By Kaylon Coleman
Before I start off this review, I want it to be known that I am a huge Marvel Cinematic Universe fan. I have kept up with all the movies, all the shows — except for What If…? — and have participated in and won multiple MCU-related trivia competitions. So when I say Captain America: Brave New World is incredibly bland, it’s coming from someone who’s been around the block. I’ll admit that I even beefed with someone in the Instagram comment section about what a letdown this movie was. Now don’t get me wrong, bland doesn’t necessarily mean bad. That title is reserved for movies like Thor: Love and Thunder and The Marvels. And while not an upright dumpster fire of a movie, I still left Brave New World disappointed — and, actually, a little peeved off.
Going into this movie, I had already seen its “rotten score” on Rotten Tomatoes via the critics. I really didn’t want to believe them and wanted to be met with a spectacle that reflected the feeling and atmosphere I got from the trailers. But alas, Marvel has once again let me down by meeting my subpar expectations.
To start off, however, I’d like to highlight a couple of the things I did like about this movie. Carl Lumbly’s portrayal of Isaiah Bradley was incredible in my opinion. His relatively short screen time made each appearance on the screen that much more impactful. He genuinely tugged on my heartstrings and I feel like his performance is worthy of an award of some kind.
I love Anthony Mackie — it was great to see him take on the role of Captain America on the big screen, and in Black History Month, no less. Chris Evans left some pretty big shoes to fill, but what’s great about Mackie’s performance is that he isn’t trying to be Chris Evans’ Captain America. He’s embodying his own version of the character, which I feel was reflected pretty well in the film as well.
Lastly, the onscreen chemistry between Danny Ramirez — who plays Joaquin Torres, the new Falcon — and Anthony Mackie was fun to see. I’m still trying to care for Joaquin as a character, but this movie was a step in the right direction. It was also fun seeing Harrison Ford in the MCU.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into the multitude of reasons why this movie let me down. Minor spoilers ahead.
Right from the jump, we’re greeted with what is probably the most cliché and irritating way to give an exposition dump in my opinion — a news segment where the anchors talk about events that have happened in the past. This trope is just so unoriginal and bland, and when I see it, it makes me think that either the writers don’t trust their audience enough to know the context of the movie they’re walking into, or they just don’t care to keep up with all the movies and TV series writers are pumping out.
I also feel like the movie was leading up to nothing. The whole movie follows Sam as he tries to uncover the mystery of who was behind the attempted assassination of the president, and framing of Isaiah Bradley, which viewers may or may not have already known was the Leader going into the movie. So, by the time Sam figures his plan out and the Leader is arrested, we’re left with one last act in the movie where we figure out what the Leader was truly up to, which was creating Red Hulk. The only problem is everyone also knew Red Hulk was going to be in the movie. So if you’re structuring your movie as a mystery thriller where the true intentions of the bad guy aren’t revealed until the very end, but we already knew what the plan was, how does that entice and intrigue the audience?
Not to mention, Red Hulk got a grand total of probably five minutes of screen time, and who knows when we’ll see him again. It took over a decade and a half for them to follow up on the Leader, and four years for them to follow up on the Falcon and the Winter Soldier series/The Celestial from the Eternals.
There are a couple more minor details that just didn’t sit right with me, but the last major one was how there was no faith in this movie from Marvel Studios, which plays into a bigger theme overall. A repeated pattern I’m noticing from the studio is they like to bank on previous projects or people — a.k.a. nostalgia factor — to try and curry favor with the audience. Why reveal that Liv Tyler would reprise her role as Betty if it were for a split second? Why show that Red Hulk was in the movie if the whole plot leads up to their reveal? All these properties coming out such as Secret Invasion or this movie are being described as having “Winter Soldier vibes,” (which is arguably one of the best MCU movies to date), when in reality the studio sets insanely high expectations, just for them to fall flat footed trying to replicate that same magic, leaving their audiences disappointed.
The general consensus for the movie seems to be that people are enjoying it, and if you’re one of those people, I’m happy to hear that, in all honesty. It puts more steam under Marvel’s coals. I just hope to see more heart in future MCU projects. Hopefully The Thunderbolts will satiate my expectations.
Kaylon Coleman is a junior journalism major with a concentration in news and a minor in Psychology and Communications. He is the Social Media Assistant Manager for LJ. He is also the president of the Black Student Union at CPH, social media coordinator for the Umoja Center, and a part-time radio DJ.