Captain America Brave New World Review: Brave? Yes. Disappointing? Also Yes.

When first released in 2012, Captain America: The First Avenger took Marvel fans by storm and Steve Rogers became one of the most loved and admired superheroes cinema has ever seen. However, in Avengers Endgame, Steve Rogers’ tenure as the face of America ended and he passed on his shield to Sam Wilson AKA The Falcon. I’m not going to lie when Sam finally accepted being Captain America in the final moments of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, I had high hopes for Captain America Brave New World but as I walked out of the theater today, all my hopes or most of them fell flat to their faces and in this review, I’m going to tell you why.

Reusing the Plotline of Civil War? Really Marvel?

One of the defining factors of Marvel movies in their golden days was that they used to bring us new stories. Even if they took some degree of inspiration from a previous project, the movies that finally came to our screen always felt fresh making it impossible to draw parallels with a different Marvel movie. Sadly, such was not the case with Captain America Brave New World.

The basic plotline of this movie is that Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) falls under mind control orchestrated by The Leader (Tim Blake Nelson) and tries to take out Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford), the President of The United States of America. Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is hell-bent on proving that he did not do it consciously which rings close to the plot of Captain America Civil War. If your memory is dusty, in Civil War, it is revealed that Bucky was the one who killed Tony Stark’s parents and Captain America goes against everything to prove that Bucky did it while being a victim of mind control.

Captain America Brave New World will most certainly remind you of the political drama that went down in Civil War and I get it, but there are a lot of ways to tell that story, and bringing in an element that the fans have already seen before is not a great idea.

I’m not saying that the movie lacks entertainment or is unwatchable. Captain America Brave New World is a solid popcorn flick but doing this with the story not only puts a dent in Marvel’s credibility regarding the impeccable writing they are generally known for but also gives a bad headstart to a rebooted Marvel universe.

Marvel Desperately Needs to Hire a New VFX Team

If you remember when Iron Man (2008) or The Incredible Hulk (2008) came out, the VFX work done on those movies was incredible even though they came out 17 years ago from today. If that feels unfair, let’s move a little closer, The Avengers (2012), Spider-Man Homecoming (2017), and The Guardians of The Galaxy franchise. All these movies not only feature incredible stories but also top-notch CGI and VFX work.

My question from Marvel is how in the name of Iron Man are we moving backwards with the quality of CGI and VFX? Recently, almost every project that has come out of Marvel has faltered in this one area and Captain America Brave New World is no exception.

There are moments in the movie where you can see that it’s a green screen, you can see the unrefined effects, and not to mention, the work done on showing Cap’s shield flying around is the worst I have seen so far. One thing I liked was the work done on the Red Hulk, the detailing done on the Red Brute was top notch but it seems like that’s where all the budget went.

Combat Sequences Were the Highlight

One thing I will stand firmly on is that Captain America Brave New World features some really good combat sequences. Marvel has taken into consideration that Sam Wilson does not have the Super Serum running through his veins and contrary to Steve Rogers, whose fighting style was more on the offensive side, Sam Wilson’s combat is more defensive and relies heavily on disarming and neutralizing threats instead of running at them throwing punches like Steve Rogers.

The scene where Captain America and Falcon (Danny Ramirez) fought the two F-18 fighter jets whose pilots were under the Leader’s mind control, was an incredibly cool sequence. It not only demonstrated the skills Sam possesses with his wings but also a point that Sam Wilson, even without the Super Soldier Serum, is a force to be reckoned with. In the scene where he starts surfing on a missile *Chef’s Kiss*.

Now you might wonder why have I not mentioned his fight with the Red Hulk yet. The simple reason for that is even though it perfectly displayed how capable of a combatant Sam is with his heavy reliance on tech, the overall CGI work in that particular sequence was a steaming pile. So, no matter how cool it was, the execution was where it didn’t stand strong.

Hiring Big Names Is NOT Directly Proportional to a Successful Movie

One of the major highlights of Captain America: Brave New World was the inclusion of Harrison Ford in the movie as Thaddeus Ross. Now, I don’t need to tell you how big of a star he is. If AAA-listed actors are a thing, Ford can easily be put into the AAA+ list of actors. Trust me when I say it, Ford pulled off the character of Thaddeus Ross extremely well. Everything you would expect to see from the character was there and so natural that one can only admire the level of his talent.

However, no matter how well the cast works on a movie, it is not enough to bring about the desired success one would want from a flick and such was the case with Captain America Brave New World. Even though the cast did a wonderful job and seeing Tim Blake Nelson back on the screen was rather nice, when it comes to all the other aspects that turn a film into cinema, Brave New World fumbled quite diabolically.

So, on a concluding note of this review of Captain America: Brave New World, I would just like to say that if you have been planning on watching this movie for quite some time, I won’t say that it’s not worth watching, but don’t keep your hopes too high. Overall, Captain America: Brave New World is not a bad movie, it’s just not what Marvel sold us. Is it fun? Yes, it is. Is it entertaining? Of course. However, it does not live up to the legacy Marvel is known for and has a long way to go if the studio wants us to accept Sam Wilson as Captain America.