Code Red: this is a fun Marvel entry.
These days, the most successful MCU movies on both sides of the equation are “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and “Deadpool & Wolverine.” At least “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and “Thor: Love and Thunder” had a lot going for it, while “Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels” failed to reach their target audiences, and I’m still disillusioned by “Black Widow” and “Eternals.” And outside that universe, Marvel has produced bombs like “Morbius,” “Madame Web,” “Venom the Last Dance,” and “Kraven the Hunter.”
We now have the new “Captain America” entry with the subtitle: “Brave New World.” And even though there’s a lot of cynicism within the MCU, I still had a lot of fun with this sequel and was able to acknowledge certain things, which I’ll get to in a little bit.
If you also recall, the original Captain America Steve Roger went back in time to live his life, and as an old man, he gave Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) his shield. Thus he goes from Falcon to Captain America. The story of that was continued in the Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and it’s continued in “Brave New World.” And at this point, he has a young prodigy named Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) in training to be the next Falcon, just as long as he doesn’t pull an Icarus move in battle.
You remember General Thaddeus Ross, the man who tried to capture the Hulk and tore the Avengers apart with the Soviet Accords? In this sequel, he loses the mustache to become the President (“Lose the mustache or lose the election”), and because of William Hurt’s death in 2022, he’s now portrayed by Harrison Ford. Thus making this movie the first time he has played the American President since “Air Force One.”
It’s clear that his inauguration would receive a polarizing response from the world with some applauses and some disillusionment. Even his daughter Betty (Liv Tyler) is still estranged from him. And at this point, the only two reasons why Sam would approve of this is because he’s the president and maybe people can change.
There are also some enemies including the gunman Seth Voekler (Giancarlo Esposito), who makes his way from Mexico to America to settle a score. And there’s also the cellular biologist Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), whom you may remember cross contaminated with the Hulk’s blood back in 2008 (“The Incredible Hulk”).
The trailers and posters reveal that Ross will become the Red Hulk. And some people in the film didn’t know the Hulk can turn red. You would think that he would damage the White House, not as explosive as in “Independence Day,” but more in the sense of Ming becoming a giant red panda in “Turning Red.”
So even if we have to get an overindulgence in CGI effects in some fight sequences (including one between Captain America and Red Hulk), there’s still some nice fight choreography in the less special effects aspect, and the story (written by Rob Edwards, Malcom Spellman, Dalan Musson, Peter Glanz, and “Luce” filmmaker Julius Onah, who also directs this) is a lot more interesting. It would make sense that Ross would be a broken man based on his life choices, and even though we miss and still prefer Hurt, Ford does a good job conveying that notion. And Mackie still knows how to play Sam Wilson through his superhero transition and as a person trying to see the good in Ross.
At the press screening for this movie, we wished a movie goer “Good Luck” with his viewing of “Love Hurts,” which I’m glad is bombing at the box office. And now that we have “Captain America: Brave New World” coming out, it’s poised to kill that film away from theaters.
