Captain America: Brave New World

This weekend, Captain America: Brave New World, the newest film in the MCU, released in theaters. Captain America Brave New World follows Sam Wilson after he takes up the mantle of Captain America. After an assassination attempt on President Ross, Sam goes on an investigation to uncover the conspiracy. This movie had quite a bit of production trouble with several rewrites and reshoots but I was still somewhat optimistic that this would be a return to the MCU we all love.

There are quite a few moments in this movie that remind me of the greatness of the old MCU. Brave New World has a very similar tone to that of Captain America: Winter Soldier. Just like with Winter Soldier, it is a bit of a political thriller in the MCU. The film is also a bit more connected to the greater MCU than other recent MCU films have been. It connects to The Eternals, the other Avengers films, and The Incredible Hulk. Captain America: Brave New World is pretty much a spiritual sequel to The Incredible Hulk which I thought was a fun way to make a more forgotten MCU film relevant. One of the fun things about this movie was the chemistry between Sam, Joaquin, and Isaiah. Every time they were on screen together was a lot of fun as it felt like three different generations all playing off each other. I wish we could have had more of those moments in the movie. Finally, I thought that Harrison Ford was a solid addition to the universe. He is a decent replacement for William Hurt and does a great job of playing a version of Ross who is trying to be a better person.

Unfortunately, it is fair to say that this is still not one of the better MCU installments. The production had troubles right from the get-go and you can feel those problems in the final product. There are very clear spots where the reshoots took place and I'm not entirely sure that the reshoots made the movie any better. The Sidewinder character was clearly added later on in the process as every time he is on screen, it feels clunky and like it was added in during post-production. You could pull his character out of the movie and it would make no difference. Brave New World also has the same feel as the more recent MCU products have had with the script being written by a committee, pushed to production before it was polished, and then attempted to be fixed in post-production. Everything with the main conflict and the villain felt that it was the first draft as the main villain just feels like a half-baked version of Zemo from Civil War. Finally, I thought the movie had a lack of Red Hulk action in it. The marketing is full of Red Hulk with him being a prominent part of the posters and trailer. However, he is only in the movie for like 5 minutes at the end.

Overall, at times the movie feels like the MCU of old reminding me of a time of interconnectivity. However, I think the movie had too many issues at its core to have any sort of rewrites or reshoots bring it up as a stronger MCU film.

Score: 6/10 Grade: C+

Recommendation: Check it out if you are an MCU fan, otherwise wait to stream it