directed by Julius Onah
written by Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, Julius Onah and Peter Glanz
Captain America: Brave New World is, for those keeping count, the 35th film Marvel Cinematic Universe film, the fourth one to bear the name "Captain America" and the first film in which someone other than Steve Rogers wears the star-spangled banner and the Vibranium shield, that someone being Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). It's a film that has provoked reactions that range from lukewarm to downright hostile. Personally, though, I enjoyed it, even in spite of its many flaws. I was pleasantly surprised by a few things, some of which I can discuss without spoiling key plot points, and some of which I will have to set aside for a separate, spoiler-laden discussion.
The film begins with Captain America chasing down a group of thieves who have stolen a highly-valuable asset and have now holed up in a Mexican church, where they plan to meet their mysterious buyer. Sam, aided by his buddy Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) and the military, is able to stop the sale and retrieve the asset, which turns out to be a precious metal called adamantium, which has been harvested from the remains of Tiamut, the stillborn Celestial who almost destroyed the Earth in the film The Eternals, which is currently resting in the Indian Ocean. Retrieving it was crucial because the United States of America, of which Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (Harrison Ford) is now the President, is currently negotiating a treaty with Japan and other world leaders to extract the adamantium and distribute it all around the world.
Ross invites Sam and Joaquin to attend one of his conferences in which he tries to convince world leaders to sign the treaty, but Sam only agrees to go if Ross also invites Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) a soldier who served as Captain America in the 50s but who was locked up for crimes he didn't commit. Just before the meeting, Ross takes Sam aside and asks him to help him restart the Avengers, which makes Sam distinctly uncomfortable given Ross' spotty history with the Avengers. That is set aside when Ross begins his pitch to world leaders for the treaty, only for the unthinkable to occur; Bradley and several other people present at the event suddenly try to shoot Ross and other world leaders. Sam, Joaquin and the President's security detail, headed by the no-nonsense Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas) neutralize the threat, but even as Isaiah is carted off to jail again, Sam is convinced something else here is at work and tries in vain to convince Ross to let him investigate what really happened.
Of course, someone else really is behind what happened, and Sam, Joaquin and President Ross are about to find out who it is and what a threat he truly poses to the brave new world they are trying to create.
Yes, this movie was deeply flawed. The dialogue was unbelievably clunky at time, the seams at which the plot was taken apart and sewn back together were painfully obvious in some places, and quite sadly, the film really did feel like a lesser version of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I'd be interested to see the YouTube videos comparing key scenes from the two movies, because there are plenty of similarities
It would be pretty easy to pick apart individual aspects of the production as well: Laura Karpman's omnipresent music score pales next to the work of Alan Silvestri and Henry Jackman, the action choreography, while competent enough, is sometimes all over the place, and the computer generated imagery...well, that's just a low-hanging fruit at this point when it comes to Marvel movie gripes. Roast me all you want, but I did like the Red Hulk scenes, for the most part. I thought they were pretty well-done, all things considered.
What genuinely surprised me was the earnestness of the performances. This, for me, kept the movie afloat when its many foibles threatened to sink it. Anthony Mackie hit all the right notes as a still-reluctant Captain America filled, with both unbelievable courage and crushing self-doubt, and he and Danny Ramirez have a fun, buddy-cop chemistry going on that helps keep the film light. The most pleasant surprise for me, by far, was Harrison Ford, who at 82 genuinely acted in this movie. I expected him to phone in his performance, the way he sleepwalked through the recent Star Wars movies and, perhaps even more embarrassingly, in the last Indiana Jones movie, but I'll be darned; he showed up and gave a rousing performance that would have done the late William Hurt proud. Considering that he did this with such a slipshod script, his performance was nothing short of outstanding.
Finally, I appreciated that this movie picked up story threads from earlier, unloved Marvel properties like The Eternals and found something useful to do with them, and it's nice to see the MCU feeling a bit connected again. I know it wasn't everyone's cup of tea and I completely get that, but I enjoyed myself. Yes, the MCU has a very long way to go before it reaches the height of Avengers: Endgame again (assuming it ever does) but if nothing else, this movie is at least an improvement on some of its misses of late (including the TV series).
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment