Thoughts: Captain America: Brave New World
Marvel has been struggling to get a fourth Captain America film made following the events of Avengers: Endgame, which is why we got Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier before a proper next installment. When the next installment was announced as Captain America: New World Order, the online backlash was swift enough to force Marvel to change the subtitle to eventually become Captain America: Brave New World. Then it was announced that Harrison Ford would be replacing William Hurt as General Ross… then Giancarlo Esposito would be added to the cast… then more reshoots would be added… then Tim Blake would be added to the film… then the film was pushed back… and so on the troubles continued for this film. All this looks thrown together and what we end up with is just as chaotic as the production behind the scenes.
Sam Wilson as Captain America is just a normal guy with no super strength, but the film forgets this when fighting is convenient. This is very prevalent when he takes a couple stab wounds at the start of the film, but even more so when he fights the Red Hulk at the end of the film. The fight choreography itself is very “pose-fighting,” leaving unnecessary breathing room after each hit thrown. The film tries to give Sam’s character a conspiracy to uncover, yet it all comes very easy with little push back or misdirection. Captain America: Brave New World tries so much to be like Captain America: The Winter Soldier that it takes similar beats of a political thriller without changing up the formula.
Ultimately, this film is trying to be a Captain America film and a Hulk film, which is why the Captain America side fails to live up to expectations. I could see the original bones of the script here and there which could have been a more interesting movie trying to coerce Sam Wilson to take a new super soldier serum which could then be taken by General Ross to turn into the Red Hulk. There would be cameos by other heroes suggesting that since Steve Rogers took it, Sam should as well if he wants to truly be Captain America. This would culminate with Sam in a dire situation to make the ultimate choice he had been running from the entire film as he faces off against Red Hulk as a normal person. The ending could still play out as is, but making Sam normal would be more beneficial for raising the stakes beyond what was expected so that emotional ending speech hits harder.
Captain America: Brave New World is not the film we were promised, but does deliver entertaining enough set pieces for some memorable action scenes. The meddling of having to expand this world to include more Hulk references, while ups dramatic tension, ends up weighing down the film's message. A lot of the core points to be taken away from the film could be easily summarized in a spoiler section or future 2 line section in Avengers: Doomsday.