Not-So ‘Brave New World’

Spoiler alert: there’s a red Hulk. Also a black Captain America, but we’ve known that for a few years now. These color changes are just a superficial refresh of the same old wham-bam Marvel ethos: spout heroic principles, confront adversaries, trade witty quips, wreak havoc on the surroundings. Captain America: Brave New World is paranoid-thriller-lite, an innocuous installment in the endless stream of these comic book escapades, and a do-no-harm placeholder to keep fans in the habit of Marvel moviegoing until Kevin Feige and his brain trust come up with a more compelling storyline. 

Far from the dark irony of Aldous Huxley’s sci-fi dystopia, let alone the wide-eyed wonder of Shakespeare’s sheltered Miranda, the “brave new world’ of Captain America: Brave New World refers to the cautious optimism of a post-Steve Rogers realm where Cap has Wakanda wings, rose-tinted goggles, and exactly zero super serum in his system. Also where you still can’t trust the government—especially the backstabbing, two-faced U.S. feds that, decades ago, did medical experiments on your wrongly incarcerated super-soldier friend. But I digress.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD ★★★ (3/5 stars)
Directed by: Julius Onah
Written by: Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly, Xosha Roquemore, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Giancarlo Esposito, Tim Blake Nelson, Harrison Ford
Running time: 118 mins

Former Falcon Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is the latest iteration of Marvel’s patriotic military man, introduced as such in Marvel’s now-long-ag0 six-episode Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Solider. Brave New World is his coming-out party, his debutante ball, his first chance at headlining a major motion picture. And it’s fine. Mackie is charming and earnest and even a little irreverent. But mostly just fine. There’s also a new Falcon in the form of eager-beaver Air Force lieutenant Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez). And Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) even drops in on his way to being a congressman.

One other change: Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross is no longer a mustachioed William Hurt but a clean-shaven Harrison Ford. He’s also upgraded his status from General to President-Elect, and he’s hell-bent on the world’s major powers signing a treaty that ratifies cooperation sharing the resources of Celestial Island. “This treaty’s gotta work,” Ross mutters to himself in one of a handful of personal asides that reveal his inner turmoil. Another reveal: an old clip of him raging at a press conference and kicking over his podium. Hope this guy doesn’t have anger issues that have him—ahem—seeing red.

What’s Celestial Island, you ask? It was in the climax of the 2021 box office dud Eternals: a heavy named Tiamut landed in the Indian Ocean and got transmutated into a land mass—just go with it—and, apparently, it’s made of adamantium. And everyone wants adamantium, since it’s just as strong as vibranium but not monopolized by the isolationist country Wakanda. 

The crux of Brave New World is that President-Elect Ross is hiding secrets that compromise the world’s stability, and they include a puppet master named The Buyer, aka the gamma-ridden and cranium-enhanced malevolent cellular biologist Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson, green-tinged with a cauliflower head). 

Ross is also pining for his estranged daughter Betty (Liv Tyler from 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, mostly in framed photos), which we know because he talks about their walks along the cherry blossom trees in our nation’s capital. And cherry blossom trees keep popping up in the background as a leitmotif throughout the movie. Cherry blossom trees in the White House Rose Garden? And on his visit to Tokyo? Dude misses his daughter! 

Cap is more concerned that his quasi-mentor, gruff but avuncular “enhanced individual” Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly)—the aforementioned unjustly imprisoned government guinea pig—has just been sent to prison again for a wildly unexpected assassination attempt on Ross that left even Bradley baffled. Turns out that a flashing light emitted from Bradley’s cell phone, coupled with the strains of a literally triggering country song, turned him from a free man into the Manchurian Candidate.

 It’s only a matter of time before Sam’s covert investigation of the assassination attempt, with an assist from deadly White House aide and former Black Widow Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), uncovers a convoluted scheme that connects Bradley, Celestial Island, Ross, and Sterns in a potentially explosive international crisis. At which point the red Hulk may or may not make a climactic appearance. And red Hulk smash.

 Brave New World succeeds mostly by breaking in Mackie as the new Cap—a very mortal man with tremendous tech and excellent physical training who’s also polylingual and thoughtful enough to ask after people’s relatives. He’s continuing Steve Rogers’s legacy of being the conscience of the Marvel fold and a bridge-builder for fraught times. “If we can’t see the good in each other,” he says to a disillusioned Ross, “we’ve already lost the fight.” Sounds like the new Captain America is ready to serve up some good old-fashioned American values.