Review: Captain America: Brave New World

Official synopsis: Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), the new Captain America, finds himself in the middle of an international incident and must discover the motive behind a nefarious global plan.

I never thought the current administration would ever affect how I viewed a Marvel movie, but here we are. "Brave" new world indeed. This is Mackie's first big screen outing as the new Cap, and you know what? He looks fucking cool. I said what I said. He's very different from Steve Rogers and that's fine. He has good chemistry with his new Falcon, Joaquin (Danny Ramirez) and with Harrison Ford, who is taking over the late John Hurt's role as Thaddeaus Ross. 

For what it's worth, this film does introduce a lot of interesting concepts. Ross as a President for one. I would've loved to have seen how that campaign went considering he made the Sokovia Accords happen, only for the Avengers to be the ones that literally saved the universe. The events of The Eternals played a huge part in this story and they used that as a segue into finally introducing adamantium to the broader MCU. All of that was great, but like I mentioned at the beginning, the films overall messaging rubbed me the wrong way in light of current events.

There's a moment when Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly, one of the best parts of the Falcon and Winter Soldier series)  comments on not wanting to go to the White House because Ross is president. And Joaquin replies "Who cares who invited us? It's The White House!" Wellllllll.....it does matter. And I think I'm just so depressed about having a dictator and tech douche run the country I live in that I took issue with this film's "but both sides!" sentiment. 

It bums me out because the Captain American films are always some of my favorites and I do like Wilson in this role, but the corny dialogue and political messaging just didn't work for me, even though so many other things were.

If you haven't seen this yet, please don't waste your time waiting for the after credits scene. It's pointless. Literally, it's something we already know.

Grade: C+