First review: Marvel’s over-complex Captain America: Brave New World is solid but not spectacular

The threat of superhero fatigue is very real for Marvel, but the overly-complicated Captain America: Brave New World is just enough fun to get by, writes James Wigney.

Anthony Mackie takes over from Chris Evans as Captain America in style, but there’s a lot of assumed knowledge in Brave New World.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD (M)

Starring: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Remirez

Director: Julius Onah

For a movie called Brave New World, there’s an awful lot of old business to contend with in Anthony Mackie’s first solo feature outing as Captain America.

With the juggernaut that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe 35 movies and counting in and drawing towards the end of its so-called fifth phase – and an increasingly patchy output – the spectre of superhero fatigue for the once impregnable superhero franchise is becoming very real.

Despite the huge success of last year’s Deadpool and Wolverine, misfires like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Eternals have left fans yearning for the MCU glory days when every movie was keenly anticipated and felt like an event.

Marvel boss Kevin Feige has said that superhero fatigue is actually the ‘feeling of having to do homework fatigue’ and never has that felt more like the case than in Brave New World.

Audiences coming in cold will be in for a slightly head-scratching – but never dull – ride given that so much rests on already having at least some idea of what happened in the previous three Captain America movies with Chris Evans as the man holding the famous red white and blue shield, four Avengers movies and, especially, the events of the 2021 TV spin-off The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Even the villain has been recycled from the second MCU film, The Incredible Hulk, which was released a whopping 17 years ago.

Anthony Mackie as Captain America in Captain America: Brave New World.

But is it any good? It’s solid but not spectacular, with an unnecessarily complicated plot and underwhelming villain tempered by some exhilarating, if slightly familiar, action sequences and a grounding, unflashy performance from Mackie as he steps up from sidekick to central figure. A decade after he made his MCU debut as army veteran and counsellor Sam Wilson – aka the Falcon – taking on the role that Evans owned so perfectly has been a largely seamless transition for Mackie.

But for his character, the weight of expectation of taking on the mantle of Steve Rogers – the World War II super soldier and leader of the Avengers – is felt acutely. He’s already feeling the pressure when he’s recruited by the White House – led by new president Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford, taking over from the late, great William Hurt) – to foil a terror plot and retrieve a mysterious package that turns out to be the newly discovered, versatile and valuable metal called Adamantium (which the true Marvel fans will know is the substance that will eventually give Wolverine his claws and indestructible skeleton).

Powered by his new flying suit – given an upgrade thanks to Wakandan technology – and assisted by new Falcon-in-waiting Joaquin Torres (Danny Remirez) he successfully completes the mission and the pair is rewarded with an invitation to the White House. He brings along an initially hesitant Isiah Bradley – the first black Captain America who was thrown in jail and experimented on by his own country for decades – who attacks the President along with several other gunmen.

Captain America/Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie, centre) and President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford, right) in Captain America: Brave New World.

When Bradley is arrested, with no memory of his actions, Wilson is fired and sets out to find the shadowy figure who has somehow taken over the minds of the attackers and threatens to do much worse. The hunt leads Wilson to a remote military base where he encounters Samuel Sterns – aka Leader (Tim Blake Nelson) – a maths and probability genius literally bursting with green-tinged brains that make him look like Braniac meets broccoli. Without getting too spoilery, events are set in chain that lead to a full scale military conflict between America and Japan over who gets to own the source of Adamantium, Celestial Island (remember that giant godlike figure in the Indian Ocean from Eternals? No? No matter.) and setting up a huge Top Gun: Maverick adjacent confrontation between planes, battleships and our suited flying heroes.

But Sterns’ real ploy is to goad Ross – the man who jailed him after the events of The Incredible Hulk – into Hulking out himself, having been secretly drugging him for years. Given the marketing and trailers, it’s no spoiler to say that Ross is going to get there eventually, setting up a showdown with the much less powerful Cap, and it’s a joy to the see always reliable Ford first trying to hold back the anger and eventually going full rage monster.

Much has been made of the later Captain America movies being inspired by the gritty, taut political thrillers of the 1970s and while Brave New World feels more grounded than some of the more otherworldly and outlandish MCU movies, there’s not too much by way of real-life relevance.

Some might read more than is there into an unpredictable and potentially aggressive occupant of the Oval Office who swears he’s changed for the better, and Wilson’s lack of actual superpowers raises the stakes for the hero somewhat in that his bones break and he’s wracked with self-doubt. But when you have a miraculously bouncing shield that can seemingly do just about anything – even face off against a giant mutant leader of the free world – Brave New World’s feet are firmly planted into superhero fantasy fun, even if it feels at times like an elaborate set-up for the next Avengers saga. Just don’t forget to do your homework.

Originally published as First review: Marvel’s over-complex Captain America: Brave New World is solid but not spectacular