Captain America: Brave New World - Entertaining in Term of Action but not So Great on Other Aspects

Last night my wife and I went to see this new movie that was just released in Indonesian cinemas. It was not because we were so excited that we could not wait, but merely due to us having a planned out of town trip during the weekend. Since it was having Advance Ticket Sales from a week before, we were able to buy the tickets easier and good thing we did cause the studio was quite full. All right then, I'll just get right to it.

Brief Story Line

After taking the mantle of Captain America, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie - We Have a Ghost, The Adjustment Bureau etc) was working to keep peace and doing various missions together with his sidekick Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez - Top Gun: Maverick, Chestnut etc). When the two of them together with Sam's friend and former super soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly -Obliterated TV series, The Life of Chuck etc) were invited to an international event held by elected US President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford - Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, The Fugitive etc), they were somehow caught in an incident.

To get to the bottom of this, Sam and Joaquin decided to investigate on their own despite the disapproval from Ross' security advisor Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas - Bodies TV series, The Zookeeper's Wife etc). Their investigations would later involved the Serpent leader Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito - Abigail, Kaleidoscope mini series etc) and later Dr. Samuel Stern (Tim Blake Nelson - The Bricklayer, Angel Has Fallen etc). With time running out due to possible escalation of the incident, Sam and Joaquin had to do whatever it takes to stop them.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Well this film started off with a cool enough action scenes involving Sam and Joaquin which served as a reminder of their capabilities and likely to excite the audience. Subsequently though, my wife and I were feeling a bit confused where the movie was heading as the real plot was not clear until probably half an hour (I thought that treaty thing took too much screen time before it was properly explained). It was not helped by us having to familiarize again with the characters as few of them were from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier almost four years ago and The Incredible Hulk that was from 2008. 

Anyway, after some very standard investigation and combined with little bit action here and there, finally we got a much more exciting action sequence on the Indian sea. But the best of it all would have to be the climax. It was pretty well done with some good enough special effects even if we know they were done using CGI and really intense. Got to hand it to Anthony Mackie for being able to deliver some nice fighting moves using his great suit which made me and my wife felt in awe. Only thing that felt a bit lacking was the villains here were rather sub-par while the biggest enemy was not exactly that bad.

Throughout the whole film that has a duration of 118 minutes (including long closing credits), I felt the movie was OK during the action and entertaining in the last two major action sequence, but not that great during the middle especially the story telling and the plot unraveling. I also felt the characters were not exceptionally interesting. My wife thought that Shira Haas seemed unfit as this important Ruth Bath-seraph though she did show some great agility. Another one that was challenging to accept was the changing of William Hurt to Harrison Ford though that was inevitable since Hurt sadly passed away before the film was made. Btw there was only 1 post end credit scene in the film in case you are wondering.

Aside from those names above, the movie also had some support cast such as Xosha Roquemore (The Mindy Project TV series etc) as Secret Service agent Leila Taylor, Liv Tyler (Ad Astra, The Leftovers TV series etc) reprising her role as Betty Ross, Takehiro Hira (Shogun TV series, Snake Eyes: G. I. Joe Origins etc) as Japan Prime Minister Ozaki and few others. Obviously it would not be fun without the additional MCU character involved which unfortunately was very minimal compared to previous ones. The film itself was directed by Julius Onah (Luce, The Cloverfield Paradox etc) based on screenplay by Rob Edwards (Treasure Planet, The Princess and the Frog etc). From what I read, the film got mixed review by critics but not too sure about audience reactions yet, although box office projection seemed to be good enough. Regardless though, as this movie is part of Phase Five of MCU, I am sure there would still be a lot of people wanting to see this.

Overall I think this movie was still entertaining in term of action and there were few brief humor usually from Joaquin's nonstop chatter. The story was not the part that my wife and I truly enjoyed while some of the characters were not so engaging and the film also lacked the element of suspense. Somehow we already know what would happen in the end & there were no real surprises either (I don't think there is any big spoiler to spill except maybe the appearance of that particular character which my wife had also predicted). So if you are hard core fans of anything Marvel Studios produce and want some continuity with the whole story, then definitely see this. Now whether or not you are satisfied with Anthony Mackie being the new Captain America, I will leave it to you to decide. Heads up though that it is definitely not one of their best works and it is much better if you watch The Falcon and The Winter Soldier first before seeing this for better understanding.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars