Review: ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ is severely over-hated

“Captain America: Brave New World” marks Anthony Mackie’s debut as the iconic, titular hero.

Following his transition from Falcon to Captain America in “Avengers: Endgame” and in “Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” the film blends action and political intrigue that makes a grounded story feel important to the world that it’s in; a familiar return to what we expect from a Captain America movie.

The film follows Sam Wilson (Mackie) as Captain America, and chronicles his journey as he finds himself at odds with U.S. President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford). Wilson then discovers a plot that centers around taking down Ross, while Ross himself is at odds with foreign nations to secure a newly discovered metal, adamantium.

Wilson must discover who is behind the plot in order to stop an international incident from occurring.

The movie currently sits at 50% on Rotten Tomatoes and there have been many reviews saying the movie is a massive flop or has nothing to offer. The movie also was reshot multiple times which led to the story and final cut to be heavily altered from the original plan.

So is the movie even worth seeing? Absolutely.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has definitely been trying to find its footing after “Avengers: Endgame,” seemingly trying to throw everything at the wall to see what sticks and that has led to some pretty big flops.

But “Captain America: Brave New World” is a breath of fresh air, as it’s a return to movies like “Captain America: Winter Soldier” in that it’s important to the world it’s in but doesn’t feel like something that’s too grandiose for the character to handle.

I think the movie does a great job of balancing big hand-to-hand fight scenes with creative action set pieces that differ from Steve Rogers’ Captain America way of fighting.

Wilson does not have the Super Soldier Serum, which gives the user enhanced and peak human abilities like strength and speed, nor does he have the martial arts skills that Rogers had in his movies. Instead, Wilson’s Captain America focuses on using his wings from his suit to stun and attack his opponents.

This allowed the creatives at Marvel to have fun with Wilson’s character and have him be less limited in his fighting.

The opening fight scene has Captain America dropping to the ground from the atmosphere, and sticking a landing that broke the sound barrier. As the wave from the impact stuns his enemies, he’s able to fight them easier than if he went in with straight hand-to-hand combat.

Later in the scene Wilson is in close quarters combat where he is using his hands, and he gets overpowered multiple times but still finds a way to get out of it whether it’s by using his suit or thinking outside the box.

The movie does a great job of visualizing Captain America as not the strongest or fastest hero, but someone who is willing to fight even if he’s overpowered.

These scenes let the audience know that’s is a different version of the character we’ve been seeing for the last 14 years with different fighting styles and different abilities.

The scenes where Wilson truly got to fly were the arial scenes. There is an amazing scene where Wilson and Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) were fighting rouge fighter jets near Celestial Island that combines the winged suit and impactful moments.

There are over 10 action scenes in the film and all of them are fantastic. They are paced well so the audience is never bored even when the movie slows down to explore the plot.

The film is also strangely emotional and tense.

Isaiah Bradley’s (Carl Lumbly) character was introduced in 2021’s “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” as the first black Captain America during the Korean War. He was arrested and experimented on for rescuing his team against orders. Both the show and this movie touch on what it means to be black and in the role of Captain America, and how at times they can seem to contradict one another.

In this movie, we explore Bradley’s life after the events of “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and how he has moved on, but still holds deep resentment towards the country he served that also ruined his life.

Along with Wilson and Torres, Bradley is invited to the White House.We find out that his experimentation led him to be brainwashed and mind-controlled.

His mind-control gets activated and he attempts to assassinate Ross at the White House, which leads him to be arrested.

But before this all happens, Bradley finds the suit he wore to his wedding with his late wife and during his arrest at the White House, he cries not to ruin his suit. To him, the suit represents what he once was before his original arrest.

I think in a world with Super Soldiers, sorcerers and alien invasions, these moments really put the impact in perspective.

However, this movie is not perfect.

The movie clears up a lot of loose ends left in the MCU, some as far back as 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk” film and 2021’s “Eternals.”

To me, this is a great disservice to Wilson’s Captain America whose potential in this movie was sky high.

And while I think Mackie’s performance was really good and had a lot to say about who Captain America is and his relationship with the government, it doesn’t go as far in depth as it should; instead having to wrap things up before the next Avengers movie that starts filming in March.

At times it does feel like Marvel just needed a movie to shove these plot lines into instead of actually making a Hulk 2 or Eternals 2 to explore them.

For what it’s worth, the plot in this Captain America movie is convincing and makes sense, but it could have been much better if they just did all of these separate projects.

At the end of the day, “Captain America: Brave New World” is a fun watch with plenty of action and emotional moments for the audience to grab onto, while still being a change of pace and a return to what Marvel was before “Avengers: Endgame.” The grounded story with high stakes keeps people paying attention and on the edge of their seats, but still feels like a good Marvel movie.

This is an easy 7/10 for me.