Captain America: Brave New World
That Sam Wilson’s big-screen debut as Captain America is the first MCU film I’ve missed in theatres is, personally, disappointing. Since his casting, I’ve loved Anthony Mackie in the role of a wounded soldier who’s found purpose helping other wounded soldiers heal, who then takes on the mantle of Falcon, and is then given the shield by Steve Rogers at the end of “Avengers: Endgame.” Unfortunately, life was chaos during its theatrical release, so it was on the backburner.
I think one of the most important things to look at when it comes to Sam’s Captain America is that he is coming from a different perspective than Steve, and his missions thus far- in the series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” and now here- are not as clear cut in terms of where the lines between who’s good and who’s evil is. But then again, that’s been the trajectory of the Captain America films since “Winter Soldier.” Here, he finds himself in an uneasy alliance with the man who once imprisoned him under the Sokovia Accords, Thunderbolt Ross (Harrison Ford). Now, he is the President, and he is trying to control his rage while also finding a way to control the substance that’s on Celestial Island, what they are calling the Celestial that popped up in the Indian Ocean during “Eternals.”
When we first see Sam in “Brave New World,” he is on a mission to save some hostages, and retrieve something that was stolen. He runs into an unexpected foe in Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito), an assassin for hire. Who hired him? And why is Ross suddenly so interested to see Sam put back together the Avengers? The mystery at the heart of the screenplay by Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, Julius Onah (who’s also the director) and Peter Glanz is not as elegantly structured as the one we got in “The Winter Soldier,” but it speaks to the modern ideas of corruption in American politics and mysterious hands pulling the strings. It’s an intriguing set up for a narrative, and one I enjoyed very much.
An important predecessor for this to have watched is “Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” as it almost reshuffles the deck in terms of the geopolitical landscape Sam’s Captain America. The original subtitle of this film was “New World Order,” but was changed because that phrase has become an antisemitic dog whistle in the hands of conspiracy theorists. That would have been a huge hand grenade to throw at a movie that also has, as one of President Ross’s heads of security, Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), an Israeli Black Widow who finds herself on either side of Sam’s journey in this film. Bat-Seraph is an adaptation of the character, Sabra, from the comics, and her inclusion here was met with controversy, given some of the character’s depictions in the comics over the years. Here, she continues to build out the world of assassins we saw in “Black Widow” while also providing a good physical match for some of the villains Sam finds himself up against in this movie.
Even with some of the more potential conspiratorial controversies sanded down, there’s still plenty for fans of “The Winter Soldier” to dig into. In addition to Ross returning- albeit with a different actor in the role- we also get a return of Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), who helped Bruce Banner try and control his Hulkish urges way back in 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk.” Much has happened to him in the intervening years, and he’s taken his setbacks and turned them into advantages. Blake Nelson can only do so much with what feels like a rough draft of makeup work, but he is an terrific villain, pulling the strings together in an enjoyable way.
That “Brave New World” is not as good as Steve Rogers’s trilogy is not a criticism of what it’s trying to take on- I really love a lot of this film, from the way it continues to flesh out Wilson as a character; his relationships with Falcon-in-training Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) and forgotten Super Soldier Isaiah Bradley (introduced in “Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” and played by Carl Lumbly); the build up and reveal of Ross’s transformation to Red Hulk, and how this left me wanting more. I just wish I had gotten to experience it in theatres.
