Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
★★
This review may contain spoilers.
here is a thing, this movie has a good sense of tone, compared to the other marvel films that I have seen, the tone in this film is absolutely spectacular, all the jokes that are told feel naturalistic and within the scope of the jokes that the characters in the film would tell, some come from slapstick which was a bit wild, other wise, a great understanding of tone.
the film also has some pretty cool stunt choreography, the way that action scenes are shot is a nice change of pace from the typical marvel movie, allowing for most of the action to be seen in frame is very cool, the opening scene has a fight scene that for the most part the cuts are minimal which allows for us to see the great stunt work that is done and fights that were done for the film, this happens a few times towards the beginning while the fights are still kind of based in a reality set standard but as we go on and get deeper in the film the red hulk shows up and the fights just get a bit wacky, which isn't to say they take away from anything just that we don't get to see those grounded settings that we saw towards the beginning.
the story is a bit messy at least I think in my opinion, from what I can tell Sam has already become Captain America by this point in the MCU, so instead of telling the story of him accepting himself and his role as the new Captain America, it is more interested in how Sam will live up to the legacy that Steven Rogers leaves behind for him, which is a pretty cool concept, and plays opposite to Ross as he grapples with the legacy that he left behind in Harlem, there is only one problem, both of these arc's that are presented aren't developed anywhere deep enough for them to have a significant impact on the film, towards the beginning of the film there is a showing of a medical facility and then we cut to 3 months earlier we only learn about 3/4ths of the way through that Ross was having heart issues and was going to die, this is an interesting plot thread that isn't expanded beyond him obeying his doctors orders, we don't see how he delt with this fallout from this, he is trying to get in touch with Betty but doesn't tell us why, he is trying to be a better person and develop a new legacy but we don't know why, this is crucial information that we should have had going into the story that would frame his story in a much better light and played opposite to Sam in such a creative way but instead it's regulated to a reveal later in the film to put Sam's ideals on play, it's as if the film is more interested in the idea of should Captain America be working for the government rather than it's much more interesting premise of how do you improve a legacy from a hero that already did so much good or to put another way how does Sam live up to the expectations that is Captain America, a small cataclysm for this thought can be found in short in the destruction of the falcon suit, really early on his suit gets a claw mark slashed right through the star symbol and I thought oh wow, to have his symbol practically destroyed it's great that we are getting this parallel to Steve from Infinity and Endgame and then the film really doesn't do anything with it he regulates it to a box and puts on the old Captain America suit, it would have been great if we saw him stitch the suit back together and now he has to fight crime in a mangled star suit, a symbol for what people in the film think Cap has become now that Sam has taken on the Moncure, we should have seen him have an impact on the Cap legacy in a real way, with this film I ask what impact on the Cap legacy did he leave, he saved people, he prevented a war, he stopped a hulk, all things that Steve did, where is Sam's impact on the name? how does he move forward day after day as he is clearly internally grappling with the thought of am I good enough for this suit? realistically the film is fine, nothing is really off about it in real defining way, but to be this far in a trilogy and not exploring what makes Sam different from Steve but only mentioning several times that he is different can be chocked up to being frustrating for sure, for the villain the intrigue comes at the reveal of who is he, it's interesting for sure to have a villain who's goal isn't harming others but more letting his plan unfold which was pretty enjoyable but other than just the general goal of wanting to ruin Ross he feels like a CW villain of the week a buzzword I use to simplify what is his significance to Sam? and why aren't we having a villain that is opposing those values previously mentioned above? it's cool to have a villain opposing Ross but why not have one opposing Sam as well as this is kind of his Captain America film?
the pacing in this film is not great, when you have a character like Hulk going to show up it needs to be a tension building moment, we need scenes that further the clenching of our fists so that when the reveal of Hulk comes we get this sense of "Oh Hell Yeah" instead when he shows up you are just thinking oh finally I was wondering when he was coming, there are hints at what he is going to become but not much more than that, I want to see the anger take over slowly as he goes throughout the film, imagine if we had explored Ross as a president who gets angry and lashes out more directly but is trying desperately to keep a front forward face in the public so that he could get this treaty signed? way more intriguing comes from that
besides all that the film is okay, it's a fun popcorn flick, but doesn't offer anything to write home about, it's entertainment comes from it's action and enjoyment of the political thriller genre and much less enjoyment of films, it a noticeable improvement over most MCU films for sure as it's attempt to grapple with a tone that falls way more in line with Captain America Winter Solider is evident, my worry is the wrong less will be taken from this film and instead of leaning more towards furthering the story of Sam we will get more jokes and more simplified plot, but who knows I am just a film boy who knows very little.
