PREMISE
Sam Wilson, the new Captain America, finds himself in the middle of an international incident and must discover the motive behind a nefarious global plan.
THE GOOD STUFF
CAPTAIN F****** AMERICA- What more does a man have to prove? Here we are, six entire years after AVENGERS: Endgame, and four years after THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER, and still there are some of y’all that are out here being so trifling, shiftless, and nonsensical in your need for the things that used to be, that you almost sound like those 45-year-old crybaby Star wars fans. Like his character Sam Wilson, Anthony Mackie has spent six whole mini-series episodes thoroughly proving that he deserves to wield the shield. By this point, it makes sense in the story, and they’ve reinforced how much it makes sense a couple of times now.
Mackie holds down this movie effortlessly by the way. There’s not a whole lot of dramatically poignant things for him to pinpoint, but there is a lot of badass stuff that he does get to show in this movie that he only briefly showed in falcon & the Winter soldier. A lot of the action stuff that Mackie has done aside from playing this character has been very hit or miss over the last 10 years or so, but his performance as Sam Wilson has always always been on point. He’s built himself up to carry a movie of this size. What more does a man have to prove?
FORD- I’ve always had the theory that if it isn’t Indiana Jones or Han Solo, then Harrison Ford more than likely will give a s***. And “give a s***” Harrison Ford is quite an entertaining fellow. He’s going pretty hard in this movie, perhaps to honor the work that the late William Hurt did in previous MCU movies, perhaps it’s because he actually enjoys the material or I would like to think maybe….he’s a fan of the comic books. He certainly is performing like somebody who really likes this character and wants to portray him in an admirable way.
SUPPORTING CAST- The really good MCU movies understand the objective of having interesting side characters. Every single MCU thing rather it be a TV show or movie teases side characters like they’re Easter eggs whether or not the movie or show is good. And when it’s not good, there’s a lot of justifiable eye rolling if a highlighted supporting character is blasé and not worth revisiting. Not the case with this movie. There’s so much quality action in this film that a lot of these side characters get multiple moments of badassery, and because of that each one of them are commendable and I hope to see more of them later on down the road.
THE BAD STUFF
LEADER- Gold star for you if you remember this character from The incredible hulk movie that Edward Norton was in. He was there. He had a prominent role. I get that he’s not the most exciting villain in the world, but there’s a lot of backstory here to be made in order to have his presence in this movie be justified. So much in fact, that you can’t help but to be somewhat disappointed that he’s not a way more prominent character than what he actually is in this film.
This is a character with a plan and motive that makes sense, history with Thunderbolt Ross, and a character with a lot of promise to tie into future subplots of this whole MCU thing. One can’t help but to be a little bit disappointed that none of that was really dug into in the way that it could have been.
THE GASLIGHTING- This is something that really bothers me, and I might as well talk about it here. I hate the eternals movie with every fiber of my being. I don’t recommend it to be watched by any human on Earth. However, we have to stop pretending that the events of this movie didn’t exist. Between doctor strange and the multiverse of madness, Spider-Man: no way home, the Loki TV series, and Deadpool and wolverine, we have been told numerous times that there are multiple ways to check upon events that are going on throughout the multiverse, and there are multiple characters that already exist within the MCU that should know about (and maybe should have already investigated) the events of the eternals movie.
And yet it’s almost as if Disney as a whole wants us to forget that that movie even existed. It doesn’t even remotely make sense to say that this story takes place directly after the events of Eternals given the MCU films that have already come out. It’s always been this large bruise on this whole multiverse story arc, and maybe it’s just something that bothers me at this point.
THE UGLY STUFF
INCORRECT ADVERTISING- The rumble between Captain America and the Red Hulk is not even remotely a spoiler at this point, and that in and of itself is a major problem for me. If you ask me, using the Red Hulk’s image in every poster and trailer for this movie is a CRITICAL misstep. There’s so much minor stuff in this movie that has been so well kept in the trailers and press interviews that has virtually no impact on the story, or the MCU as a whole. And all of THOSE things could have easily been used to promote this movie.
Throughout the film, the build up to the Red hulk’s appearance is so well teased, that had you simply not advertised the hell out of it, it would have been one of the more shocking reveals in the history of the mcu. It’s the singular thing in this film that has the most impact when it comes to things that can possibly come down the road in another MCU film.
You didn’t need the Red Hulk’s image to promote this thing. It’s the mcu. These films sell themselves and are virtually guaranteed to gross a hundred million dollars domestically. (unless you’re the marvels) This is a massively squandered opportunity.
**************
Ultimately, this film is on the 50-yard line separating the good to really great MCU movies, and the lower mid to poor movies. The Captain America series has always had a ceiling as to what it could accomplish within the story lines of the MCU whether it be told from the Sam Wilson or Steve Rogers side. Sure, you can make more of these films with Wilson, but none of them are going to be able to get past the ceiling. I don’t know what people are expecting from this, but to go online and to hear that this film is considered to be in the bottom tier of MCU movies is harsh in a very unrealistic way.
Not every MCU movie is meant to be on the scope of black panther or Avengers: Infinity war. The Multiverse Saga has been quite a mess up until this point, and some of these movies just exist to be fun and digestible. THIS IS MID…..and there’s nothing wrong with that.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD is in theaters now
