain America: Brave New World’ is the 4th Captain America film, and the first Cap film post-‘Endgame’ and post-‘Falcon & the Winter Soldier’ (and the first Cap film in 9 years!) meaning it’s Sam Wilson (Mackie)’s first film outing as Captain America and not the Falcon. Giving him Torres (Ramirez) as the new Falcon/his sidekick is a nice touch. Think this is MCU film #35, and surprisingly has a lot of links back to MCU film #2, ‘The Incredible Hulk’ (the 2008 version with Edward Norton), as well as ‘Eternals’, finally dealing with the giant Celestial in the middle of the ocean.
Just as Norton was replaced by Ruffalo, this time General Thaddeus
Ross is played by Harrison Ford, as William Hurt has now passed. The main villain
is also returning from that film – Sterns (Blake Nelson), who I believe is “The
Leader”, even though I’m not sure that’s ever mentioned. We also have Sidewinder
(Esposito), as he’s been typecast and has to be a bad-guy in everything! The
screentime is almost shared equally between Mackie and Ford, as you can tell
Ford is having fun playing the new President and being in a big popcorn movie
again. The plot is not bad, more of a political/conspiracy thriller (in-line with
‘Falcon & the Winter Soldier’) and less of a super-hero film, with Sam
still having no powers – even though he does have upgraded wings/suit.
While no ‘The Winter Soldier’ or ‘Civil War’, this is
certainly not one of the MCU’s worst – it’s <110min before credits (no mid-credits
scene for some reason), has some great action/fights, some good ariel combat, a
strong cast and some little jokes here and there, all while keeping the pacing
up. Ford is good to watch and only turns into the red Hulk in the final 25min
or so, therefore it doesn’t turn into a drawn-out CGI slugfest. While not
progressing the overall MCU narrative too much, it does help set-up what’s
going to happen over the next 2 years.
Overall: Enjoyable action thriller, not just CGI fluff
Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars
