movie review Running time: 118 minutes. Rated PG-13 (intense sequences of violence and action, and some strong language). In theaters Feb. 14.
If you thought Marvel Studios was committed to getting back on track by making fewer movies of higher quality, wait till you see “Captain America: Brave New World.”
The situation over there is so dire, they’ve brought back a plot-line from “Eternals.” “Eternals”!
Anthony Mackie’s first big-screen crack at the Captain after receiving the red, white and blue shield from Steve Rogers in “Avengers: Endgame” is another major disappointment from the crumbling Marvel Cinematic Universe.
And the dud is especially glaring because the “Captain America” films are some of the best stand-alone entries in the 35-part franchise. This one is, by a wide margin, the worst of those. Shield your eyes.
The villain is a drab “Star Trek” reject, the fight sequences are meditative, the grave-whisper acting belongs in a coming-attraction trailer from 1996 and, yet again, the viewer needs to have watched a TV series and at least two movies to fully grasp what’s happening.
A sick joke, that pair of clunkers is “Eternals” and “The Incredible Hulk.” The homework from Hell.
What were these people thinking?
Anthony Mackie plays Sam Wilson in “Captain America: Brave New World.” AP
Perhaps director Julius Onah and the five screenwriters were nervous, like Sam Wilson (Mackie) is about becoming Captain America in the first place.
Newbie Sam and Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), who dreams of being the new Falcon, are getting trained up by a more experienced super soldier, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), the “forgotten Captain” who was wronged decades earlier by the US government.
“Brave New World,” with its lofty Shakespearean-Huxleyan title, tries and fails to be a political Marvel movie.
Torres, meanwhile, is supposed to be the comic relief, so he mostly makes awkward old-age jokes about Bradley. “Should I make your phone text bigger?,” he says. Not even crickets piped up for that one.
President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) tasks Wilson with bringing back the Avengers. AP
When the trio attend an event at the White House, where firebrand Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford, replacing the late William Hurt) has just been sworn in as president, Bradley unexpectedly begins shooting at POTUS. But, after the madness, he has no memory of having done so.
So, Wilson and Torres set off to prove their innocent friend was brainwashed into trying to assassinate the commander in chief and find the man responsible.
Sounds simple, right? It’s not. There’s also the matter of the Celestial Island (see: “Eternals”), which has mysteriously plopped in the Indian Ocean and contains the valuable new element Adamantium (see: Wolverine).
I couldn’t quite follow this, but apparently this alien ship could lead to all-out war with Japan, and Ross would like to, um, avoid that.
Joaquin Torres, left, dreams of being the new Falcon. AP
“We’re coming up on the end of my first 100 days,” says Ford’s Ross. “They’re gonna define me. This treaty’s gotta work.”
Ford acts, as always, with feeling, but I got the feeling that there were cue cards over the camera. Liv Tyler, who I forgot was ever in these movies, returns briefly as his daughter Betty.
Something reliable about “Brave New World” is that laughs only come when they’re not supposed to.
A hearty guffaw arrives when the main baddie, Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), is first shown. He’s the scientist who tried to cure Bruce Banner in “The Incredible Hulk” only to wind up mutilated. With painted-on green skin and a mushy exposed brain, Sterns looks absolutely ridiculous.
The secondary evildoer is Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito), who hates Captain America and loves stabbing.
Wilson and Torres are helped along by Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), a k a Sabra, the Israeli superhero whose confusing vagueness here is probably due to the dumb controversy surrounding the character’s inclusion in the movie. You barely catch her name.
They all do battle in exotic locales such as Baltimore and Norfolk.
The grand finale is Red Hulk. AP
“Brave New World” ends in D.C., with Red Hulk, Ross’ angry alter-ego, laying waste to the White House. The animation is so cheap and cheesy, however, we take none of the carnage seriously. The meat-and-potatoes excitement and emotional satisfaction Marvel once practically had a trademark on is entirely absent. In its place, yawns.
Mackie, normally, is a charismatic actor. The script does him no favors, but his cardboard performance is more Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel than Captain America. The actor is consistently dull, and the story doesn’t take enough advantage of his character’s doubts and insecurities. That Marvel allowed one of its marquee characters to become a big shrug speaks volumes for where they’re headed.
Early in the film, Ross tasks Wilson with rebuilding the Avengers. “Brave New World” is supposed to set up more of those movies.
“The world needs the Avengers,” Wilson insists.
Do we though?
