Knock on Wood

One of the most attractive things about the nascent Marvel Cinematic Universe was its interconnectivity. Storylines carry over from movie to movie, characters cross over, and the world becomes bigger and bigger with every major development. This is something that’s largely gotten lost in the MCU ever since Endgame; there have been sequels (Guardians Vol. 3, Multiverse of Madness, No Way Home, etc), but the universe seems mostly focused on throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks, introducing new ensembles, characters, and abilities, and then…not following up on them. Though most of the films and multitudinous Disney+ series haven’t been significantly lower in quality than we are used to, the looseness hasn’t played well, and it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the MCU achieving the heights of the Infinity Saga again.

Captain America: Brave New World is the 35th film in the MCU, a milestone that explains a lot about its own reception. It’s the first in a while that seems genuinely interested in expanding the view past its protagonist to incorporate a wider view of the universe we’ve all come to know and love. That includes narrative threads and characters returning from past MCU films like 2021’s Eternals and 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, which is exciting to see – it shows that the minds behind the MCU are still interested in engaging with the broader universe and progressing storylines in a way we haven’t seen in a while. After all, after 34 movies, this is something we should expect. It’s not a huge deal to pick up threads left over from their second film – in fact, I’m quite happy with that decision.

Because, despite complaints and acknowledgments of this movie being “a direct sequel to The Incredible Hulk,” this is very much a movie about Captain America…if not the character, then what the character has come to represent in an increasingly divided world. Anthony Mackie takes center stage in his first big-screen outing as Cap after officially donning the mantle in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and from his first few minutes on-screen, it’s abundantly clear that he was made for this. He has a casual demeanor about him that was absent from Chris Evans’ portrayal of Steve Rogers, and that makes Sam Wilson an incredibly humanistic hero.

This is his movie, but Sam is slightly shortchanged by a story that doesn’t seem to care very much about his involvement. He has plenty of hero moments (especially in the final act), but the choice of story for his first solo film is a bit of an odd one. It revolves around an international incident, where Sam strives to keep the peace in an increasingly fraught situation, which has been masterminded by a psychopathic genius called the Leader. This puts Sam near the back of the pack, relegated to detective work while the action plays out at a larger scale.

The real standout here is Harrison Ford, joining the MCU as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, a former General (played by the late William Hurt from 2008 to 2021) who is elected President of the United States at the start of the film on a platform of “Togetherness.” The opportunity for commentary in this very political movie is plentiful, but there doesn’t seem to be much interest in exploring it too deeply – in fact, the film is somewhat politically confused, delivering a verbal moral at the end that is way far off from what it was initially setting up. It only serves to prove that, in its most opportune hour to deliver a message that could resonate with its many passionate fans, the MCU is still too hesitant to make a broad political statement. Ford is incredible, though, giving one of his best performances in almost a decade, capturing Ross’ temperament and ego with the vigor and star power that Ford hasn’t used very much in the 21st century. I hope we get to see more of him in the years to come.

Ford is one of the film’s strongest facets, some of which almost elevate it from your standard Marvel movie. It has great action and surprisingly stellar effects work, but it’s messy and a bit of an unstable tonal mix, attempting to return the MCU to its quippy roots while reckoning with its larger ambitions to be a classical espionage thriller. It so clearly wants to be an indictment of wrongdoing by people in power (a very timely message, to be sure – the President here literally turns into a giant red rage machine), but I’ll take what we got: not quite the clever political thriller I had hoped for, but an entertaining mass of exciting parts that I enjoyed my time with.

It speaks volumes that the film’s opening title card is simply Brave New World, dropping the Captain America entirely. This being the first blockbuster released under the second Trump administration is a statement, even if it’s unintentional, and one can only hope the world stays brave enough to stay true to who we are. After all, a Black man is Captain America, and the societal implications of that are infinitely more interesting than any examination we’ve gotten so far, both on the surface and subtextually…but I have hope that these are issues that will be thoroughly explored during Anthony Mackie’s tenure as the Cap. Because right now, what we could all use is a little more hope.

Captain America: Brave New World is playing in theaters nationwide.