For many long-time Marvel fans, it was a must-see when the new “Captain America: Brave New World” arrived in theaters; however, the excitement of seeing Falcon taking on the role of Captain America quickly turned into disappointment when it fell short of the previous expectations set by Marvel.
The film begins with Anthony Mackie playing Samuel Wilson as his new version of Captain America, including having wings. The original Captain America, Steve Rogers, retired and decided to pass on the shield to Samuel, so he gave up being the Falcon. Along with Samuel is Joaquin Torres, played by Danny Ramirez, who fills the spot as the old Falcon. The duo chases after a secret package that was stolen from the U.S. government.
Once the package is secured, Sam and Joaquin are invited to the white house by President Thaddeus Ross, played by Harrison Ford. The president was in the middle of revealing that this mysterious package was adamantium, a metal alloy and a part of a mysterious Celestial Island that appeared in the middle of the Indian Ocean when suddenly the president was shot by a friend of Sam’s, Isaiah Bradley, played by Carl Lumbly.
This is where issues with the plot and story begin. There were a lot of directions that Marvel could have taken with this movie, but instead, they fell back into repeating the same exact stories that they had before, allowing the audience to be able to guess exactly what would happen instead of trying to make anything new.
The writers had the president become a red version of Hulk, which is comic-accurate, and when the duo tries to fight him and do not succeed, they use the cherry blossom petals in his hand to remind him of his daughter and calm him back into his natural form. This is very similar to “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” where the Black Widow sings Hulk a lullaby to calm him, bringing him back to his human form.
Another issue is the loose storylines in the plot. For example, the president talks of the mysterious package, adamantium, which somehow relates to this statue in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Celestial Island, which is explicitly talked about at the beginning of the movie by the president. The movie makes it seem like this is going to be important, yet it is never discussed again, and instead begins to focus on a completely different story never mentioning the adamantium again.
Additionally, a treaty is discussed for large portions of the movie, yet the audience is never told what the treaty is even dealing with, making it confusing to watch and challenging to understand the apparent importance of the treaty. It is assumed that it might have some relevance to the Celestial Island, but again, that is rarely spoken about.
Marvel made it seem that these parts of the plot were very important from the movie’s beginning but failed to finish the storyline. It felt very rushed, and as though plots from very different movies and ideas were squished together in 1 hour and 58 minutes. It also happens to be the shortest Captain America movie to date, which would explain the feeling of the movie being so rushed.
Marvel was, however, thoughtful in tying in small things from other movies like explaining that Captain America’s new wings were from Wakanda, a nation in another Marvel movie “Black Panther.” It served as a nice touch, showing that Samuel is not trying to become Steve exactly but instead making his own version of Captain America and incorporating his past with being the Falcon.
But overall, the movie left a lot of questions with not a lot of answers, making it difficult to watch. Time will tell if Marvel can even begin to save this new Captain America or if they are going to prove that Captain America should have retired along with Steve Rogers.
