Michael's Movie Grade: B
While this may not reach the height of the first two Captain America movies, it is still a fun film.
This movie is just as much a political thriller as it is a superhero film. This means that this is a film that centers more on characters, atmosphere and tension than it does on action scenes. Because of this the movie has a slower buildup than most MCU films. This creates a different atmosphere that is very effective. It absorbs you into the world of this movie and makes you believe the main characters. I found Sam Wilson as Captain America a completely believable and relatable character. Some people may argue that he is not as charismatic or dynamic as Steve Rogers, I feel that this is the point. While Sam Wilson is a great hero, he is not fully comfortable yet at taking over the role of Captain America feeling that he can't live up to Steve Rogers. This is something I find very relatable about this character and makes me connect with him instantly. Anthony Mackie is still wonderful in this role, and you completely believe him as a great superhero and as someone who is still dealing with self-doubt. Of course, Harrison Ford is fantastic as Thaddeus Ross. He is completely believable as a man who done many bad things but is truly trying to make himself into a better person, even if he has a lot of bumps along the way. I love that this character is more morally complex than a simple hero or villain. It is hard to believe that a bad man can truly change overnight and that this character is struggling but truly trying to change his nature makes him completely believable and real to us. The slower pace in the earlier scenes works very well and buildups a tension that makes you truly feel the danger these characters are in. The story may be familiar, but it is never once boring, and the two hours go by very quickly.
I also really appreciated that this movie actually referenced The Incredible Hulk (2008). This film has long been said to be part of the MCU but has rarely had any tie-in to the rest of the cinematic universe. Brave New World however is just as much a sequel to that film as it is to the Captain America movies, and I really loved that.
The villain here works quite well in the screentime he is given and Tim Blake Nelson plays him very well. However, the lack of screentime this character receives makes it so that he is not really fleshed out and this makes him feel too much like a number of other movie villains.
The storyline here is very familiar and there is nothing here that any superhero movie fan has not seen before. This makes the movie feel much too predictable as you always know what is going to happen next. There is less humor here than in other MCU movies. While I usually enjoy the MCU humor, this might have been a good thing as the comedic moments here really fall flat. None of them made me even chuckle. I also felt that the final action scene is kind of anti-climactic after the big build up.
This may not be a great movie, but it is definitely a good one.
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