Captain America: Brave New World Is Yet Another Exercise In MCU Capitalist Greed

I HAVEN'T WATCHED ENOUGH MCU MOVIES to declare that Captain America: Brave New World is the worst of them. But I’ve watched enough movies in general to declare that Captain America: Brave New World is an unnecessary film. It added nothing to my life for two hours, and I suspect it adds next to nothing to the lives of rampant superhero fans who miss the Avengers but secretly don’t because they know that there’s no such thing as dying in this giant mess of an anything-goes multiverse.

One can argue that many Marvel movies and shows in the last decade have been cash-grabbing blobs of bad. This one goes a step further – it’s the cinematic equivalent of a drunken Hulk, a clumsy green supersoldier frothing with rage, grunting and running in all directions without any sense of purpose. It has zero personality, feels like Winter Soldier on sleeping pills, and unfolds like an endless trailer of AI-generated plot with a dash of smug MCU tension-diffusing humour. It’s such a toxic alpha-male trait — to get emotional and then make a joke about getting emotional.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, we can move on to the actual film. For starters, it’s a masterclass in not reading the room. Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), the new normie Captain America who refused to take the serum, finds himself having to ‘work with’ new US President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, his former rival and the ruthless General who once chased his own daughter and her green boyfriend Hulk away back in the day. Now this white president (played by Harrison Ford, who replaces the late William Hurt) is a conflicted guy — he wants to turn over a new leaf but the sins of his past keep catching up with him. Too much baggage, you see. Cap is anti-fascist of course, but irony dies in a ditch when the president’s new security advisor, former Israeli (Mossad) agent Ruth Bat-Seraph (soon-to-be superhero Sabra), joins the chaos. She’s a good guy, too. This means she’s perhaps too busy in America to focus on the genocide back ‘home’. Irony is buried in that ditch when President Ross must reason with “anti-fascist” allies like the Indian Prime Minister and French President, while also trying to avoid a full-scale war with Japan. Ah Marvel, the masters of cultural timing.

The core of this story is a…mind-control device. Mind Control. In 2025. Someone (read captive biologist Samuel Sterns) is out to ruin the Trump-era president for his historical misdeeds — if only that happened in the real world — by ruining his term and turning people, nations and cultures against each other. This also involves the Celestial Island and its precious metal called (“the most diverse element in the universe”) Adamantium, which is by far the worst and most kindergarten-skit idea in the MCU so far. There are better ways to stretch and inflate this endless franchise. Actually, maybe there aren’t. The film is adamant-ish about its own genius, desperately turning the story into a paranoia spectacle while stuffing a not-greatest-hits package of previous entries into it like a greasy taco. Sorry, without cultural appropriation (because the illegal sale of the metal happens in Mexico), what is an American superhero movie that harps on racial and gender diversity only to deliver one of the most uninspired renditions — with poor Anthony Mackie at the helm — yet?

I thought we were past the tropes of brainwashing and inception triggered by music and phone flashes, but clearly this is a “brave new world”. Captain America struggles with imposter syndrome — unable to see himself as a worthy successor to Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) — and for good reason. It’s not just because he relies on technology and human skills. He knows he’s in a mediocre movie where people are just being dramatic for the sake of MCU continuity. The last ten minutes feature the Red Hulk, in the only action sequence that brings back memories of pre-MCU-era Ed-Norton-coded adventures. I used to like those standalone movies before the cross-pollination started. The funny thing is that Captain America is probably the dullest character of the film, followed by his sidekick Falcon (Danny Ramirez), who fails to do the puppy-dog Tom-Holland-around-Iron-Man routine. The only interesting guy is President Ross, mostly because he’s played by Indiana Jones and Han Solo, and seems to have aged into a veteran with a conscience that’s a few decades too late. Ford tries, but you can tell he isn’t impressed with his own career choices.

There are also basic writing and filmmaking issues that one usually associates with bloated Bollywood movies. Take the clunky exposition, for instance. Everyone’s identity has to be clear because it’s all so confusing, and one of Ross’ first lines is “Have you heard from Betty, my daughter?” to his secretary. Just to let us non-Marveliacs know that Betty is his daughter, not his wife or mother. Thank you very much. The context is set and the backstory is spelt out by a news anchor who literally narrates the events of The Incredible Hulk (2008) and Ross’ history as a war-mongering and estranged dad — thank you very much. Later on, while speaking to Cap, he says “Your friend the Hulk and the Abomination” as if it’s a writer’s note in the script and not actual dialogue. Not to mention the time Cap sincerely explains the mind control nonsense with “he created a device to control minds, sir”. Yes, thank you. Where would we be without such helpful nudges?

There’s an action sequence towards the end that features Japanese fighter jets, brainwashed American fighter jets (because apparently they aren’t brainwashed otherwise?), that silly Island sprouting out of the water like an errant iceberg, and Cap saving the day in the most incoherent fashion. But this isn’t the climax, because there’s that second one with the Red Hulk, so even the film gets tired of itself and doesn’t know where to end. I’d like to say I stayed for the post-credits scene. But then it took too long and I was hungry, so I walked out in front of a bunch of giggling teen fans who couldn’t fathom why I had waited till the last moment only to leave before the once-iconic-now-annoying MCU trademark. Spoiler alert: it’s because I don’t care. I’m afraid of what lies ahead, because I’ve already lived through a decade of Avengers and their friends and their friends, and even though half the planet was wiped out, the franchise continues as if the other half is hunky-dory with no trauma or grief response. Imagine being normal after a pandemic or something. The audacity.