“CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD” - REVIEW

The world of 2025 is off to a very eventful, unpredictable and chaotic start. For some, it would be tempting for one to run and hide until it is all over. Certainly, the movies can provide that comfort. Big-budget popcorn movies certainly encourage seeking that comfort. As a lifelong lover of movies, I have known this comfort.

But even as someone who loves movies and has spent many hours in a darkened theater, to run and hide in this day and age is as effective a strategy as to “duck and cover.“ There is nowhere to run or hide, because world events have bound us together, for better and worse, whether we like it or not.

Well, that’s a depressing way to start a review for a Marvel movie, isn’t it?

Let me start over. What I mean is, movies should seek to evolve beyond merely being entertainment or insulation from difficult times.  In fact, I believe they have to both entertain and inspire one to action. I believe that movies, as a character states in CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD can and should give you not just “something to believe in, but something to aspire to.“

In the first of three films to be released by Marvel Studios this year (which also include THUNDERBOLTS* in May and THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS in July), we get our real first big-screen outing with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) as Cap since Steve Rogers passed on the shield at the end of AVENGERS: ENDGAME. How does the new movie stack up? Is this the year that Fiege gets his groove back?

In a modern world of crippling polarization, where everything is either absolutely amazing or absolutely terrible, perhaps as a society we need to rediscover that sometimes it’s OK to just be OK.

With that in mind, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD is fine.

Admittedly, I do not have a dog in the MCU fight. I am not the target demographic for superhero movies that do not star Batman. So for any superhero movies that do not star Batman, I always feel a bit like showing up for a test without doing the homework (and my impression from watching this new film is that one needs to have done a LOT of homework). However, I am a champion of movies and of the theatrical moviegoing experience, and I’m gonna try to keep my review SPOILER FREE and mostly about what works:

  • First and most important of all, I have enjoyed watching Anthony Mackie for a long time, ever since first seeing him in his film debut 8 MILE and then in indie films like Spike Lee’s 2004 terribly misguided satire SHE HATE ME (a first starring role for Mackie) and 2006’s HALF NELSON (an excellent Ryan Gosling film directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, who incidentally would later direct CAPTAIN MARVEL), and in later films such as Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar winning THE HURT LOCKER, Michael Bay’s underrated true crime comedy PAIN & GAIN, and another great comic turn alongside Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the raunchy one-night Christmas comedy THE NIGHT BEFORE. It is a real treat to watch him carry a big movie. While the movie itself felt a bit uneven (and, who knows, maybe it feels this way because I didn’t do the homework), to see Mackie finally step into the lead role with the character he’s embodied for a little over a decade is a thrill, and he makes it look easy with his incredible charisma, and his character’s steadfast commitment to the fight.

  • The way this movie presents its ideals and what it does for representation in casting is simplistic but refreshing. I wish it had gone a little further like BLACK PANTHER does and not just dipped its toe into these topics, but I recognize that maybe you can only go so far these days with a Disney-produced film that needs to do big business. Sigh.

  • BRAVE NEW WORLD works as a continuation of the Captain America story and as almost a direct sequel to 2008’s THE INCREDIBLE HULK in the way it brings in those storylines and characters, including General—and now US President— Thaddeus “Thunderbolt“ Ross (Harrison Ford, taking over the role from the late William Hurt), and the great Tim Blake Nelson reprising his role as Dr. Samuel Stearns. I brought my friend Michael to see the movie with me, and he thinks it would also be helpful (for those who do the homework) to have seen the film THE ETERNALS and the Disney+ series THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER.

  • BRAVE NEW WORLD is a pretty fun and fast-paced adventure and, while I would’ve liked a little bit more air in the storytelling and perhaps fewer plot threads (a.k.a. for those who just want to watch the movies and not do all the homework), it runs a most welcome 1 hour and 58 minutes (a rarity these days).

  • Following INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY as well as his transcendent work on Apple TV+’s dramedy series SHRINKING, Harrison Ford has been on a roll the last few years turning in some really incredible work, with a newfound zeal that’s been missing for at least the last 20 years. His turn as President Ross, and even his greater character arc, seems to unconsciously borrow a lot from his character on SHRINKING, but the way he builds a character here is really measured, so that when (not a spoiler if you watch trailers) he becomes Red Hulk, it feels like the most natural progression in the world.

  • The Red Hulk sequence is fun, and the standout for me. I wish it was a little longer and that we felt the impact of his destruction a bit more.

  • The film aims for an earnestness, which I wish it could have committed to more fully, without the need to undercut that earnestness with snark or cliches.

Overall, it’s a passable, (mostly) narratively uncomplicated entry in a new era for the MCU, and a bit of a return to form (or at least, a return to formula). The storytelling is bright and straightforward. At times it felt like a long episode of TV (too much reliance on multiple cameras and editing, a couple of egregious instances of green screen). The last scene in particular feels like a “all’s well that ends well” ending of a Saturday morning cartoon. It also has Marvel’s usual villain problem—as much as I love Tim Blake Nelson, his character seems predictably like a placeholder for a bigger bad—but the things that work about the movie really work, and even though Marvel movies are largely critic-proof anyway, I would still rather people go see it in a movie theater than not go. It moves at a good pace, and the cast is great. It feels like a kickoff movie for what’s to come, and with that spirit in mind it’s a good enough kickoff movie, bringing this new Captain America into a new world in which we will need to become very brave indeed.

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Zach is a proud member of the Minnesota Film Critics Association (MNFCA). For more info about Zach, the organization, or to read other great reviews from other great Minnesota-based film critics, click here: https://mnfilmcriticalliance.wordpress.com/

Zach Hammill