Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ on VOD, a Disappointingly Mediocre Marvel Movie

Captain America: Brave New World (now streaming on VOD platforms like Amazon Prime Video) gives us a fresh new Cap but the same old diminishing returns from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With Chris Evans retired from the role (for now, anyway; with comic book movies, you never say never), former Cap sidekick Falcon, played by Anthony Mackie, officially picks up the shield after a trial run in the Disney+ series Falcon and the Winter Soldier. He joins forces with Danny Ramirez as the new Falcon, and the heroes are now in direct employ of the President of the United States, played by none other than Harrison Ford, who we get to see transform into the Red Hulk. Seems like a winning formula, right? But the movie was met with a big fat shrug, its pop-cultural acumen cratering under the weight of middling reviews and box office returns. You’d think earning $413 million at the worldwide box office would be pretty damn good, but within the confines of a Disney megaproduction, that’s an underwhelming number (marketing costs were reportedly more than its $180 million production budget). But at this point, 35 movies and more than a dozen TV series into the MCU, is anyone surprised that the franchise has worn out its welcome?

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Well, here’s hoping you remember what happened in a pair of forgettable MCU movies and one meh-worthy Disney+ series, otherwise Brave New World might leave you in the dust. First, jump back to 2008 (yeah, I know) and The Incredible Hulk, where William Hurt played Thaddeus Ross, an Army general who wanted to destroy the Hulk with the help of Tim Blake Nelson’s science-guy character Samuel Sterns; both characters return here, with Ford playing Ross in the wake of Hurt’s passing, and Nelson returning to the role. Then there’s Eternals, the hands-down worst movie in the MCU, which concluded with the body of a giant outer-space person known as a Celestial forever frozen in place in the middle of the Indian Ocean. And finally, please recall the six episodes of Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which established Sam Wilson (Mackie) as the successor to Captain America, and introduced us to Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), a Super Soldier who was imprisoned for decades and experimented on by the U.S. government. There! (Slams book shut, drops pencil) Homework done! It’s B-minus work, I know, but at least we can get on with things now.

And so Brave New World opens with the victory speech of President-Elect Ross, who’s gone through enough of a character reevaluation to change him from villain to headlining occupant of the White House (please insert cynical modern-day real-life political commentary here – or, preferably, don’t). One of his first orders of business is sending New Cap and New Falcon, a.k.a. Joaquin Torres (Ramirez), to fetch a stolen Thingy from a bad guy named Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito in full laser-eyes villain mode). That Thingy is a canister of adamantium, a highly valuable alien substance found on the Celestial – and also a Thingy that will get Marvel dweebs Spidey senses tingling, because it’s the metal that makes Wolverine’s bones and claws unbreakable, so go ahead, speculate on the inevitable future co-opting of the X-Men into the MCU. We’ll wait. Done? Good. Ross’ goal is to establish a treaty with Japanese and other world governments to control the use of adamantium in order to avoid conflict. 

But as the smart guy once said, if only it were so easy – especially when it comes to summarizing this overstuffed plot. Cap and Falcon hang out with Isaiah Bradley for some reasons (no, I didn’t forget them; they’re just boring), and the three of them find themselves at Ross’ big shindig with the international leaders. So far so good, until Isaiah gets a glossy blank look on his face and tries to assassinate the President. As the other smart guy once said, wha’ happ’n’d? MIND CONTROL is wha’ happ’n’d, my brothers and sisters! The scene establishes Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), former Black Widow commando and Ross’ kickass security adviser, as about 53 percent of a character. It also puts Cap and Falcon on the hunt to figure out who’s all behind this, and sure enough, it’s Ross’ old pal Sterns, who’s now a physically deformed cackler of a comic-book baddie. Meanwhile, international relations are predictably strained, and Ross finds himself under significant stress, which may trigger what’s happening inside him, something that he secretly takes pills for. Hmm. I wonder if we wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Brave New World unceremoniously drops Air Force One into the MCU blandifier and ends up with a not-quite-passable franchise entry that’s even more underwhelming than watch-once-and-destroy late stage Marvel movies like Ant-Man and the Wasp or The Marvels.  

Performance Worth Watching: Nelson’s diabolical maniacal line readings tell us he’s the only person in this movie who’s at least trying to have some fun. 

Memorable Dialogue: “Please don’t be boring!” – a Sterns line we should decontextualize and appropriate as a direct plea to the movie, especially in regards to all the stuff leading up to the Red Hulk stuff. 

Sex and Skin: None. Red Hulk’s pants grow along with his body, just like Regular Green Hulk’s do.  

Our Take: And even then, the Red Hulk stuff looks like shit. We’ve had CGI for three decades now, but it keeps getting inexplicably worse. Director Julius Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox) good-enoughed the FX for the big smasheroo of a finale, and it’s all clunky and blocky, more obviously digitally rendered than the stuff of Captain America movies from a decade ago. Is Disney cynically half-assing it, knowing we’ll MCU-FOMO ourselves into watching their ugly junk anyway? (That obviously isn’t working, as a cursory glance at the receipts tells us.) Or are the digital salt mines manned by union-backed people who are weary of zillion-hour work weeks? (This is a legit issue that’s had ripple effects throughout Hollywood.) Either way, calling Brave New World a finished product feels like a bald-faced lie. Perhaps it’s forgivable with a strapped indie production, but from the biggest franchise in movie history? We absolutely should expect better.

A franchise that, again, is really reeling under the weight of its gross tumescence. Brave New World flounders about in a nether-zone that finds us wondering if we should enjoy it as its own action-packed story, or appreciate it as yet another piece of the MCU narrative mosaic. Either way, it struggles to get a foothold, referencing films and series better left forgotten (really, why bother?) and struggling to depict the evolution of its main characters Wilson and Ross, and never fully establishing new characters Torres, Bat-Seraph and Sidewinder as more than plot devices. 

Depicting a U.S. President of questionable morality makes it all but impossible to avoid political implications, although it’s to the MCU’s credit that it tries really hard to maintain its status as everything-for-everybody middle-of-the-road escapism. (Funny how the MCU’s best film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, didn’t lean away from subtextual relevance.) Read into the RED Hulk all you want, ye swallowers of the political poison pill, but also note how the Ross narrative ultimately preaches a message of compromise and unity. Not that this gives Brave New World any real agency, mind you – its just-fine action sequences, far-too-sporadically effective comedy and unwillingness to truly engage brains show a lack of commitment to the big stuff that invigorates audiences. It’s not a wholly incompetent movie, but it’s definitely mediocre, which might be worse.

Our Call: It’s not quite Captain America: Brave Spew Hurled, but it’s close. C-minus-level MCU. SKIP IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.