Captain America: Brave New World - 4K Digital Review

[Michael Scott]

Captain America: Brave New World

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Recently, I’ve started doubting my cynical nature. I grew up watching superhero films and have been watching the MCU ever since Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man turned the entire concept of a superhero “world” on its ear. Heck, I even watched all three of the original Transformers live-action films and ate them up with gusto. So what’s going on right now? Why am I literally dreading every new MCU film when I used to be so excited for the next Marvel movie? It was an event where my friends and I would visit the theaters in a large group, JUST to get the big theatrical experience with them. Yet lately I’ve been so jaded that I started to doubt whether it was the movies, or more the person watching said movies’ fault here. So, the last couple of months have been me rewatching the original first couple of phases of the MCU to see how well they’ve aged, and surprisingly, I still loved them. Sure, for every Iron Man and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, there was Iron Man 3 and Thor II, but they were still FUN. Maybe not the best movies ever, but I still can sit back with a cold beer and have a nice smile on my face all the way through. Then, after priming the pump to go straight into Captain America: Brave New World, I immediately came face to face with the hard facts that “yup, it’s the movies, not the viewer, that has changed”.

We’ve all heard about the copious problems that the 4th Captain America has undergone over the last couple of years. First, there were rumors of horrible test screenings, the millions and millions spent on re-shoots. The new test screenings are not doing much better, and late-minute changes to almost half the film to get it to somehow work as a cohesive film. And I honestly don’t doubt them. Brave New World is a jumbled mess of a film that isn’t the worst MCU film I’ve ever seen, but sadly falls straight into the “this is so boring I’m considering watching The Notebook right now” category. Essentially, you can see all of the cracks and seams of multiple different movies being shoved together, including obviously shoehorned characters that were added in at the last moment to give some star appeal. We have the 3 minute clip of Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) popping in to give the new Captain America (Anthony Mackie) a pep talk. Or Giancarlo Esposito coming in as Sidewinder (even though he looks, acts, and is basically nothing like the famous villain) simply because they wanted someone that the audience liked to keep them interested.

Then there’s the strange feeling that Marvel really wanted to just scrap the project and make an Incredible Hulk II film, but they just couldn’t do that because Universal Pictures owns the rights to a standalone Hulk film. So they made it anyway, and just substituted the new Captain America as the protagonist instead of Banner, so they could still call it a Captain America film. And you may think that I’m overreacting here, but this is about as obvious as the sky being blue. The film’s plot revolves around Sam Wilson (Mackie) trying to take on the weight of following up to Steve Rogers' legendary role as Captain America. General Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford, due to William Hurt's passing away recently) is now President of the United States and is attempting to rope in Sam as the face of the new presidency. Hesitant after the problems that occurred during the whole Sokovia Accords fiasco, Wilson agrees to help the supposedly changed General as long as he gets a say in things.

As you can guess, things don’t go exactly as planned. One of Wilson’s friends goes crazy and tries to assassinate the president, and Ross decides to go full scorched earth on everyone involved. Desperate to find out what’s going on, Sam and his sidekick Joaquin (the new Falcon) try and track down just what dirty secrets are being hidden that are muddying up the waters. Turns out every road leads back to someone we thought would never see the light of day. Professor Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) has been alive all these years, with Ross using his gamma radiation-enhanced intelligence to create super weapons for the United States. But now that Ross is in power and has reneged on his promise to free the super-powered genius, Sterns is out for revenge, and it’s going to take the entirety of Captain America’s strength to take him down.

Honestly, what hurts the most is that this has a really talented cast involved. I really enjoy Anthony Mackie as an actor, and really enjoyed his stint as Falcon over the last decade. But He feels really out of place as Captain America, which is made even more obvious when you’re comparing against Chris Evan’s decade plus of playing the role. Giancarlo Esposito is a PHENOMENAL character actor who, much like Bryan Cranston, can do no wrong usually. But in this case he’s just unceremoniously stuck in the film to pad out the runtime, and is so frustratingly inconsequential that you almost wish they had left Sidewinder out. Tim Blake Nelson was phenomenal as Sterns in The Incredible Hulk years ago, and had audiences everywhere hoping to see him come out as The Leader someday. But like Ginacarlo, he’s not really given a whole lot to work with, and his scenes end up being Nelson monologuing from the shadows for 5 minutes, and then gets taken down when he throws a hissy fit. The one surprise out of the whole bunch is Harrison Ford. Ford has been just taking paychecks for the last 5-10 years and phoning it in, but he actually carries the film on his frail shoulders to the point where I feel that without Ford, this movie wouldn’t have done as well as it did. And that’s saying something.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and some strong language.




Video:

Like usual, I’m not going to give a star rating given that I watched a Fandango Now stream (previously VUDU) and that is heavily bandwidth dependent compared to a Kaleidoscope digital release. But that being said, the image looks spectacular on my 85-inch Sony. Colors are bright and vivid, with shiny neon shaded energy beams that Sam has as his new “wings”, and fine details are superb. Clarity has a few softer moments that reduce detail levels during some of the CGI-intensive sequences, but overall, this is an amazing-looking stream that should look even better on physical media.








Audio:

Surprisingly, I didn’t have a major audio issue like I do with most Marvel/Disney Atmos tracks. Usually, they set the volume super low, and you’re required to boost it on your receiver to get to reference levels. Not so this time. I found that the mix was right on par with most other Atmos tracks that I find on discs or streaming and didn’t need a gain boost to get up to reference. And this is a very solid mix as well. Lots of action keeps the surrounds and mains working overtime, and the bass is nice and punchy. I won’t say that this is a jaw-dropping mix like the days of old (the old Incredible Hulk DTS-HD MA track is one of the legends in the bass department), but it’s still quite the crowd pleaser.







Extras:

• Deleted Scenes:
-- A Heartfelt Thanks
-- The Mission
-- Stick Around
• Assuming the Mantle
• Old Scores, New Scars
• Gag Reel
• Audio Commentary

Final Score: ​

Is Captain America: Brave New World a horrible, horrible film? Of course not. But it falls into that “so bland and forgettable that I’m having trouble recalling everything that went on” middle of the road. It’s just not a great movie. It has lots of obvious cracks and seams from trying to cut and paste different movies into a single movie, plus I do think that superhero fatigue is a real thing. The MCU has spanned almost 15 years (even longer if you count some of the “semi-MCU” films like The Incredible Hulk), and the audience is worn out. I loved all 3 Captain America films before this, but at this point, I feel like the same formula just isn’t working.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Giancarlo Esposito, Tim Blake Nelson
Directed by: Julius Onah
Written by: Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos
Subtitles: English
Studio: Disney/Marvel
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 118 Minutes
Digital Release Date: January 15th, 2025

Recommendation: This was a movie.

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I didn't catch this in theater due to all the bad reviews. I have seen all the other's in the theater.

It is too bad that Marvel has gone this way. I think they peaked and now they have exhausted what they had and today it is a shell of what it was..

We shall see if they can improve but I doubt it.