CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD (2025) review
written by: Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, Julius Onah & Peter Glanz
produced by: Kevin Feige and Nate Moore
directed by: Julius Onah
rated:
runtime: 118 min.
U.S. release date: February 14, 2025
We’re at the point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where you may feel out of sorts if you’re not caught up with each movie or television series on Disney+. That’s understandable. “Captain America: Brave New World” is the 35th installment in the MCU and the penultimate entry in what’s considered Phase Five (which started two years ago with the lackluster “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”). It’s the first sequel after the Captain America trilogy (arguably the best in the franchise), which saw Chris Evans playing Steve Rogers, to feature a different character wielding the iconic shield and it’s also the first Marvel movie helmed by Julius Onah (“Luce” and “The Cloverfield Paradox”). It’s bound to feel different, especially with five screenwriters involved in rewrites, a retitle, and reshoots.
What was once a “New World Order” is now a “Brave New World”, yet none of what we see here is “Brave” or “New”. Still, it’s fun superhero action with a plot that surprises, connects to the events of 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk” (when we had a different actor playing Bruce Banner and Thunderbolt Ross) and a dangling albeit enormous cliffhanger from 2021’s “Eternals”. You may wonder how a new Captain America factors in all of this. After all, his name is in the title.
Following the events in the blockbuster “Avengers: Endgame” and the episodic “Falcon and Winter Soldier”, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is now Captain America. The former Falcon has an upgraded pair of wings (thank Wakanda!) and carries the shield that Steve Rogers passed on to him. His partner is Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), who has updated Sam’s old wings and works as Sam’s Guy in the Chair—the pair work with the United States government for specific missions that require their particular skill set.
As the movie opens, Joaquin (he’s never really called Falcon, although that’s his goal) is guiding on high-flying Cap to retrieve a stolen top-secret canister from the Serpent Society, a rogue special-ops team led by Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito), in Oaxaca, Mexico. They’re working for newly-elected President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford), who’s trying to make an impact during his first 100 days in office, while also trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter, Betty (Liv Tyler). His priority is to secure a peace treaty between the United States, France, India, and Japan, involving the use of a new metal alloy called Adamantium discovered on Celestial Island in the Indian Ocean.
NOTE: In case you’re wondering or forgot about what transpired in “Eternals,” this “island” is actually the carcass of a Celestial named Tiamut. Celestials are giant cosmic beings that no human is supposed to know about, so it’s anyone’s guess how they came up with the name.
After the successful retrieval in Mexico, Sam is invited by Ross to attend a world leader summit at the White House, where he’ll ask him to form a new Avengers team. Sam brings along his friend, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), who was one of the first to receive the Super Soldier serum post-Steve Rogers. However, he was left with a distrust for the U.S. government after he was subjected to experimentation and imprisonment. During Ross’ presentation, Isaiah suddenly snaps and attempts to assassinate the President. A handful of secret service agents also go rogue and start shooting guests. Sam, Joaquin, and Ross fend off the attackers, along with Ruth (Shira Haas), an ex-Black Widow who serves as the President’s security advisor. Amid the confusion, Sam vows to clear Isaiah’s name after he is arrested and is joined by Joaquin as they trace a trail of evidence connected to the assassination attempt. While all of this goes down, Ross tries to hold an internal rage in check with the assistance of some mysterious pills he pops like Tic Tacs.
If producers Kevin Feige and Nate Moore (along with Disney/Marvel Studios) were smart, they would’ve put a tight leash on marketing and added a needed level of secrecy to their promotional events of “Captain America: Brave New World. All they had to do was push Giancarlo Esposito as the main antagonist, but they couldn’t help themselves. Since Ford was cast as Ross, a character who turns into a Red Hulk in the comics, the internet was all inevitably all over it. There were also promotional photos of the cast making their rounds early on (like San Diego Comic Con), including Tim Blake Nelson, who stated he was pleased to be revisiting the role of scientist, Samuel Sterns from “The Incredible Hulk”. Imagine if those two Hulk characters were kept under wraps, keeping them out of trailers and whatnot and leaving them to offer quite a surprise for viewers. It’s obvious why they didn’t. The Serpent Society and Sidewinder aren’t well-known villains to MCU fans, and they have Ford who has to have a prominent role, and maybe they’re hoping moviegoers will recall who was in “The Incredible Hulk” and how that played out.
Regardless of those inevitable decisions, “Brave New World” is entertaining and moves at a good clip, as we watch Mackie fly into the spotlight for the first time as Cap. Much is mentioned about Sam having chosen not to take the Super Soldier serum, not that there was ever a scene in the Disney+ series or in this movie where it was presented to him, and there’s a more human (as opposed to superhuman) angle to this Cap considering he’s more vulnerable than Rogers. There’s a draw to that and a reminder that just like Dr. Erskine chose a scrawny Steve Rogers because he had a good heart, Sam Wilson was selected for the same reason. As a former pararescueman and social worker for veterans, Sam’s goal has been to be of service to others with a strong emphasis on empathy. That’s a guy who could lead the Avengers one day.
When it comes to the physicality of Cap, Mackie is convincing and plays Sam with a pressing earnestness even though there’s understandable doubts under the surface. No doubt stunt actors are helping Mackie out and they deserve credit for those close-quarter fights and acrobatic antics. I’m always a sucker for the many uses of that iconic star-spangled shield, and it’s cool to see the upgrade to Sam’s wings. Although after his tussle with Red Hulk, he’ll need to level up that upgrade. That being said, the best Mackie moments are his interactions with Lumbly’s Isaiah Bradley (such a great performance), someone he cares about and looks up to, and the conversations he has with Ford’s Ross. During these moments, Mackie’s strength is in how Sam listens, registering everything said and determining what he can and should be done.
As for the machinations behind the main villain’s nefarious plans, the more that’s revealed the more questions surface. There are essentially two villains (Esposito and Nelson) and one brewing threat (Ford) here, which makes it crowded and doesn’t provide enough space to understand motivations or philosophies – but, then again, not many MCU movies have. Maybe screenplay course corrections and rewrites hurt the overall narrative, but at least “Brave New World” is a movie that looks back at MCU past instead of leaning heavy on hints of what the future will look like.
Despite being a longtime fan of Ford’s work, I was quite hesitant when he was cast as Ross. Since he’s definitely not an actor who needs the money, he obviously took the role to play around in the MCU. Jeff Bridges and Robert Redford did, so why not him? The difference with those actors is that they didn’t play a character who hulked out and rampaged the White House and obliterated D.C.’s beautiful cherry blossom trees. Still, Ford knows a thing or two about playing POTUS and he does a fine job managing growing inner conflict. If the movie had another twenty or so minutes, we’d learn more about this new Hulk, but we don’t see the red guy until the requisite closing battle.
“Brave New World” aims to be a paranoid political thriller, but it winds up being an odd entry in the MCU. While the thrilling action sequences it delivers have some value, the movie relies more on them and its set pieces, hoping to gloss over a problematic plot and thin characterization. It’s hard to blame Onah for any of that when five screenwriters are involved, although he is one of them.
RATING: **1/2
