I finally sat down to watch Captain America: Brave New World a couple of days ago and it took me a few days to make up my mind about it, because it was suppose to be a great movie for the MCU and it turn out very average and not exactly what I was expecting although it's not bad, it's just not End Game levels. The movie marks Anthony Mackie's first solo outing as Captain America after taking over the shield from Chris Evans' Steve Rogers and it's been quite the wait since The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series ended. I had high hopes since the previous Captain America movies are some of my favorite in the MCU, but I felt this movie gave it all on the trailers to be honest. The movie has some strong moments and performances but I felt there were too many characters and some of them were not really develop as they should. Overall I give it a 7.5/10, not terrible at all, its an OK movie that I would probably watch again when / if there is a sequel for any references I didn't get, but not quite hitting what I was hoping for from the fourth Captain America film.
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The movie picks up after The Falcon and the Winter Soldier with Sam Wilson still having doubts if he really deserve to be Captain America since lets be honest there are some big big shoes to fill in, apart from the fact that he remains plain human, no mutation or super powers but do carry a lot of tech with him when it comes to weapons, got that Wakanda Tech on speed dial. The story begins with Sam and his new partner Joaquin Torres who is the new Falcon or at least running for intern because seems he is not fully approve, they are on a mission in Japan to recover stolen Adamantium, which is apparently a newly discovered metal from the Celestial that appeared in Eternals, I'm glad this movie was not left to die and who knows if they may appear in any of the other MCU productions. After successfully completing the mission Sam gets invited to the White House by newly elected President Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, played by Harrison Ford who's taken over the role from the late William Hurt and I think this was a great change because got to say Ford face fits more the Hulk face imo, square face type. Ross is trying to negotiate an international treaty regarding the control of Adamantium and he wants Captain America's support to help rebuild the Avengers but it's not an easy task and the rebuild Avengers request seem more like a bribe to keep Sam next to him for media purposes. Sam brings along Isaiah Bradle, the former super soldier introduced in the Disney+ series and Torres to the White House event, they are not the Avengers but at least represent the active super soldiers from US so they do have a positive impact in front of the media. During a speech given by Ross, Isaiah and several others suddenly attempt to assassinate him after being triggered by flashes from cell phones, some mind control stuff. This was a great introduction for Samuel Sterns who we haven't seen in a very long long time, his super power is been the smartest guy in the room and he shows to be the one. The assassination attempt fails, but Isaiah is arrested and Sam is determined to clear his name, Sam discovers a conspiracy that leads him to Samuel Sterns, role played by Tim Blake Nelson, aka The Leader, who was first introduced way back in 2008's The Incredible Hulk. It turns out Sterns has been orchestrating events from behind the scenes, seeking revenge after being imprisoned and used as a pawn by Ross all this time for his own benefits.
SourceAnthony Mackie does a great job carrying the film as the new Captain America, there is this different vibe as I mention before and you can still tell there is the core value of what the American Hero represents, he doesn't look as mighty as the OG and this add more depth to the character. Harrison Ford in my opinion probably the better character development around the movie since they did a great job at hiding why he becomes Red Hulk, they really kept it in secret as long as they could, there were clear clues about the pills he was taking but then we needed the reason and the who created them, there is also the scene when he calms down very similar to how Black Widow use to calm down Bruce Banner when he turn into Hulk.
The problem with the movie was not necessarily the script or the actors, the support cast does a great cast from Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Stens who I hope they develop way more in the future there is so much potential on this character then the same goes for Shira Haas who does the ex Window Ruth Bat Seraph now working for the US Government, there is no reason why she can't be on the new Avengers, lastly but not less important was Giancarlo Esposito who does the role of Sidewinder but then again the movie doesn't gave him enough screen time, I really dont see any lack of performance from production as the movie looks visually great, they did a lot of re shooting that I think was worth the time.
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The ending of the movie is very poor, specially because its too short and been too short it was fully reveal during the trailers, the only good part I can take out of the last battle is that it shows Captain America does not need to be a super human to be a hero, but to be honest Sam had it easy with Ross since he already knew his weak side, if it was good old Bruce Banner full Hulk mode like the first movies, Hulk would cook Sam on sight no questions asks. There is also the fact that they got Stern so easy, he even gave himself up confident that his plan would work out, makes me think he didn't really care if they get him as long as he was right, but then he was wrong about Ross destroying everything, he probably never took in consideration his human side been stronger than the Red Hulk rage.
In the past there have been other Avengers that don't have any super human powers although he look very weak, its his first time showing up as Captain America so I hope they do something to reinforce him some how or if he eventually takes the sirum, there is also Bucky who briefly shows up and tries to convince Sam that him been just human is his super power, making the rest of the people looking at him not as Captain American the super soldier but the guy who trains hard and takes all the risks to keep the safe.
Over all a good enough movie, but I'm sure many were expecting more out of it, I would consider that even TV series like Daredevil are better so far than this iteration of Captain America. For sure a movie I could watch in the future to kill some time and go back to any references that I might miss, the performance of the cast was good but they could only stretch out their arms as the script enables them, it even makes me think that if during the re shoots they cut off certain scenes making them shorter. The production of the visuals, music and action scenes over all where there its just that the ending specially was all given out during the promo before the movie release, because of the action scenes and visuals I could see myself adding it to my Blue Ray collection in the future, good 7.5/10 for me.
