Captain America: Brave New World

[CharlesPhipps]

https://beforewegoblog.com/film-review- ... new-world/

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD is the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. A lot of people wondered if this would be the movie to restore it after a series of less than impressive entries. Others believed it would be another dud that would show that the series was finished after AVENGERS: ENDGAME. The answer is neither. Captain America: Brave New World is fine, above average even. It’s no Thor: Dark World or Avengers: Ultron but I’d say it’s probably the third best Captain America film, fourth if you count Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It’s good but my highest praise is that it’s a B+ movie. It’s a fun superhero time that involves a lot of shooting, punching, and flying but not much to say about anything.

The premise is that Captain America (Anthony Mackie) has been working with the US military, which causes some trouble with his mentor, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly). The United States has recently elected Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford) to the Presidency and a lot of superheroes are less than pleased given his role in the Sokovia Accords. Interesting, Thaddeus’ bad reputation as a General Ripper-type applies to even other nations. Thaddeus insists that he is a better man than he used to be, though, and wants to secure a legacy as a peacetime president rather than a wartime hero.

What follows is a basic caper story with Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito) and the Serpent Society stealing a bunch of adamantium from Celestial Island. If you don’t know what Celestial Island is, it’s that thing created at the ending of the Eternals. Apparently, it’s made of the substance that fans of Wolverine love and is even better than vibranium. Comic Nerd Rant: Which is ridiculous because vibranium has other properties than just being hard. In celebration of Captain America recovering it, President Ross invites him and his guests to the White House. There, he’s almost assassinated and Isaiah Bradley is blamed.

I won’t get much more into the story because there’s actually quite a few “mysteries” that were completely spoiled by the trailers for the film. I can understand why Disney did it: they wanted to get buts in seats. However, there’s two big reveals in this film that are meant to make MCU fans go, “oooo!” These big reveals are something most MCU fans are going to go into the film already knowing. I’m not going to go into them but one of the biggest flaws of this film is that Bruce Banner has emotional ties to a lot of characters and plots from this story and the movie would have been improved tremendously if the Hulk had been a co-star.

Anthony Mackie’s Captain America is fantastic and the movie “gets” who Captain America is meant to be. He’s meant to be a figure who uses his words with his fists (as well as his awesome power armor). Some people may object to the whole issue of a legacy hero but actors age, unlike comic book heroes, and the plot of trying to live up a legacy is interesting. It’s just a shame that Steve Rogers never shows up to mention that he was just a kid from Brooklyn. It was everyone else who made him into a legend. We get the next best thing, though.

Harrison Ford does a fantastic job with the character and brings a humanity to him. Thaddeus Ross has generally just been a one-dimensional but believable character. This Ross has done a huge amount of shady stuff and evil science projects but believes being President will allow him to redeem himself. There’s much about whether redemption is possible and the movie also indicates that it’s impossible unless you take responsibility for your actions. It’s a good message that, sadly, runs into the larger political concerns.

Basically, this movie has the mother of all bad timing for people to want to see it because of real-life politics. It’s not the case of Red vs. Blue (which is actually part of the problem). It’s the fact that politics are pissing off everyone in America right now. This is a movie about unity, reconciliation. and a story that doesn’t really reflect anything but fictional world stories. Not taking a stand on anything and saying we’re all the same may be admirable some times but just about everyone these days is saying pick a lane. Example: one of the main characters is an adaptation of Israeli special forces mutant, Sabra, who isn’t a mutant or special forces here. She’s also noticeably so short that in a movie with giant red monsters, I don’t buy her able to take down grown men.

In conclusion, this is a good movie. It’s a fun movie. It’s not a blow you away movie. However, this is a movie that I got out of my seat to go see in theaters rather than wait for it to show up on Disney+. I’m as stressed by the world as anyone else and this was a fun insight into a planet much much better off than our current one.

[hammerofglass]

This is literally the first I'm hearing they were even making this. Must not be marketing it much.

[CharlesPhipps]

This is literally the first I'm hearing they were even making this. Must not be marketing it much.

I mean, it's out. I saw it in theaters.

[clearspira]

Here's what it comes down to for me: It bothers me that Steve gave up everything just to live out his years with Peggy. Uh, no. No, no, no. I do not buy it. Steve is The Heart. He is the most moral of all heroes, the guy who desperately wants to help everyone, the guy who would jump onto a grenade before he had superpowers, he is the guy who fights Nazis. And he just stops helping people to go into quiet seclusion for eighty years?

BS.

We are meant to believe that he was just sitting around sipping coffee and having sex with Peggy whilst KNOWING FULL WELL that Bucky was getting tortured right at that moment and would be for decades more. That Stark's dad is about to be murdered. That HYDRA AKA the Nazis were planting their roots across the country. This is not a happy ending - this is horribly out character and a nasty sign of things to come with the MCU.

Steve Rogers should still be Captain America. Or he should have died alongside Tony Stark doing something heroic.

I have this funny feeling that at some point Disney will dump a big bag of cash on Chris Evan's doorstep to make a movie in those intervening years to try and explain this disaster.

[Nobody700]

Okay so this pisses me off so I HAVE to say it. No. He didn't say fuck everyone. He created a NEW timeline. Theirs NO WAY, NO ABSOLUTE WAY, no one knew he didn't return. He did, and created a new timeline. He saved Bucky, prevented other problems, and the like. The movies time travel rules is, you can't change your past, you'll create a new future but your past happened. It's why they returned every infinity stone, to prevent that exact problem that would screw over other timelines. It's why Steve had no problem saying heil hydra to hydra, cause that was not gonna fuck up his timeline.

He returned because he asked his Tony to build a time machine to say bye, and than, he went back to his timeline. That is what happened. Does the film make it clear? Nope. But if you remember the rules, it makes sense.

[CharlesPhipps]

I assume that Steve Rogers was fighting Hydra the entire time and that's why they didn't take over the world.

He was always Peggy's husband and the only reason SHIELD wasn't taken over much earlier.

I also assume he did it as...NOMAD.

[Winter]

I assume that Steve Rogers was fighting Hydra the entire time and that's why they didn't take over the world.

He was always Peggy's husband and the only reason SHIELD wasn't taken over much earlier.

I also assume he did it as...NOMAD.

This confuses me, if Steve from another reality that suffered the same fate as the one he lives in traveled back in time to the reality of the MCU then why didn't he warn literally anyone about the threats that were coming. He got married to one of the leaders of S.H.I.E.L.D., he had intimate knowledge of key events and who was involved in those events like the creation of Ultron, Hydra's return and, oh yeah, half the universe being wiped out.

He also knew or learned about how the Infinity stones were used to help protect the Earth so if Steve was always Peggy's husband even in the mainline MCU then why didn't he try to warn anyone about anything?

If he's willing to go back in time and change events which I think also included him preventing 9/11 (and maybe punching a certain orange faced jackass like he did with Hitler) then why not prevent the single worst event in his universe?

Like seriously just go up to Thor and tell him to aim for the head or cut off the arm. Hell just leave instructions to S.H.I.E.L.D. to NOT use the Tesseract EVER!

[CharlesPhipps]

I assume that Steve Rogers was fighting Hydra the entire time and that's why they didn't take over the world.

He was always Peggy's husband and the only reason SHIELD wasn't taken over much earlier.

I also assume he did it as...NOMAD.

This confuses me, if Steve from another reality that suffered the same fate as the one he lives in traveled back in time to the reality of the MCU then why didn't he warn literally anyone about the threats that were coming. He got married to one of the leaders of S.H.I.E.L.D., he had intimate knowledge of key events and who was involved in those events like the creation of Ultron, Hydra's return and, oh yeah, half the universe being wiped out.

He also knew or learned about how the Infinity stones were used to help protect the Earth so if Steve was always Peggy's husband even in the mainline MCU then why didn't he try to warn anyone about anything?

If he's willing to go back in time and change events which I think also included him preventing 9/11 (and maybe punching a certain orange faced jackass like he did with Hitler) then why not prevent the single worst event in his universe?

Like seriously just go up to Thor and tell him to aim for the head or cut off the arm. Hell just leave instructions to S.H.I.E.L.D. to NOT use the Tesseract EVER!

I mean the movie flat out shows any changes would have to be tiny ones because in 5,000,000 timelines, Doctor Strange says they always lose.

So Steve would only be able to lead up to the timeline of the Sacred One and not lose billions.

Warn everyone of Hydra in a way the original Steve (in a predestination paradox) didn't and then Thanos wins.

[hammerofglass]

I assume that Steve Rogers was fighting Hydra the entire time and that's why they didn't take over the world.

He was always Peggy's husband and the only reason SHIELD wasn't taken over much earlier.

I also assume he did it as...NOMAD.

This confuses me, if Steve from another reality that suffered the same fate as the one he lives in traveled back in time to the reality of the MCU then why didn't he warn literally anyone about the threats that were coming. He got married to one of the leaders of S.H.I.E.L.D., he had intimate knowledge of key events and who was involved in those events like the creation of Ultron, Hydra's return and, oh yeah, half the universe being wiped out.

He also knew or learned about how the Infinity stones were used to help protect the Earth so if Steve was always Peggy's husband even in the mainline MCU then why didn't he try to warn anyone about anything?

If he's willing to go back in time and change events which I think also included him preventing 9/11 (and maybe punching a certain orange faced jackass like he did with Hitler) then why not prevent the single worst event in his universe?

Like seriously just go up to Thor and tell him to aim for the head or cut off the arm. Hell just leave instructions to S.H.I.E.L.D. to NOT use the Tesseract EVER!

I mean the movie flat out shows any changes would have to be tiny ones because in 5,000,000 timelines, Doctor Strange says they always lose.

So Steve would only be able to lead up to the timeline of the Sacred One and not lose billions.

Warn everyone of Hydra in a way the original Steve (in a predestination paradox) didn't and then Thanos wins.

It was 5,000,000 possible timelines branching from that point. Keeping things from getting there at all is still on the table.

[clearspira]

Okay so this pisses me off so I HAVE to say it. No. He didn't say fuck everyone. He created a NEW timeline. Theirs NO WAY, NO ABSOLUTE WAY, no one knew he didn't return. He did, and created a new timeline. He saved Bucky, prevented other problems, and the like. The movies time travel rules is, you can't change your past, you'll create a new future but your past happened. It's why they returned every infinity stone, to prevent that exact problem that would screw over other timelines. It's why Steve had no problem saying heil hydra to hydra, cause that was not gonna fuck up his timeline.

He returned because he asked his Tony to build a time machine to say bye, and than, he went back to his timeline. That is what happened. Does the film make it clear? Nope. But if you remember the rules, it makes sense.

So where is OUR Captain America then? It is Old Cap who hands over the shield, not Our Cap. By this logic, Our Cap should still be around somewhere.

I get what you are saying. It makes sense based on what was established. But y'know what I think? I think the writers forgot/ignored their own rules just so they could have a ''happy'' ending that they did not think through properly.

People hold up Endgame as being the last great movie of the MCU. But the more time that passes, the more I see just how poorly written it actually is.