"an espionage type thriller, akin to Captain America: The Winter Soldier"

Captain America: Brave New World is the latest entry into the MCU, directed by Julius Onah and whilst it has had its fair share of controversies, ranging from alleged troubles on set to reshoots to having the entire film reworked many times following disasterous test screenings, it isn’t perfect, but it is a fine watch.

So we join the newly minted President Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross now played by the fantastic Harrison Ford (following the passing of the late, great William Hurt) on the eve of completing his first 100 days in office and he is looking to mark the milestone with a treaty with Japan and other nations about the occupation of Celestial Island (Tiamut from The Eternals) and the discovery of Adamantium (a stronger and more versatile metal rivalling Wakanda’s Vibranium as well as wanting to reform The Avengers under his control.

We are also reintroduced to Sam Wilson aka Captain America (Anthony Mackie) who was last seen taking up the mantle from Steve Rogers in Avengers: Endgame. He’s on a mission to regain the stolen Adamantium from the Serpent Society, lead by Giancarlo Esposito’s Voelker aka Sidewinder.

What follows is an espionage type thriller, akin to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and whilst it is compelling, it falls short of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, playing out like an extended season finale to the Disney+ series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, which paired Mackie’s The Falcon with Sebastian Stan’s The Winter Soldier.

The biggest reveal was shown in the trailers, and the marketing has the Red Hulk all over it and it shows President Ross becoming the bad tempered behemoth, making the film play out as though it is a sequel to The Incredible Hulk as well as a Captain America outing.

Acting wise, Mackie is on point and so is Ford, bringing their A game’s to the film, Ford slips into the role with ease, and is seemingly revealing in the role and Carl Lumbly stands out as Isaiah Bradley, reprising his role as the forgotten Captain America from the aforementioned The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.

One aspect that I didn’t really like was the make up to transform Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns into The Leader, he’s menacing the less you see of him, so I think keeping him in the shadows or keep him wearing the hat in the daylight scenes would’ve been better. It isn’t the colouring, it’s the way his mutation is depicted, it didn’t feel or look comic accurate to me, so I think it was a mistake to go comic accurate with the look of Red Hulk but not with The Leader.

I saw the film in IMAX, and seeing the aerial combat scenes with that sound and vision is simply breathtaking, as Captain America and The Falcon (Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres) fight to stop a war for the Celestial Island from escalating.

The film utilises music well, with M.O.P’s Ante Up (Robbin Hoodz Theory) serving as the theme song for the film, I enjoyed the score too from the incredible Laura Karpman.

With a few well placed cameos, all in all, I think Captain America: Brave New World is a solid entry into the MCU, there are a couple of rough edges, but it bodes well for the future of the MCU, it slots quite nicely against the forthcoming release of The Thunderbolts*. It showcases Anthony Mackie’s Captain America and shows that he can lead a film, so hopefully that means we will get plenty of films with Mackie’s Captain America front and centre.