For years, we heard cultural critics and film reviewers talking about what they called "superhero fatigue." This idea that the public was getting sick of super powered blockbusters kept getting thrown around and Marvel and DC movies kept making billions of dollars. However, it is now evident that the superhero bubble has definitely burst. Several high profile sequels, sequels to movies that made seven figures at the box office, have flopped. Being based on a comic book is clearly no longer a guarantee that a film will be a financial success. Marvel and their Disney overlords are all too aware of this shift. Compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and an actor's guild strike, their upcoming slate of superhero movies have been delayed, reshuffled, and endlessly reshot. The first victim of this damage control maneuver has been "Captain America: Brave New World." Filmed in 2023 and originally intended for a 2024 release, the sequel has been subjected to controversy, rewrites, studio interference, and a ballooning budget from the beginning. After all that, the sequel finally opened last month to merely decent box office and worst reviews. "How did this happen?" is clearly a question we won't have an answer to for quite a while but the film, in its desperately compromised "final" form, remains.
Sam Wilson, the Avenger formally know as the Falcon, has inherited the shield and title of Captain America. General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, best known for his rabid pursuit of the Hulk, has been elected president. He hopes to establish a good working relationship with the new Captain America. Sam is invited to the White House and brings Isaiah Bradley, the black man who was imprisoned and subjected to government testing during the fifties in hopes of recreating the Super Soldier Formula. During a presentation about the newly discovered element adamantium, President Ross hoping to create a peaceful trade of the metal among the world's superpowers, something goes horribly wrong. Bradley and several others are compelled to attempt to kill the president. Hoping to clear his friend's name, Sam Wilson sets out to uncover the conspiracy behind these events. Soon, he has uncovered a master plan from a vengeful villain, orchestrating events that could unleash a world war and turn President Ross into a monster.
There are many answers to the question of how the hyper-successful Marvel train derailed. I'm sure many think-pieces have already been written on the subject and many more will follow. However, I think the main factor leading to the public's growing indifference to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is similar to how the comic book industry itself began catering to an increasingly smaller audience over the last three decades. We call it "Continuity Lockout," the point at which a nerdy property becomes so weighed down by prior events and currently on-going storylines that it becomes nearly impossible for casual enjoyers to easily jump in. Unless you know a lot about superhero comics and the histories of many major characters and teams, it's hard to get into the latest books. This arose out of Marvel and DC desperately appealing to an entitled audience of unhinged nerds that can never be pleased and following trends after the collapse of an unsustainable speculators' market, alienating what is ostensibly the medium's primary audience of children.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, meanwhile, has become a massive network of interconnecting feature films, TV shows, streaming series, and short films in the sixteen years since Robert Downey Jr. first put on the Iron Man suit. "Captain America: Brave New World" is something like the forty-sixth installment of the MCU. It is a sequel to three previous "Captain America" movies and "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" Disney+ mini-series. You have to have seen that show to understand the plot of this movie. It is also a de-facto sequel to "The Incredible Hulk," the second MCU film that nobody seemed to like that much at the time and has been largely forgotten. It also draws heavily from all the previous "Avengers" movies and "Eternals," one of the least popular Marvel movies.
That is a massive time investment, with a lot of moving parts, for the average filmgoer to keep up on. Is it any wonder that a lot of them opted out after "Avengers: Endgame's" rather satisfying conclusion? How many people watched "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier?" How many saw the trailer for "Brave New World" and were confused as to why Sam Wilson was Captain America now? The money people that control Hollywood now believe in the dogma of capitalism, that you must always expand and expand, that you must always make more money next quarter than you did the last one. Applying that idea to storytelling leaves an audience increasingly overwhelmed by a deluge of new stuff, much of which is starting to look the same. This is so true that someone like me – who is still ostensibly invested in the MCU, who does watch all the movies and most of the streaming series, who knows entirely too much about comics – was still left a little adrift by "Brave New Wave." A major character in the film is Joaquin Torres, the new Falcon, Sam's loyal sidekick, and a tech expert. Joaquin was apparently introduced in "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" but I had entirely forgotten that. I was confused as to why the film was treating seemingly a new character like a member of the established cast. In other words, the Disney masterminds have not done a good job of ensuring that their new characters are very memorable.
Marvel Studios being run like a sausage factory is not the only reason "Brave New World" turned out the way it did. To learn the film was subjected to numerous extensive reshoots and rewrites could not be more apparent. There is a disconnect between many scenes and subplots. Sam and Joaquin investigate a black site in West Virginia, while the head of Ross' security team is witnessed to brain-washed guards killing minor supporting characters the viewer has already forgotten about. These two events never feel as linked as they should be. Sam has a buddy in the Marines – a brief glance at the Wikis reveals that this is a totally unrecognizable version of perpetual Marvel D-lister Demolition Man – who seems weirdly important to the story despite being relatively minor. In fact, a lot of the movie hinges on characters that feel otherwise unimportant and generic, such as the Japanese prime minister or some nameless jet fighter pilots. The way the heroes jump around locations, faced with undefined adversaries, as hastily assembled exposition is thrown in to explain why our guys are going to this place or after this thing next, suggests a script that was repeatedly remixed and reshuffled. It does not result in a cohesive feeling story.
What of that story? Director of superhero movies – clearly embarrassed to be working on a corporate product based on disposable children's books, beholden to a stifling formula – often say their cape movies are patterned after more respectable genres. “The Batman” was a noir. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” was a seventies conspiracy thriller. “Brave New World” wants to be a conspiracy thriller too. There's a problem though. The sequel has clearly been subjected to so many rewrites and re-editing, each one simplifying and dumbing down the story. What we have been left with is a conspiracy thriller whose conspiracy runs in a straight line, one guy being responsible for everything that happens. All of the subterfuge that goes down is the result of cartoonish mind control. The mastermind's scheme builds towards an act of ridiculous sci-fi revenge, that the entire advertising campaign for the film has been constructed around. The result is a “conspiracy thriller” that feels like it was written for school children.
In this sense, “Captain America: Brave New World” is a movie about nothing. It exists simply to deliver sequences that will satisfy, whether that be a reference to something viewers might recognize or through some rudimentary action spectacle. At the same time, motion pictures of such a scale as this do not exist in a vacuum. All art is political, even corporate mandated and by-commission art such as this. From this perspective, “Brave New World” may very well be the most neo-liberal movie ever made. The superhero story acknowledges that the American government has made mistakes and done bad things, with the imprisonment and treatment of Isaiah Bradley being the most prominent example. However, all of this is totally swept under the rug, the script ultimately deciding that all the problems in the story are the result of only two guys. It's a cowardly declaration, a refusal to grapple with any of the fallout of the American empire.
Which is also apparent in the film's unspoken support of Israel, in the present of Ruth Bat-Seraph. For the hardcore nerds, they'll know that character from the comics as Sabra, the Marvel Universe's de-facto Captain Israel whose first appearance has her discovering Palestinian children have souls. There's one line confirming that Seraph is a former Mossad agent and, if you squint, you can see her wearing blue and white briefly. Otherwise, she's an unrelated character, with her origins tied to “Black Widow.” Which makes me wonder, when Marvel realized now was an especially bad time to debut this character, they didn't simply cut her entirely during any of the endless reshoots. It's not as if the stiff, distractingly petite Shira Haas gives a star-making performance or anything. But, no, it was essentially important for some reason to acknowledge that the U.S. government supports the existence of Israel and everything it may or may not have done in this comic book superhero movie.
In the last act, the film depicts the President becoming a hideous, rage monster. He destroys the White House and the Washington Monument, symbols of our American ideals, before brandishing the U.S. flag as a weapon. We never learn anything about President “Thunderbolt” Ross' ideologies but, considering his hot tempered saber-rattling pushes the world towards war, it's hard not to assume he's a half-assed Trump analogue of some sort. How do we defeat a supervillain, an unreasonable and brightly colored horror, elected to the highest office in the land? “Captain America: Brave New World” presents the most middle-of-the-road solution possible. Why, you talk to him! You reach out to his heart. See, the evil president isn't so bad! He just needs a hug from his daughter and a good therapy session. What could represent the modern Democratic philosophy better than that, that everything will work itself out if we reach across the aisles and talk it out? How's that working out for us? Despite the subtitle suggesting a world that is both new and brave, the finale actually features a line about how America needs a “return to normalcy.” Because nothing about how the situation was before had anything to do with us being in this mess in the first place. Perhaps this marks the sequel as one of the few pieces of cinematic art to emerge from the brief Biden interlude between the Trump Regime.
In the long lead-up to “Brave New World's” release, Julius Onah made some mention about how Sam Wilson would not be conflicted to be Captain America. However, clearly that element of the script changed during one of the many tinkerings. This movie shows a Captain America eager to prove himself, still insecure about whether this is a role he can fill. In the context of Onah's other works, this reads as a continuation on his frequent theme of being an immigrant. Sam Wilson is an American, has been his whole life, and has plenty of experience being a superhero at this point. Why does he still feel like an imposter? In a scene where he meets Isaiah in prison, one of the more tensely directed sequences in the film, the two have a conversation that highlights of difficult of being a proud American and a black man, abused by this country so many times. The question of “Will this country ever allow a black man to be Captain America?” floats over the film. I suppose the hopeful ending provides an answer but it never feels like the topic is truly addressed.
What's most frustrating about “Brave New World” being such a chopped up mess is that, at the center of it, is a hero that easily could've carried his own movie. Anthony Mackie undeniably has the verve and charisma to be a movie star. The handful of brief moments throughout the sequel, where he's not weighed down by the contrived script or heaps of CGI, you can see it. During the fight scenes, such as a rumble in a church at the beginning or a scuffle in a junk yard with a supporting supervillain, you realize that this guy actually does have the stuff to play this role. The film repeatedly has Mackie doing all sorts of CGI-assisted, silly looking leaps and flips throughout, ignoring that he's at his most compelling when he's on his feet and scuffling with the bad guys, fist-to-fist.
Another interesting element about Mackie's performance is that he doesn't have a female co-star to bounce off of. He only shares a few scenes with Shira Haas and the two characters are never alone. He doesn't have a woman you could generally describe as a love interest, a common sight in these movies. Which isn't to say that he doesn't have a love interest at all. Sam Wilson shares a lot of scenes with Joaquin Torres. They are always bantering. One moment, where Sam grabs his superhero suit while Torres does hacker stuff at the computer, gives the impression of them living together. When Torres is injured, late in the film, Sam takes it extremely hard. Their eventual reunion seems incomplete without a kiss. Throughout, Joaquin seems utterly devoted to Sam in turn. Either Marvel is intentionally trying to tease the yaoi fan girls or Mackie was intentionally playing Sam as gay. I'm inclined to believe the latter, as Mackie has homoerotic tension with nearly every male character in the film. During sweaty gym training sessions with Isaiah, tense stare-offs with President Ross, being chummy with a random army guy, or running from Sidewinder while wearing tiny shorts, there's this undeniable tension in every scene. Thus, I must conclude: Everybody, welcome our first gay Captain America.
Ultimately though, with a film so clearly plagued by rewrites and reshoots, it was obviously difficult for most of the cast to get a read on the material. Harrison Ford seems directionless as Ross, grumpy but prone to unbelievably maudlin moods. Danny Ramirez is kind of annoying as Joaquin, a Scrappy-Doo-like character that is both plucky comic relief and a tech genius and an overly enthusiastic young superhero. Haas gives a totally blank performance, which is true of most of the cast. The only actors who emerge with any personality at all are those playing the hammiest villains. Giancarlo Esposito plays Sidewinder with the verve of a mustache-twirling bad guy, energizing his few scenes. Tom Nelson Blake as the Leader gets to croak a lot of terrible dialogue but somehow maintains not only his dignity but adds an amusingly unhinged quality to the part. Though the make-up choices made to bring this iconic villain – the Hulk's archenemy in the comics – to life isn't going to win over many hardcore fans.
Simply put, it is impossible to separate "Brave New World" from the circumstances of its production. Knowing the movie was in a constant state of flux, at the mercy of last minute reshoots always more last minute than the previous ones, informs every minute of its runtime. You can see this most obviously in what are some surprisingly chintzy looking special effects. Sometimes, Sam and Joaquin look fine flying through the air and flexing in their super suits. Other times, they look like graphics from a subpar video game. We know Marvel is fond of shooting on green screens, when actors seem to be floating on-screen without any connection to their location, you notice. The Red Hulk looks pretty good but Sam's armor seems plastic-y in the same scenes. We can only assume that such an expensive film having such underwhelming effects is the result of Disney cracking the whips on underpaid and overworked digital animators, forcing them to crank out a finished product within a few weeks, to hold onto a set-in-stone release date.
Being the result of such a chop-slapped production, I suppose it should be impressive that any of Julius Onah's trademarks as a filmmaker are evident in the final cut. There's a rotating tracking shot that reminded me of a similar shot in "Luce." That the Leader infects people through cellphone signals feels like it could have been a sign of Onah's continued interest in how technology effects our daily lives. Lastly, the titles and end credits carry his tendency for using boxed-off sections of the screen as a visual technique. I imagine, in the aftermath of such a chaotic production, the director will receive most of the blame. I don't think "Captain America: Brave New World" being a mess is Onah's fault though. The sequel ending up this way is a direct result of Disney trying to turn Marvel into an unending distraction for a not-picky-enough public, for failing to correctly gauge the limits of their own popular franchises, the film caught in the crossfire of trying to right a sinking ship. [Grade: C-]