Heavy Hangs the Shield

I know it’s not cool to still like Marvel movies because they’re apparently the nadir of cinematic excellence, but I do… even when they keep letting me down. There are two specific reasons why I keep turning up at the theater on opening weekend for this forever franchise: 1) After 35 movies and 26 shows, I’m invested in these characters’ stories and, even at their worst, I find comfort in an old-fashioned superhero movie. And 2) I’m still chasing that feeling of watching “Avengers: Endgame” in a sold-out auditorium with hundreds of fans absolutely losing their minds over a wonderful moment involving Captain America and a very heavy hammer.

I get it — I don’t begrudge anyone’s disdain for movies they don’t connect with or enjoy. A lot of critics and moviegoers, in particular, feel fairly cynical toward Hollywood blockbusters, Disney and how comic book movies have taken over the box office for the last 15 years, causing an erosion of mid-budget “grown-up” movies. And yeah, a lot of them are bad. Still, I can’t bring myself to be cynical about movies (especially ones I’ve never seen) because then what the hell am I doing with my life?

The advanced reviews for “Captain America: Brave New World” were dismal, so maybe it was my lowered expectations, but I didn’t think it was that bad. It’s nowhere near the quality of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) pre-“Endgame,” but it’s certainly better than several of the ones since then. The biggest mistake it makes is treating the story as a way to wrap up loose ends from the past instead of moving Anthony Mackie’s Captain America into the future and giving him more personal stakes.

The Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” was mostly focused on Sam Wilson (Mackie) reconciling his morality with taking the shield of Captain America for a country that has spent a vast majority of its history treating Black people like secondhand citizens (at best). America loves its heroes, but when its incredibly short attention span changes, it’s back to racism, hatred and ignorance. For example: See how most of the country treated Jesse Owens when he returned from the 1936 Olympic Games.

“Captain
America: Brave New World” is the definition of mid. A movie so afraid to take a
political stance that, while still being momentarily entertaining, is
ultimately just a disposable sliver of popcorn entertainment.

With “Captain America: Brave New World,” Wilson is officially the new Cap and working directly under Harrison Ford (taking over for the deceased William Hurt) as Thaddeus Ross, the former obsessive Incredible Hulk hunter and now president of the United States. It’s a blast watching Mackie and Ford verbally (and otherwise) spar with each other, but the plot works as a direct continuation of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” which was expected, but it also spends much of its runtime wrapping up loose ends from 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk” and 2021’s “Eternals,” two MCU films that are widely considered to be the low-point of the entire franchise.

This does Mackie and his new starring role as Captain America a little dirty. It seems like a counterintuitive choice to basically relaunch a beloved character in a movie that consistently reminds audiences of movies they didn’t like (or spend much money watching). What works beautifully is the tragic story of Isaiah Bradley (played by the wonderful Carl Lumbly), a Korean War hero who was given the super soldier serum in the 1950s and then imprisoned for 30 years. Bradley and Wilson ruminating on sacrificing everything for a country that despised them gives the film a powerful thematic center that is sadly underutilized.

“Captain America: Brave New World” is the definition of mid. A movie so afraid to take a political stance that, while still being momentarily entertaining, is ultimately just a disposable sliver of popcorn entertainment. Only a day or two removed from having seen it, I find that the details of the film are already hazy in my mind. Still, I’m no less excited to see May’s MCU release of “Thunderbolts*” and July’s relaunch of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” Every movie has a chance to be great, just as it has the chance to be terrible, regardless of what came before. The day that faith in the magic of movies leaves me is probably the day I cease to write about them.

“Captain America: Brave New World”
Dir. Julius Onah
Now playing at Regal Old Mill
Redmond Cinema, Madras Cinema 5

This article appears in The Source Weekly February 20, 2025.