The Screen Scribe

In 2019 the world experienced the grand finale of the Infinity Saga, a grand overarching tale spanning 23 films that concluded in Avengers: Endgame. This was probably the greatest movie event in living memory, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe riding a wave of compounding momentum that seemed never ending, with multiple films grossing over a billion dollars at the box office. However, in the six years since the last Avengers adventure, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has experienced a substantial decline in both quality and popularity. The Multiverse Saga has been a mixed bag, with several high-profile flops, several middling outings and a handful of actual enjoyable films.

This brings me neatly to Marvels latest film, Captain America: Brave New World. Despite its title, I can assure you there is nothing brave or new about the second last film of the MCUs Phase 5. It’s no secret that I was not a fan of the choice to appoint Sam Wilson the new Cap and while Mackie does an admirable job trying to impose himself on the role, for me it just does not work. The previous Captain America films were among the more serious stories of the MCU, with political overtones that examined real world issues such as the horrors of war, freedom vs security, and morality vs authority. These were gripping and thrilling adventures that grounded its outlandish characters and worldbuilding in stories with real world parallels. They had identity, relatable character motivations, and overarching thematic substance.

To put it simply, they were damn good films.

Brave New World does its utmost to emulate its predecessors, but it fails on all fronts. It has the ingredients to make an excellent addition to the Cap series, with an arms race for a new element to match vibranium (adamantium, which never actually becomes a part of the story), tense and hostile international relations, and an antagonistic president with a less than stellar past (sound familiar?👀) . But the film is badly let down by its subpar writing, hammy and cliched dialogue, and frankly laughable CGI at times. This is compounded by the fact that the main attraction for most fans, the first appearance of the Red Hulk, is underwhelming and about as brief as the very short runtime of the film.

The fact that this film has undergone several reshoots and rewrites is evident, as the film lurches between scenes, dialogue and characters that have no consistent tone, cinematography, or themes. Harrison Ford and Anthony Mackie do the best they can with a script which at times felt as if it was written by a teenager writing fan fiction, but their performances are not enough to salvage this bland and forgettable outing for the new Captain America.

2 / 5 ✨ from the Screen Scribe.