Captain America: Brave New World

The discovery of a new and important element where the Celestial Tiamut emerged before being killed, now known as Celestial Island, has the newly elected U.S. President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) attempting to broker a treaty with the other nations, before a world war over the rights to the element breaks out.  When a sample of the element is stolen from Japan, Sam Wilson a.k.a. Captain America (Anthony Mackey) along with his sidekick Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) who is trying to be the new Falcon, swoop in to save the day and rescue the element to be returned to Japan.  After accomplishing their mission the two heroes, along with former Captain America, Isaiah Bradley are invited to the White House to be honored, only this turns into an assassination attempt when five normal people are somehow thought controlled to shoot at the President one of them being Isaiah.  In Sam’s attempt to discover what really happened and with help from the President’s head of security, Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), a previous “Black Widow”, they discover that the real evil pulling the strings, is “Mr Blue” Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), who was infected with Bruce Banner’s blood and who had been locked up by Ross for sixteen years and used to create all manners of things for the now President.  One of those things was a life-saving medicine for Ross’ failing heart.  But just like everything Sterns’ touches, there is more to that medicine than what is on the surface.  And after Sam and team foil the plot to expose Ross for who he truly is, Sterns enrages Ross turning him into a new Red version of the Hulk.  Sam must put his life on the line to protect the world from this new threat and try to reach President Ross to trigger a regression back to his normal self.

Captain America: Brave New World is a 2025 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comic books.  It is the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (35^th film) and the fourth movie in the Captain American specific franchise and released in theatres on February 14, 2025.  The film has been getting mixed reviews with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 5.4/10 rating and Metacritic a 42/100. The political aspects of the film have oft been commented about with comparisons being made to the current sitting U.S. President.  In addition, the visuals have been heavily criticized with allegations that the quality is not up to parr.  The dialogue has also been criticized stating that Wilson, Sidewinder and Bat-Seraph were all boring, but praising Harrison Ford for giving President Ross empathy.  It has been mentioned that the extensive reshoots the film underwent as a cause of this.  The overall critical consensus is that the film is “Underwhelming”.

Going into the film, I had heard it was getting bad reviews, so I braced myself for what I would assume would be a hot mess and maybe because I went into the film with such low expectations is why I am going to disagree with many of the critics.  Does the film have issues.  Absolutely!  Much of what has been mentioned above is true, except for the part about Wilson and Bat-Seraph being boring.  I really enjoyed their performances.  I like Anthony Mackey in this role, and I thought he performed well.  I also like Ruth Bat-Seraph, although they never call her by her comic book name “Sabra” and, it appears she wears a costume under a jacket in one scene, we never see what it truly looks like.  I also really enjoyed the new Falcon played by Danny Ramirez.  He was probably my favorite character within the film.  He was natural and funny with quick and witty responses and line delivery.  The plot moved at a good pace and had a nice rhythm, and I felt the fight scenes were well choreographed.  But like “Sabra” they never call the big bad by his comic book name “The Leader”.  They also changed his look to make him more grotesque, which I didn’t think was necessary and honestly the makeup looked blotchy in some scenes and inconsistent.  I didn’t have a problem with the CGI, it wasn’t the greatest, but it did not spoil the movie for me.  It does feel like there were some things that they didn’t explain well.  For example, the Red Hulk seemed to have burning skin.  Cherry Blossom petals that came in contact with his skin dissolved on touch.  The reason or even acknowledging this didn’t really happen.  Overall, I really enjoyed the film, at least a lot more than I was expecting to, and some of the very expensive merchandise at the concession stands are cool (but boy did I spend way too much money!)