Rating: 4/10
You would think that after 34 movies, 12 TV shows and two specials, the Marvel Cinematic Universe would bear some semblance of a successful formula. “Captain America: Brave New World” proves otherwise.
It’s embarrassing to see that Marvel Studios released the film in its current state. It’s completely broken and, at times, nonsensical. Like many of the projects in the MCU, “Captain America: Brave New World” tries to piece together mismatched loose ends left behind in other movies and shows.
The film takes place around 2026, with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) two years into his role as Captain America, following the events of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford) acts as the new president of the United States, where he announces the discovery of adamantium. The metal alloy is from the comics and is found in the remains of Tiamut the Communicator from 2021’s “Eternals.”
As Ross tries to negotiate a treaty with other nations to split the alloy, a hidden force plots a scheme to divide the nations and reveal his hidden secrets.
Issues plague the film from the screenplay itself, which was mangled together by five different writers, including director Julius Onah. Not only did the script suffer from having this many writers, but reports indicate the film was rewritten more than once and even went through several reshoots.
Script rewrites and reshoots are not uncommon, especially for movies from larger studios. The issue here lies in how much was announced and promoted before the film’s release.
One of the biggest characters of the film, Red Hulk, was revealed in the first teaser trailer, ruining one of the biggest moments in the movie.
This is a major issue, as showing off Red Hulk indirectly led to more hype for the character, even though it went nowhere in the film. The character is barely in the movie, and the climactic fight between him and Captain America ends so pathetically that it feels extremely disappointing.
The film, originally titled “Captain America: New World Order,” was announced to be released in May 2024 before being delayed to this month under its current name.
As a result of this delay, the film’s Happy Meal toys were released early by McDonald’s, revealing that one of the movie’s villains would be Diamondback, a member of the Serpent Society.
The Serpent Society in the comics is a band of snake-themed mercenaries and villains first introduced in Captain America issue #310. Not only was Diamondback supposed to be in the film portrayed by Rosa Salazar, but WWE wrestler Seth Rollins was also cast in an unnamed role, only for both performances to be cut from the film.
Another messy issue is the handling of Shira Haas’ character Ruth Bat-Seraph— or, as she’s better known in the comics, Sabra.
Sabra is an Israeli superhero who first appeared in The Incredible Hulk issue #256, and her powers come from her mutant genes combined with the super-soldier serum that made her a part of Mossad — Israel’s secret service.
The film was going to keep this origin story for Haas’ interpretation of the character; however, after negative feedback from fans surrounding the current Israel and Palestine conflict, her role was significantly cut down during post-production.
Not only was her appearance in the film minimized, but her origin changed as she was no longer a mutant or super soldier, instead becoming a former “Black Widow” assassin.
There was seemingly more planned for Sabra, as some of the film’s posters show her wearing some sort of suit, which doesn’t make a full appearance in the film’s final cut. She’s seen wearing it, but it’s covered by a leather jacket, which presumably would’ve been shown off in some flashy fight sequence.
For people who closely follow the MCU and project updates, the absence and diminishing of these characters is extremely apparent in the film. It feels as if something is missing, and the filmmakers did little to nothing to fill the void left behind.
It also doesn’t help that the narrative structure follows several beats from 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” making the film feel unoriginal and like a cheap imitation of a far better film.
While adding more writers created the massive round of rewrites, Onah said the film did not undergo as many reshoots as speculated.
In an interview with Brandon Davis, Onah described what happened during the film’s reshoots in more detail.
“We only did one period of additional photography, which is the same on all of these movies, and it’s just part of the filmmaking at this scale,” Onah said. “When you think about so many movies that you love … from ‘Star Wars’ to ‘Jaws’ to ‘Lord of the Rings,’ all those movies, this is a part of the process.”
Whether or not Onah’s claims are Disney’s way of excusing the final product, there’s a noticeable lack of quality in the film with how story elements are presented and unfolded.
To give credit where credit is due, the film has fun sequences of action that play around with scene elements and the idea of a man in wings wielding a shield.
Pair this with the film’s use of the IMAX ratio alongside these scenes and you get sequences that are a blast to watch when you take off your thinking cap and enjoy the flashy action occurring on screen.
Marvel Studios is no stranger to using IMAX’s ratio for its films, and it helps immerse the viewer into the world of the story and the action itself. Although “Captain America: Brave New World” was not completely shot on IMAX, it alternates between an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 for its calmer moments between characters and 1.91:1 for scenes with ample action.
“Captain America: Brave New World” is not a good movie. There’s some fun to be found, but it requires viewers to switch off their brains to enjoy the story brought to them.
Marvel has two more attempts this year in their movie department to bounce back with the release of “Thunderbolts” in May and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” in July. Until then, fans will have to settle for this disappointment.
As a heads up, “Captain America: Brave New World” has one post-credit scene.
