- Anthony Mackie, Tim Blake Nelson, Danny Ramirez
- February 14th 2025
- 118
- Julius Onah
Anthony Mackie, who was previously The Falcon, steps up to the plate and takes over as Captain America in this standalone movie.
After accepting the title of Captain America in the 2021 TV series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson finally leads his first Captain America movie.
Wilson, who was previously Captain America’s sidekick The Falcon, is still wrestling with the responsibility of his new role and wonders if he deserves it, particularly as he’s not a super soldier like his predecessor Steve Rogers.
He gets the opportunity to test his worthiness when he and the now-U.S. President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford, replacing the late William Hurt) become involved in an international incident that could potentially start a new war over the powerful metal adamantium.
Marvel’s fatal flaw here was expecting fans to remember every character and plot point that’s ever happened in the MCU in the previous 34 films (not to the mention the TV shows).
It’s hard enough to remember what happened in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which only aired almost four years ago, but you also have to cast your mind back even further than that – to 2008, to be precise.
This film bizarrely is a direct sequel to The Incredible Hulk – which came out 17 years ago – so you should give that a re-watch to fully appreciate Ross’s story, his relationship with Hulks and what happened to our new villain Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson).
This decision could have been forgiven if this story was a winner, but unfortunately, it feels cobbled together, flat and messy and it’s hard to follow what’s going on.
The lacklustre script fails our new lead Mackie, who gets by on his charms but is given very little opportunity to inject Wilson with some personality, depth or a sense of humour, something which is in short supply here.
As the title character, he should be the star of the show but Ford pulls focus as the complicated and angry president, who is given much more to do. He throws himself into the motion-capture side of his performance but that underwhelms due to the iffy CGI.
As the launchpad for the new Captain America and a teaser for the next set of Avengers, Brave New World needed to be much more exciting than this. Let’s hope Thunderbolts and The Fantastic Four: First Steps return Marvel to its former glory later this year.
In cinemas from Friday 14th February.
By Hannah Wales.
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