Captain America:
Brave New World

4 outta 5

Captain America: Brave New World is the 4^th Captain America movie, coming almost 9 years after the superlative Captain America: Civil War, with this one featuring a new character as Cap. The trade was in Avengers: Endgame, when Steve Rogers gave Sam Wilson the shield, so probably everyone knows why Sam is Cap. But, somewhat oddly, this movie pulls in continuity chunks from lesser seen stuff like the Disney Plus show Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the even lesser seen Eternals, and a huge amount is sourced from The Incredible Hulk which came out like 18 years ago! Now hardcore MCU fans may be stoked to see Samuel Sterns finally returning after almost 2 decades, although casual viewers won’t remember. It does feel like a cheat when all the ads are focused on the Cap vs. Red Hulk showdown that was a) probably supposed to be a twist and b) is only like 15 minutes at the end. It is a really cool 15 minutes, though!

Captain America, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is confronting the criminal Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito). Cap has help from his sidekick Torres aka the Falcon (Danny Ramirez) and he introduces Torres to the elder super-soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly). The trio go to the White House to meet the new President of the United States, Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford). Sam and Ross have an adversarial history as Ross tried to imprison Sam multiple times, but the new President wants Sam to form a new Avengers. However, the olive branch snaps when Isaiah and several others attack Ross. Now as world powers plot to secure a vital new element called Adamantium from a giant floating space alien shell, Ross is starting to get very very angry. And the leader of the plot to assassinate Ross is Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), a gamma powered, mutated and very ugly super-genius. Sterns has been manipulating Ross until the President unleashes his rage in a very Red Hulk like way.

There is a 30 second newsreel flashback of Ford as mustache General Ross knocking over a podium in anger which is great. Ross loses his iconic mustache when Ford is playing him in the present day but it’s fun to see Ford’s Ross with the facial hair at least for a moment. Recasting Ford for the late William Hurt works out very well as Ford slides into the role of grumpy former general turned President very easily. He has a charming professional side, and some genuinely deep sadness that he has lost touch with his daughter, Betty (Liv Tyler). But Ross is still an angry and petty tyrant, which explodes outward when he becomes Red Hulk. There is a great scene when Cap and Falcon are fighting in the ocean intercut with a tense bit of Sterns trying to goad Ross into turning Red. Somewhat annoyingly, Ross doesn’t go Red Hulk until the finale. It looks great and has Sam using his technology in interesting ways to hold Red Hulk back, but the entire ad campaign is Red Hulk. As soon as it starts, it’s basically over. There is eventually an emotional scene involving Thaddeus and Betty Ross that is very satisfying.

There are basically two villains here. Esposito’s Sidewinder does a lot of nasty growling and shooting in the first half of the movie and then disappears after he drops some critical exposition about Sterns, but even in a limited role Esposito is always great. The main villain is Sterns and Tim Blade Nelson finally gets to become the Leader, something that was teased for 30 seconds in 2008. Stern’s look recalls the comic Leader design but much grosser, as the side of his head is warped where he got dripped on with gamma-infected blood. Nelson’s voice doesn’t sound much like the character he played in Incredible Hulk, it’s much deeper and scarier. And he has some freaky moments like when he traps Cap in a force field and yells “Don’t Be Boring!” As is expected there is a post-credit scene in here (but not a mid-credits teaser) where Sterns talks about forthcoming invasions from another world, which is the biggest indication of what Doomsday and Secret Wars may be. Although it is a bit ham-fisted, as MCU post-credit scenes are often cool teases instead of just someone blatantly saying what is going to happen next.

With Sterns, Ross and Hulk, this is basically a stealth Incredible Hulk sequel that has Captain America in it. Other lesser known MCU stories get used again here. The floating giant dead space alien full of adamantium is from Eternals, and adamantium metal is what makes Wolverine’s claws. Torres and Bradley are from Falcon and Winter Soldier TV show and Ramirez has some funny lines and an emotional final scene, and Lumbly has some dramatic pathos from Bradley. Mackie takes over as Captain America smoothly, and as Sam isn’t a super-soldier he gets hit rather hard.

With Captain America: Brave New World bringing back some long-forgotten characters and settings from the MCU, this is a little unexpected direction for a Captain America movie. While it isn’t the Red Hulk vs Cap constant brawl that the ads promised, there are still sweet action bits. This is not as great as Civil War or The Winter Soldier was but this does soar, sometimes.