Superhero fatigue is here and it’s real. Look no further than Disney’s much-delayed addition to the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Captain America: Brave New World, as first and final proof of that proposition. Fatally undermined by muddled, unfocused plotting, vague, ultimately meaningless politics (or lack thereof), and anonymously directed, stakes-free set pieces, and the result clarifies the currently woeful state of the MCU: desperately in need of a top-to-bottom refresh or universe-resetting reboot and if neither approach works, a long, uninterrupted period in hibernation or stasis.
Captain America: Brave New World opens with the obligatory, underwhelming set piece as the “new” Captain America, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), drops in from the sky for a brief smash-and-grab, stopping disposable henchmen and their leader, Seth Volker/Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito), from stealing a super-special case containing the latest Whatsit/McGuffin. Wilson, of course, saves the day, rescues the hostages, a Catholic priest and a gaggle of nuns, and retrieves the case, delivering it to the new president of the United States, ex-general Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford).
Long considered a foe and/or antagonist to the libertarian-aligned Avengers, President Ross has taken a more conciliatory tone with Wilson, offering him the chance to restart the Avengers, albeit once again under Ross or U.S. control, and more importantly for the plot at hand, inviting Wilson, Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), Wilson’s sidekick and the new Falcon, and Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), an old friend/mentor and ex-soldier, to the White House for a meet-and-greet with world leaders to negotiate the terms on an international treaty dividing control over Celestial Island (see, e.g., The Eternals, for more about the half-born Celestial who perished in the Indian Ocean).
For Bradley, the first Black super-soldier, once lost to history, unjustly imprisoned, and now, belatedly restored to respectability, meeting the newly elected president, let alone returning to the public eye, means recognition of past harms made by the U.S. government, if not outright reconciliation. Bradley’s mistreatment, a consequence if not an effect of his Blackness, like Wilson’s decision to take up the Captain America name, points to a level of complexity, not to mention contradictory ideas about America, American exceptionalism, and its failures, that Captain America: Brave New World deliberately fails to explore meaningfully, the unsurprising result of corporate cowardice on Marvel’s owners, Disney.
Before Bradley and the others can enjoy Ross’s “one for all, all for one” speech, a Manchurian Candidate-inspired attack abruptly ends the conference, leaving Ross uninjured but vowing payback, Wilson no longer on Ross’s good side, and Bradley imprisoned again, this time for his unwilling participation in the attack. That, in turn, compels Wilson, moved by his friend facing the rest of his life in prison or worse, the death penalty, to do what he and his predecessor have always done best: Go it mostly alone, go rogue (i.e., unsanctioned), and start digging into the wide-ranging (insert several yawns here) conspiracy that led to the attack and its aftermath.
What Wilson, Torres, and later, Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), Ross’s Israeli-born right-hand security aide, learn won’t be spoiled here, but it takes the trio back to the MCU’s humble beginnings (2008) and the first, stumbling steps the then 2-film franchise took toward a shared superhero universe and the Avengers.
Cue a series of escalating misunderstandings (between allies, real and imagined), miscommunications (between nation-states), and a long-forgotten supervillain literally emerging from the shadows to drop some exposition on Wilson and his support crew. By then, the time has arrived for several more set pieces, including Captain America: Brave New World’s standout sequence, an airborne Captain America and the Falcon vs. both American and Japanese fighter jets over the Indian Ocean. Succeed and all goes back to the status quo ante, however imbalanced in the U.S.’s favor that might be. Fail and everything goes sideways. Also, hello, World War III (superheroes not invited).
Why Marvel’s Powers-That-Be (PTB) would think, let alone imagine, that audiences would find a heretofore unaddressed plot point even remotely worthy of inclusion in Wilson’s first – and possibly last – standalone superhero adventure remains unanswered. At least, it’s not an answer Marvel’s PTB decided to share with fans before Captain America: Brave New World hits theaters. It’s one, however, someone will have to answer eventually. Until then, it would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Ultimately, Captain America: Brave New World offers nothing of novel superheroics or original storytelling, instead taking an anodyne approach that will please few and annoy or bore many, repeating the same, tired tropes in over-familiar ways, dooming the onscreen characters and the audience on the other side of the screen to the MCU’s equivalent of Groundhog Day.
Captain America: Brave New World opens theatrically in North America on Friday, February 14th.
No.