Warning: Contains spoilers.
MEXICO CITY – It would be an honor, as well as a big challenge, to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Julius Onah took on this challenge by accepting the director’s chair for Captain America’s new installment Captain America: Brave New World, starring Anthony Mackie as the new Captain America.
In recent years, Marvel has come to realize that they need a new generation of heroes for a new generation of kids. In the last Avengers entry – Avengers: End Game – Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers, a former Captain America, handed his shield and therefore his role to Marckie’s Sam Wilson, who was Falcon at that time.
The film sets off from the 2021 Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” in which they presented new characters like Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), a supersoldier who was experimented on and incarcerated for 30 years, and Sam’s new partner Joaquín Torres (Danny Ramírez.)
The story kicks off when former U.S. army general and now president Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross invites Sam to the White House to celebrate the discovery of Adamantium materials in the Indic Ocean, left there by the Eternals.
Sam decides to take Isaiah and Joaquín with him, but things take a turn for the worse when Isaiah and other five individuals attempt to kill Ross. Sam takes upon himself to prove Isaiah’s innocence, which leads him to discover a conspiracy against Ross and his international treaty to share the Adamantium with other countries.
In “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” series finale, Sam refuses to take the supersoldier serum. While he’s the new Captain America, he’s constantly reminded he’s not Steve Rogers. How do you keep up with the legacy of the greatest supersoldier who’s ever lived without being one?
Which raises the question, what does the symbol of Captain America mean in this new world? Or at least it is what they should have questioned.
The movie has a rather fast rhythm from the start, and it rarely stops to take a breath from the constant action scenes. While they are entertaining enough, it has too much going on, too many subplots, and it could have benefited from taking time to explore more of our protagonist’s internal journey.
Harrison Ford’s Ross, who later becomes Red Hulk, presented an interesting opportunity as a man striving to improve himself for his estranged daughter, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), Bruce Banner’s ex-girlfriend. However, instead of exploring this complexity, the film primarily portrays him as a predictable ticking time bomb.
Ross’s transformation to the Red Hulk is incredible to watch. The camera makes close ups on him as his body cracks and deforms into a beast. We follow him into a disastrous sequence in which he destroys the White House and ends up in the awaited match with Sam.
Their battle ultimately concludes with Sam persuading Ross to believe in his inner goodness – a resolution that, at least to me, feels a bit corny.
Marvel has infinite source material from the comics for new characters and stories to keep cultivating its complex universe, but it keeps missing the chance to fit them perfectly into it and at the same time to introduce them to the public.
Even though Captain America: Brave New World isn’t the best work that has come from the MCU, as I said before, I believe it was a good enough start for this next generation of heroes.
Regina López is a Senior Correspondent with Youth Journalism International.
