Captain America Brave New World: Mark Kermode’s superhero movie review (video).
Mark Kermode, our chap-of-mucho-movies, brings his keen eye to the MCU’s new superhero film, Captain America Brave New World. Captain America: Brave New World—the latest attempt by Marvel to remind us that Captain America isn’t just a bloke with a shield but a symbol of the ever-complicated American Dream. Only this time, that dream involves political conspiracies, a hulking red rage-monster in the White House, and Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson still trying to convince everyone he deserves the title.
Set five months after Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (now played by Harrison Ford, because if anyone can make a grumpy old man terrifying, it’s him) becomes President of the United States, the film kicks off with Sam Wilson, now Captain America, investigating an arms deal gone wrong in Mexico. Because what better way to establish your new Captain America than by immediately sending him abroad? But soon, things get properly complicated when Ross announces that adamantium (yes, that adamantium) has been discovered on Celestial Island—a handy little reminder that, yes, the events of Eternals did, in fact, happen.
But before anyone can start making Wolverine jokes, the discovery sets off an international crisis, because nothing screams political thriller like nations fighting over shiny new supermetal. And just when you think that’s the problem, along comes Samuel Sterns, aka The Leader (Tim Blake Nelson returning from 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, because Marvel never forgets a plot thread—it just takes them 17 years to tie it up). Sterns, a gamma-mutated mastermind with the biggest brain in the MCU (literally), is pulling the strings behind the scenes, using mind control shenanigans to turn world leaders into unwitting assassins.
Meanwhile, Ross, who has apparently been taking secret gamma pills (because that’s what rational world leaders do), gets pushed over the edge and transforms into Red Hulk. And let’s be honest, we all saw it coming—the only real mystery was whether he’d still have Harrison Ford’s grumpy glare in his CGI form. (Spoiler: He does.) Cue a climactic showdown in Washington, D.C., featuring Captain America trying to stop a rampaging Hulk while simultaneously delivering a stirring speech about unity and responsibility.
The film had a lot riding on it—Sam Wilson’s first solo outing as Cap, a return to Winter Soldier-style political intrigue, and Harrison Ford growling his way through presidential speeches. And while Brave New World certainly aims high, the reception has been… mixed. Some critics loved its Manchurian Candidate-meets-superhero vibes, while others felt it tried too hard to be serious without committing to its own political edge. And then there’s the CGI, which, well… let’s just say Red Hulk isn’t winning any beauty contests.
Still, for those who wanted a Marvel film with actual stakes and a plot that isn’t just a multiversal free-for-all, Brave New World delivers. It may not be perfect, but hey—it’s a Captain America movie where the biggest existential threat isn’t just another sky beam. And in today’s MCU? That’s practically revolutionary.
