Captain America: Brave New World

 The Star-Spangled Man with a Plan is back with an asterisk ...

Instead of Chris Evans's Steve Rogers, Captain America: Brave New World brings back Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson, previously The Falcon, who took up the mantle during The Falcon and Winter Soldier Disney Plus series. I never really followed the series - then again, I rarely follow TV shows anymore - so let's see if I can distill the plot of what is essentially its sequel.

It's also a sequel to Eternals, which ended when they narrowly stopped the gigantic Celestial Tiamut from waking up. A new element - none other than adamantium - has been discovered in Tiamut's fossilized corpse. The newly elected President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford, tagging in for the late William Hurt) wants to secure a treaty with the Japanese Government for "Celestial Island." He decides to announce this in a White House summit with Sam, his best friend Lt. Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) and Super soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) in attendance. 

Unfortunately, Isaiah and a few others try to assassinate Ross during the event, with the Fleetwoods' Mr. Blue being the trigger. While Ross tries to salvage the prospective treaty, Sam and Joaquin (the new Falcon) look for the mastermind. Said mastermind is Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), a character not seen since 2008's The Incredible Hulk. While Sterns' evil scheme involves several sleeper agents, the biggest of them all is Ross himself, and he hopes nobody will like Ross when he gets angry. I think I got the gist of it.

This is a plot that requires a lot of homework. Besides plot threads from the aforementioned MCU instalments, the film also throws in SERPENT, a mercenary group with snake codenames (i.e. Giancarlo Esposito as commander Sidewinder). They're a collective case of "remember the new guy?" syndrome and are essentially irrelevant when Sterns enters the fray. It's mostly easy to understand the rest of the plot, even if its plot-threads would hit the hardest if you did that homework. A few examples include Isaiah's backstory as a mistreated Korean War vet and even its mentions of Gamma Radiation (the latter makes sense once you remember Stan Lee's cameo in The Incredible Hulk). Thankfully, the film helps bring viewers up to speed, even with a quick newscast, so new viewers won't be completely lost.

Another major subplot involves Ross tapping Sam to revive The Avengers. While some may question Sam going along with that, considering Ross's previous animosity with The Avengers, it's actually quite compelling to see Sam begrudgingly go along with it. He still believes in protecting the American Dream even if he seriously doubts Ross's change of heart. He proves his worthiness to Steve's legacy not only with his perseverance in battle, but just by advocating for Isaiah's innocence. It also helps that he and Joaquin have great chemistry together; even if you haven't seen The Falcon and Winter Soldier, you'll still feel it when Sam tries to help Joaquin when the latter is shot down during a dogfight.

Its strongest performance, by far, is Ford as President Ross. It's astounding how much his performance will make you sympathize with a character who, in previous instalments, was odiously belligerent. Previously, his boiling anger would symptomize his unlikability, but in this film, it's a tragic flaw that he desperately tries to manage. Not even the film's late twist that he and Sterns were in cahoots is enough to dampen that sympathy. His much-anticipated transformation into the Red Hulk is, however, dampened by some blatantly obvious effects for his initial transformation. Still, the final battle with him and Sam is pretty good, overall.

What else can I say about it? There's some pretty good makeup work for Sterns, better known as The Leader in the comics. I'm sure some might find it a rubbish look, but I thought it was decently creepy. He later proves himself more than an ugly face after he escapes his holding cell. Lumbly, meanwhile, has the second-best performance as Isaiah, who's quite sympathetic as he's swept up into The Leader's evil plot. Shira Haas makes a pretty good impression as Ruth Bat-Seraph, a former Black Widow and Ross's security advisor, who later helps Sam and Joaquin in their investigation. Besides the final battle, the film's standout set piece is the Battle of Celestial Island, where Sam and Joaquin save the US and Japanese fleets from destroying each other. 

Captain America: Brave New World apparently needed a ton of reshoots, which is evident with its five credited writers, including director Julius Onah. It's still a pretty coherent film even with its multitude of plot threads. Its political intrigue and set pieces help kept my interest during its 119 minutes, and it might help keep yours, too. If not, at least you'll have a few more Marvel films to look forward to. After a year starved of super heroics, those projects will give us more to look forward to, while this film is a good way to keep you busy until then. Well, that's what I thought of it anyway.

That's it for now.