Internet Janitor
This review pains me because, above all, we’ll get to the rest, but at its core, this movie is dull and uninspired. When President Ross tells Sam Wilson, he’s no Steve Rogers, that rings true on multiple levels. It’s clear why they lean so heavily on the Red Hulk in the trailers, as that’s the only (albeit very brief) highlight of the entire film.
Captain America: Brave New World brings a lot of US patriotism during a time where the world sees it as a dumpster fire. Sam Wilson (played by Anthony Mackie or a reasonable wooden dummy facsimile) has been working with the US government and former enemy Thunderbolt Ross (played by Harrison Ford, who sadly does not tell anyone to get off his plane), who has become the president. Tagging along is a new Falcon (played by generic hacker dude #123). The world is trying to come to grips with the massive celestial from The Eternals and the valuable resource it introduces to the MCU… adamantium.
Also, who had it on their bingo card for this movie to be a sequel to the Edward Norton, Liv Tyler 2008 The Incredible Hulk? Nice to see, but I would never have anticipated this.
Beset by numerous reboots and five different screenwriters, it manages to be generic and seems more like an extended episode of Falcon and The Winter Solider from Disney+ than a major cinematic entry. There is a lot of history in the comics for Sam Wilson, at least for a time, taking over the mantle of Captain America, but Mackie is lifeless. There is nothing at all inspirational about his performance here. They hammer it home, over and over again, that while he’s not as strong as Steve Rogers was, he was a man of incredible character that others aspired to be. This does not at all come across, and the emotional core of the film is shot in the foot.
Carl Lumbly, as the forgotten super soldier Isaiah Bradley, is the best character of the movie, much like he was in the TV series. There’s an emotion to his performance, I wanted to see more of him and less of Captain America here. Secondly, Harrison Ford is fine, he growls, and if you like him, he’s great, but there’s not enough time to get to know this new version. The best part, by far, is the Red Hulk.
Oh Giancarlo Esposito (from Breaking Bad) is in it. For a bit. Doing very little. You could entirely remove him from the movie and it wouldn’t make any difference.
Once again, as time goes on, the special effects get worse. As technology improves for whatever reason, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides from 2011 looks 1000x better than anything seen here.
The MCU has very little time to setup a new Avengers for the return of Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom and this is not it.