Captain America: Brave New World

Movie Name: Captain America: Brave New World
Year of Release: 2025
Director: Julius Onah
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly, Tim Blake Nelson, Giancarlo Esposito, Liv Tyler, Xosha Roquemore, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, William Mark Mc Cullough, Takehiro Hira, Harsh Nayyar, Rick Espaillat, Sebastian Stan

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 3
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Synopsis and Review

Director Julius Onah, who prior to joining the Marvel Studios ranks of hired directors, was fairing well with his independent features, particularly the recent "Luce", sadly doesn't seem to find his footing in this universe. The narrative focuses on the establishing of the new Captain America, who is trying to shape a relationship with the newly elected President of the United States, Thaddeus Ross. Ross had had his issues with the Avengers, including imprisoning Sam Wilson during the heated arguments that occurred about who should govern the actions of the Avengers. Captain America has a new partner, Joaquin Torres, who is taking the duties of the Falcon. Sam is however uncertain about getting Torres involved, as the both of them don't actually possess super powers. During an important communication from the President, there's a murder attempt on his life, from one of Wilson's closest friends. When he's eventually caught, he has no recollection of what just took place. Wilson and Torres start investigating, while the President continues his mission of trying to build diplomatic bridges with other countries, whose leaders are suspicious of his actions, following his track record of destruction and vindictive behaviors when he was pursuing the Hulk. Wilson and Torres uncover their friend was brainwashed, and that others also have been targeted using the same trigger to "activate" them. They eventually uncover the origin of the coup hailing from a hidden site in West Virginia, and the culprit behind all the events taking place, someone who is close to Ross, and who may have been tampering with Ross' life all this time.

These days badmouthing a film from Marvel, feels like an easy shot. However, the quality output has been visibly diminishing, and this new "Captain America: Brave New World" is a good example of a certain creative rut that the studio has found themselves in. At this point, the films themselves feel exactly like a formula, one that renders each output indistinguishable from each other. Not that long ago, Scott Derrickson's "Doctor Strange" brought a unique visual style to the catalogue, even if narratively and character-wise, the film itself didn't stray very far off from the formula. However it had style, a point of view, that made it stand out and feel fresh and unique. "Captain America: Brave New World" once again piggy backs on events and storylines that have been developed on Disney+'s streaming platform (where the Falcon, the Winter Soldier, Hawkeye and a bunch of others had their own shows), and builds upon that context, which many viewers may not be that familiar with. Context aside, the narrative tries very hard to replicate the success of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", which was smartly inspired by the conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s (namely Alan J. Pakula's "Parallax View" and Sydney Pollack's "3 Days of the Condor"), however this one neither has the intelligence, nor the nuance to set up a scenario as successfully as "The Winter Soldier" did. Character development is also sidetracked, with most exchanges being superficial ones, indicating very little as to who exactly these characters are, and most of them are supporting ones who are now brought forth from the background in which they always were. Sadly visually this film doesn't really work at all either, it's tremendously flat, with not a semblance of a stylistic choice, from the production design to the cinematography, all of which is shocking, considering the budget this film had. The formidable Harrison Ford can't really save this mess, even if he does try his best to do so. It's a forgettable endeavor, one of those films that you've already forgotten by the time you leave the theater.