The MCU’s latest entry struggles to find its footing, before it stumbles and falls on its face. Anthony Mackie delivers a strong performance and Isaiah Bradley’s presence adds depth, the movie struggles with execution in ways that even the most dedicated Marvel fans might find hard to overlook.

Boring

“I was bored.” That’s what my wife said right after the movie ended—and she loves superhero movies as much as I do. This movie is like the dedicated version of any MCU movie from Phase III. Actually, this movie is probably similar to the first draft of any Phase III movie. There’s stuff to work with here, but it’s poorly executed.

The World’s Most Indispensable Movie App

The RunPee app tells you the best times to
run & pee during a movie
so you don't miss the best scenes.

As seen on

Download the RunPee app.
100% free (donation supported)

     

Read more about the RunPee app.

See Shark. Jump Shark

Oh my gawd, the action was ridiculous. Surfing a missile? Really? We have entered a phase with superhero movies where directors crank up the action and abilities of mortal superheroes. They could get away with that for Iron Man because of the suit. And all of the enhanced superheroes get a pass. But Sam Wilson doesn’t have that kind of suit. He’s more like Batman than Iron Man. His strength, reaction times, and fighting ability are cranked up too high. And with the exception of fighting Red Hulk in the end, Sam was only fighting other moral humans.

Here’s a good example. When Sam fights Copperhead, he acts like, “Oh fun, a real challenge.” But another way to go, to show realism and vulnerability, would be for Sam to express legitimate concern that he’s up to the task. He questions himself a few times for not taking the serum. So, that was an option for him that he declined. He can say that in dialog or express that through his actions and expressions. Guess which one these writers went with? Yeah, the cheap way with dialog. Sam never showed fear in a fight until he faced Red Hulk. At that point, it’s too late. Seeing Sam express fear and self-doubt early in the movie, yet pushing himself to persevere anyway, is a sign of bravery.

Political Fiction

The plot revolves around President Ross signing a treaty with, most notably, France, India, and Japan over the exploitation of adamantium from Celestial Island. First, exactly where is Britain and China, and I don’t know, 20+ other countries in this discussion? But all that aside, this is laughable fiction. The US Navy would show up in force and then dictate how it’s going to go forward because the US and Japan are the only two countries that could remotely project force that far from home. In any realistic movie it would be the US and China fighting over control over who gets what, but I guess that doesn’t float well if Disney wants to show this movie in China. Unless the writers let China come out looking good in that scenario in which case a few million Americans will burn Disney World to the ground. So it the US and Japan, which is about as realistic as the scene where Captain America runs head-on into a missle and doesn’t even get a headache from it.

Continuity

Here is the level of writing/editing that we’re dealing with in this movie. In one scene, a secret service agent informs the President that Sam Wilson and Joaquin Torres (New Falcon) have ditched their cell phones and gone off-grid. In the very next scene, we see Sam and Joaquin in a truck where Joaquin is literally on his phone reading a text message. I read that this movie has gone through production hell, and there have been rewrites and reshoots and 11th-hour re-edits. But come on. MCU movies used to be pretty tight. Someone was watching out for stuff like that. I get the feeling that the people in charge were sick to death of dealing with this movie and just wanted to get it off their plate.

Here’s another scene that totally reflects the lack of attention that the director had in this movie. Sam hands a bottle of pills to a soldier that he trusts who might be able to find out what they are. The soldier takes the pills and says something like, “I know a guy…” But he starts to deliver his line before Sam hands him the pills and he doesn’t even look at what Sam hands him. The actor just says the line like he can’t wait for this scene to be over with.

Villain

The villain and motivation are like paper cutouts of a better villain. This guy is supposed to have a superhuman level of intelligence and able to predict the outcome of any situation. Any decent writer could add a few scenes that make this villain super scary and more importantly make the villain relatable, at least a little bit. I don’t know if this is the fault of the writers, or the suits at Disney, or who screwed this up. As they say, it takes a village. A movie so poorly crafted as this can only be the fault of everyone involved. If I were the caterer for this movie I’d ask to have my name removed from the credits.

What people are saying
about the RunPee app.

A Google user

November 19, 2019

Love love love this app. And, after receiving an email from Dan (the creator) that read as though it was a one-on-one communication sent only to me, I felt compelled to leave a long-overdue review. My son and I are absolutely addicted to this app…especially since I discovered it at the onset of the Marvel craze. Now we use it to confirm if there is a scene following the credits. Often times, we are the ONLY ones there watching the bonus scene…and it cracks us up. LOL! Thanks, RunPee!

View all reviews
Apple App Store | Google Play Store

Download RunPee app

     

What I liked

Anthony Mackie should get hazard pay for the work he did with the toxic dialog they handed him. There were a few, too few, well-written scenes. And he did great with those scenes and you could tell he was digging deep to make shit smell good for the rest of the dialog.

I like the inclusion of Isaiah Bradley. I hope they can extend his role going forward, at least as a mentor to the New Avengers. His character might have been the best-written one in the bunch.

Sam’s relationship with Isaiah Bradley provides some of the film’s strongest moments, touching on themes of legacy and responsibility that echo throughout Captain America’s history. Unfortunately, these meaningful character beats often get lost in the chaos of explosive action sequences and convoluted plotting.

Grade: D-

About The Peetimes: The first Peetime is the recommended one. The second Peetime is nearly as good. The third/last Peetime is almost all action, but nothing crucial happens until the Peetime is over.

There are extra scenes during, or after, the end credits of Captain America: Brave New World.

Plot
Sam Wilson, the new Captain America, finds himself in the middle of an international incident and must discover the motive behind a nefarious global plan.