Captain America: Brave New World (dir. Julius Onah)
By: Adam Freed
It is a brave new world for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and that cannot be better news for a studio that prior to the gargantuan box office success of last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine, had let loose a slew of underwhelming films since Avengers: Engame (2019). Captain America: Brave New World, helmed by Nigerian-American filmmaker Julius Onah (Luce, The Cloverfield Paradox) marks a pronounced effort to reset and recalibrate the direction of a studio that has been trapped in the maw of its own multiversal design. Rekindling a sense of newness seems impossible with the release of Marvel’s 34th feature film, but Brave New World offers just enough to make the superhero experience feel fun again. By squashing the alien lore, and the inherent confusions of the multiverse, Marvel has crafted its most streamlined, straightforward and best film in years.
The welcome refresh begins with Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker) picking up the shield as Sam Wilson, the new Captain America, after the departure of Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers six years ago. Rather than feeling like the powerful studio is just replacing one actor with another, Sam Wilson is very much his own man, and a unique version of Captain America. Fueled by technology given him by the fictional nation of Wakanda, Wilson’s early tenure as “Cap” is a welcome deviation from what fans may have come to expect. Mackie’s American Hero very quickly finds himself in the center of an international dispute involving the heavily armed governments of the United States and Japan. Although the nature of the conflict is never given the three dimensional treatment, it involves President Thaddeus Ross actively pursuing a global treaty that will work to consolidate American power on a global scale. Ross’ layered and somewhat checkered past is captured in full by the legendary Harrison Ford (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars) who feels perfectly cast to embody the aged orneriness of the former wartime general. In addition to Ford, Brave New World benefits from the inclusion of Danny Ramirez (Top Gun: Maverick) as Joaquin Torres, who fills the Falcon vacancy created when Sam Wilson was handed Captain America’s shield. The chemistry between Mackie and Ramirez crackles with the warmth of genuine friendship and elevates the emotional stakes of Onah’s superhero adventure.
Despite being a marked improvement from recent Marvel fare, Brave New World cannot completely acquit itself from some of the predictable superhero playbook that has proven recently redundant. There is an undeniable overreliance on CG that continues to stretch an overworked post production team to the point where the film’s visuals are at times noticeably thin. The complexity of this iteration of the Captain America saga is ramped up by the inclusion of multiple antagonists played by Giancarlo Esposito (Do the Right Thing) and Tim Blake Nelson (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), the latter of which plays Samuel Sterns, a radiation-altered brainiac capable of manipulating the global political chess board by tilting the scales many moves ahead of those who hope to prevent his nefarious influence. Although both villains are engaging, neither is given the necessary backstory considering the film’s very intentionally stripped back runtime. Ultimately, Captain America: Brave New World is a big step up in quality and execution for a studio that once held the domestic box office by the throat. Despite a few predictably unavoidable Marvel tropes, director Julius Onah’s Brave New World proves to be a bold new direction for Marvel.
Target Score: 6.5/10 - Marvel enthusiasts can breathe easy, Captain America: Brave New World is a much needed breath of fresh air that feels like the beginning of something worth investing in once again. Offering the finest performance of his Marvel residency, Anthony Mackie, with the help of co-stars Danny Ramirez and Harrison Ford play savior to the film franchise that was dangling from its last threads of credibility.