Since his introduction in Captain America: Winter Soldier, Sam ‘Falcon’ Wilson (Anthony Mackie) has become a staple in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). He has steadily risen through the ranks by helping Captain America take down Hydra, becoming an Avenger and affirming his opposition of the Skovia Accords. Wilson firmly stepped into the limelight at the end of Avengers: Endgame when Rogers passed down his famous vibranium shield, naming the pararescueman as the new Captain America. Six years since this moment, Sam Wilson is ready to have his own film as Marvel’s star-spangled hero.
Captain America: Brave New World continues on from Disney+ series The Falcon and Winter Soldier that sees Wilson firmly take on the mantle of Captain America, with Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) as his sidekick. The instalment sees the return of US General Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford), who has recently been elected as President but is haunted by the events in The Incredible Hulk. When Wilson becomes involved in an assassination attempt on Ross, his loyalties are tested between his friends and his country.
It is fair to say that Wilson has struggled to establish himself as a worthy successor to Steve Rogers. After the events in Captain America: Civil War and the aforementioned Disney+ series, it has been hard to justify that the world still needs super beings to defend it after Endgame (especially as the MCU has been littered with new characters such as Ms Marvel, She-Hulk, and Moon Knight). The thing is that Wilson is not a super being – he is not a serum-powered Super Soldier, just a man with a suit and a shield. Yet he is the surprising moral centre in the middle of a messed-up world – able to convey compassion and reason while recognising when things are right or wrong.
Unlike other films in Phase Five, director and co-writer Julius Onah takes daring steps to revisit past MCU adventures. Elements from the Eternals, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: Civil War and, to an extent, X-Men, shape most of Brave New World, enabling the film to further connect the Infinity and Multiverse sagas of the MCU. But this approach is also complicated with the return of Ross and his new career in politics, turning the cinematic universe into something more than just heroics. In this instalment, alien threats are replaced with the clash of world powers that is fed by conspiracy theories and global treaties to reiterate that politicians, not superheroes, hold true power. It feels like a direction that rings too close to real life to take lightly yet it is one that offers something mildly new amid familiar franchise tones of loyalties and secrets. In addition, the story has to accommodate as an influx of returning MCU characters such as Torres, Isiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) and even the villainous Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), who was last seen in The Incredible Hulk. The notable consistency angle behind Brave New World feels like an exaggerated push to “encourage” audiences to go down memory lane but it takes the attention away from Wilson as Captain America.
Evidently comfortable as Wilson, Anthony Mackie does the best with what he has to bring empathy and reason when everyone is practically going mad around him. Yet his performance is hindered by the overly sentimental dialogue with one too many monologues so the impact made by menacing Giancarlo Esposito and Nelson, who has waited 17 years for his MCU return only to barely appear as the film’s big bad. Ford, replacing the late William Hurt as Ross, looks flustered most of the time yet his fraught demeanour brilliantly builds to the film’s big climax – and overly cheesy ending. There are also wasted opportunities to highlight additional supporting cast stars Ramirez, Shira Haas and William Mark McCullough, whose roles comprise other characters within the Marvel Comics universe. Combined with Onah’s inconsistent direction and the stunted dialogue, the character relationships and camraderie in Brave New World barely have a chance to further develop the multiverse through Sam Wilson. This results in a lack of confidence in marking itself as a standalone film for the character – instead, it feels like a grounded superhero film, which feels dull in comparison to the outworldly adventures in Phase Five.
Like Captain America, Brave New World has its eyes set high in the skies but it ends up doubting itself by revisiting ghosts of the MCU. The result is a lacklustre instalment that fails to pull the universe out of its funk. Let’s hope its new band of heroes can do what franchise veterans have failed to do in recent instalments – save the MCU.
Captain America: Brave New World is out in UK cinemas on 14 February.
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Director: Julius Onah; Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, Peter Glanz (screenwriters)
Stars: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Giancarlo Esposito, Tim Blake Nelson, Carl Lumbly
Runtime: 118 minutes
Country: USA
