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Captain America: Brave New World

This is very much a soft launch for phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's not terrible, just kind of a facsimile of earlier, better films, specifically Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which was a throwback to 1970s political paranoia films.

There are also echoes of films like Telefon, The Ipcress File, The Manchurian Candidate and Three Days of the Condor. And there are clear parallels with the skip fire that is the USA these days. Harrison Ford's character, Thaddeus Ross, is the newly minted president and is presented as a blend of Biden (old and doddery) and Trumpington (a literal monster in the White House). I imagine it took a mountain of cash to persuade Ford to take up the reins after William Hurt (who played Ross in five MCU films) died a couple of years ago. The presence of Ford is actually one of the best things going for this, he still has that 'old film star' charisma.

Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, the old Falcon but new Captain America, does his very best to hold the film on his own, rather than as part of a group. He mostly succeeds but it felt like heftier support than Liv Tyler or Tim Blake Nelson might have helped. There is one returning hero cameo but I'll keep that under wraps.

Behind all the politics, a more heartfelt angle emerges regarding Ross' estrangement from his daughter, Betty, and his illness (we see him popping pills regularly). The film seems to be setting him up with multiple reasons for his actions, perhaps seeding a potential redemption arc in future installments.

The major failings of this edition have to do with creative story choices. For one, I feel it was a gutless decision to not go fully critical of the 'leadership' - it's more of an olive branch to the Right than a pop at them, with all that, "I'll stand by the President, no matter who he is" bullshit. Also, it was piss-weak to not include China, Russia or say, the Saudis in any friction involving the USA - I mean, a potential war against Japan, for fuck's sake, India and France as belligerent allies, all these decisions made so as not to offend anyone, or even worse, miss out on the international box office returns. Abysmal, but not surprising.

More technically, there are some nice flying action scenes. In fact, the combination of Falcon's aerodynamics and Cap's shield, not to mention a bit of Wakandan tech on the wings, make his skill-set a satisfying package, even if he's still regretful about not juicing up on the super soldier serum. The climactic transformation and bish-bosh-bash scene was a blast from the past and a necessary pulse rise.

It seems like this is the serious one and the imminent Thunderbolts will be the comic one, as the new phase finds its feet. Not the worst start but they'll need to pick up the quality if they want to re-engage the folk with superhero film fatigue.

Captain America: Brave New World is screening all over the place, with Thunderbolts to follow very soon.

See also:

Any of those mentioned above but I'd plump for Sidney Furie's The Ipcress File (1965) and Sydney Pollack's Three Days of the Condor (1975)

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