Unless you’re subscribed to Disney+ to watch “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” show, it’s been six years since we last saw Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie).
An aged Steve Rogers went forward in time to pass on the Captain America mantle to Wilson in “Avengers: Endgame”, fully knowing that his role in the next set of Marvel films would be bigger. But that wasn’t the case.
For such an instrumental character in this cinematic universe, it’s difficult not to question why it took them so long to further develop this new version of Captain America. Being reduced as one of the headliners in a streaming service program is objectively not the best option since there’s so much potential to explore in Wilson.
But “The Falcon” show indeed humanizes Wilson as the everyday man. He’s just a former soldier who will always be on the cusp of death without his military-grade costume. And it took him multiple episodes to evolve into the Captain America that he is leading now in “Captain America: Brave New World”.
There will inevitably be gaps in narrative continuity for the casual moviegoers seeing this film. But what I most appreciate about “Brave New World” is that while the rest of the Marvel gang are already transfixed in the multiversal problems of their world, Captain America is still coming to terms with a former colleague turned president Thunderbolt Ross (Harrison Ford) and battling mercenaries.
The film deals with geopolitical challenges involving the corpse of a celestial being from “The Eternals”, where multiple countries seek to negotiate the ownership of a powerful substance discovered inside it. Apart from this, no otherworldly villains are trying to change the course of the entire universe. Even Ross, who later in the movie transforms into a red version of the Hulk, wasn’t wreaking as much havoc as we expected.
This is the smaller-scale conflict that recent Marvel films have been missing as “Brave New World” is more self-contained in the same vein as “Captain America: Winter Soldier”. Fight sequences are mostly remote and “one is to one”.
Anthony Mackie is great as Captain America. He’s more level-headed than the usual cocky supporting character that we’re accustomed to seeing him, and he carries a serious intention that Chris Evans brought during his tenure.
But the reason to watch this movie is Harrison Ford as Thunderbolt Ross. Ford fills in the character previously played by the late William Hurt, and he’s wonderful here. There’s vulnerability behind his commanding presence, which makes his arc better than anyone in this movie.
“Captain America: Brave New World” is not excellent, but serviceable enough when lined up with most of Marvel Studios’ recent shortcomings. I wish Marvel would keep on doing these smaller-scale films on the big screen but looking into their upcoming slate, I feel we’ll not be seeing it shortly. It’s clunky from here and there, but I was entertained throughout.
“Captain America: Brave New World” is now showing in cinemas.
Featured photos from Marvel Studios.
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