Last night I saw Captain America: Brave New World; and it was alright! Directed by Julius Onah, and starring Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, and Harrison Ford, Captain America: Brave New World is a superhero movie, about the Falcon taking up the role of Captain America, and investigating a conspiracy against the President of the United States! Captain America: Brave New World is an excercise in missed opportunities. The film’s setup largely involves referencing the events of The Incredible Hulk film from 2008, and yet neither The Hulk, nor Bruce Banner appear in this film; which is especially strange given there is a sort of Hulk in this film, plus (I would say spoiler alert, but once you work out who Harrison Ford is playing, it’s pretty predictable) Liv Tyler is also in this film. The investigative narrative is pretty nice, weaving a political thriller of sorts, but it doesn’t really play to the strengths of a superhero like Captain America, or even Falcon, as you expect more action, not a whole lot of mystery. To this end then it feels like another wasted opportunity, not having Jessica Jones as the lead character. Plus, given her super strength, it would have made a very interesting final fight sequence. The film is basically one missed opportunity after another. For instance, Adamantium gets referenced, but there’s no sign of Wolverine (not even in the post credits scene). And then the film wastes some of it’s star power. Giancarlo Esposito (for instance) is a fantastic actor, and it was super exciting to see him very early on, but overall he gets no more than about 10 minutes of air time. So Marvel has gone and wasted the talents of terrific actor, for the sake of a small time cameo. Captain America: Brave New World isn’t a bad film, it’s just decided to introduce elements, and pace out a story, with the wrong characters. It does have it’s moments, including a nice bait and switch near the end, which makes you think the film is about to end there (and only marginally tease the presence of (Spolier that isn’t at this stage a spoiler) Red Hulk for a later film); but these plus points are largely drowned out by other stuff, that feels like it shouldn’t be there. It’s not a bad film, seriously, it isn’t, but it probably won’t be remembered as a classic!
Additional: Don’t bother hanging around for the post credits scene. It’s exactly the same as Lex Luthor‘s final scene in Batman V Superman. It doesn’t tease anything! I was so hopping that Blade might get a mention too.
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