Celebrate Valentine's Day this year with 鈥淐aptain America: Brave New World,鈥� a highly processed, empty calorie, regret-later candy of a movie.
We're nearing the end of Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with predictable and underwhelming returns. 鈥淐aptain America: Brave New World鈥� feels like it's just treading water, wasting in his first cinematic outing as his 鈥淗amlet鈥�-like Captain America.
The story by Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson gathers familiar Marvel characters and blends them into a White House conspiracy-meets-international violent face-off in the Indian Ocean. Only Marvel in Phase Five could make that boring.
It lifts from 鈥淭he Manchurian Candidate鈥� and 鈥淭op Gun鈥� and even pointlessly steals its title from Aldous Huxley. It cannibalizes from other Marvel movies, like the addition of a substance called Adamantium, much like Vibranium from Wakanda. There is a song heard at the climactic end, but it鈥檚 not new; it鈥檚 from 2014.
We start with as Thaddeus 鈥淭hunderbolt鈥� Ross 鈥� taking the role over from from the 鈥� in his first days as U.S. president. He insists he's changed from the days when he hunted down Hulk and was an all-around evil dude.
He approaches Sam Wilson, the new Captain America, and proposes a strategic union between the government and Captain America. 鈥淲ork with me, Sam. We鈥檒l show the world a better way forward.鈥�
This is a dangerous idea 鈥� superheroes working for the government 鈥� and Cap is warned but still agrees. 鈥淭rust me. My eyes are wide open,鈥� he reassures Danny Ramirez as his sidekick and fledgling new Falcon. (Cap's eyes may be open but yours may be slowly closing).
There is a trio of bad guys, each more powerful and overacting as the last 鈥� a delicious as the villain Sidewinder, Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns (a hyper-intelligent megalomaniac with his brain literally bursting out of his skull) and Red Hulk, a massive slab of angry man-meat who makes the regular Hulk look like Timoth茅e Chalamet.
There are also some tangential characters, like Isaiah Bradley, a Korean War veteran who was a Super Soldier but spent years in prison, and the weirdly cast Shira Haas as Ruth Bat-Seraph, a slippery national security agent with a murky agenda.
Director Julius Onah does well with the action but fumbles the quieter moments and supervises editing that's the opposite of crisp, not helped by script writers who ape military language 鈥� 鈥淣egative, the package is the priority鈥� 鈥� and grandiose sentiment 鈥� 鈥淭he country is lost.鈥�
For extra credit, spot all the product placements in the movie: Cap drives a GMC truck and uses Dell computers. The president of the United States uses a Peloton. What a wasted opportunity for Cap鈥檔 Crunch.
There does emerge a theme that unites Cap and Ross, which is that both feel the need to prove themselves. Mackie's Captain America throughout the previous 2021 TV series 鈥淭he Falcon and the Winter Soldier鈥� was ambivalent about taking on the mantle of Steve Rogers, the original Sentinel of Liberty. 鈥淵ou wonder if you鈥檒l ever be enough,鈥� he says.
Ross says he wants to secure peace across the world but really wants to reconnect with his estranged daughter 鈥� Liv Tyler 鈥� and prove he's changed. He wants to take a walk with her to see the cherry blossoms. We would like him to ask serious questions of his agent.
Mackie, who joined the MCU more than a decade ago in 2014鈥檚 鈥淐aptain America: The Winter Soldier,鈥� has been a good servant to Marvel and deserves better. One of our great actors, he can be steely and vulnerable. But he can't outrace stilted lines like 鈥淚f we can鈥檛 see the good in each other, we鈥檝e already lost the fight.鈥� Marvel has lost more than the fight; they've lost the thread.
鈥淐aptain America: Brave New World,鈥� a Walt Disney Pictures release that opens in theaters on Friday, is rated PG-13 for 鈥渋ntense sequences of violence, action and some strong language.鈥� Running time: 118 minutes. One star out of four.
Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press
