“Please don’t be boring.”
Not as interesting, engaging, or smart as it thinks it is and wants to be. Surprisingly, this is more about President Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross and Samuel Sterns/The Leader than it is about Captain America. Captain America is the main character here, in as much as he gets the most amount of screen time, but this is really Ross and The Leader’s story.
It messily tries to continue threads from The Incredible Hulk (2008), The Eternals, and Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Unfortunately, watching those three properties is just about required in order to understand what’s going on here.To this film’s credit, it does manage to bring humanity, empathy, and sympathy to the character of Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross, a long-time antagonist in the Marvel universe and an all-around a-hole.
In this outing, it’s 100 days into his presidency and the world is still arguing what to do about the frozen Celestial from Eternals and it’s untapped reserves of a new, valuable, and powerful element called Adamantium (which is what Wolverine’s skeleton is infused with and what his claws are made of). Ross is trying to negotiate a treaty concerning the Celestial and it’s Adamantium when he comes under attack, effectively framing the first super soldier Isaiah Bradley for a role in the attack and sending Cap on a search for answers in an effort to clear Bradley’s name. The answers we get are pretty dumb.
Most of this film deals with Ross, who claims he is not the foul-tempered brute he was known to be before. Ross has lost the only person he cares about, his daughter Betty Ross, whom has chosen to keep her distance from him after the events of The Incredible Hulk. While Ross continues to try to be a better man and get his treaty passed through, an old adversary reappears, threatening to destroy everything Ross has worked so hard to fix.
Tim Blake Nelson does fine as The Leader, the best thing about him is how he looks and his glowing green eyes. Anthony Mackie as Captain America does a good job, but doesn’t really bring much to the table. Giancarlo Esposito as makes for a villain with potential, but very little is done with him. Harrison Ford is great as Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross. He doesn’t really start to resemble the Ross we know from the comics and previous films until the third act. This is a Ross who is trying to do and be better, hence why he feels different for most of the film.
The consistently best character is Carl Lumbly’s Isaiah Bradley, a grumpy old man with a heart of gold. Bradley isn’t in Brave New World much, but he acts his heart out and his emotional scenes are very believable and touching. The screenplay (by Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, Julius Onah, and Peter Glanz) is fairly poor. The directing by Julius Onah is poor as well. It never feels like Onah has a firm, sure grasp on the overall product.
Brave New World underwent extensive re-shoots (costing an extra $100 mill) which fundamentally altered the final product, introduced new characters (such as Sidewinder), altered the overall story, changed the beginning and ending, and did away with certain character deaths (supposedly Ross was originally supposed to die). You can feel the extensive re-shoots and changes throughout.
The Cap vs. Red Hulk fight is the best scene in the film, but was ruined in the marketing, not to mention Ross as Red Hulk is one of the main plot elements and was clearly meant to remain a mystery until the third act. The main theme about coming to terms with your past self and past mistakes is good, but the film that surrounds it leaves much to be desired. Brave New World isn’t terrible, unfortunately it isn’t terribly good either. There are some decent moments throughout, but overall this is a very bumpy and messy movie. Another strike for Marvel.
2.5 STARS
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