Captain America Brave New World: saved by its set pieces

The truth is I was quite expecting this movie, “Civil War” and “Falcon and The Winter Soldier” seem to me to be the best movie and series of the UCM respectively (if we don't count Daredevil), but I was a little disappointed in the plot. 

The Capitan productions had been raising very interesting questions such as how much freedom can be sacrificed for security, if superheroes should be regulated, if countries should have much more flexible borders, etc., but this new installment did not follow this path. And there was room for interesting approaches, such as talking about people's opinion of a black Captain America (something that began to be raised in the series), or about how the US seeks control of precious resources.

One topic I would have liked them to explore is how the population is afraid after the Snap, the Celestial and the Skrull invasion (which was completely ignored although the previous president declared war on them, can we already say that Secret Invasion was so bad that it is not canon?) that they elected a controversial former military leader as president because it gives them security to have someone like that in charge in such turbulent times.

I think that the lack of a good sociopolitical and moral commentary would not have mattered as much if we were dealing with a good story, but unfortunately that was not the case either. The international intrigue does not generate the suspense it should because all the time we are quite sure that everything is going to be resolved, so at no time does it matter that Japan and the US are apparently about to go to war. 

And this weak writing also affects the villain, he should be a genius to admire, and while he managed to create that hypnosis method, put Ross in the presidency and make a fairly functional plan, he never feels as smart as Zemo, who didn't invent anything but was brilliant enough to come up with a plan that separated the Avengers.

I feel that one way to make the villain a better character and the climax more interesting was to give more weight to that theme that the chances of Sam surviving the fight against Red Hulk were low, showing Sam more scared and seeking to convey to us that he might die would have made things interesting.

But as mentioned in the title, I think that this movie is saved thanks to its action scenes, to the point that I placed it in my top 3 movies from this phase of the MCU, only behind “GOTG vol.3” and “Deadpool and Wolverine” (it wasn't very difficult to beat The Marvels and Quantumania anyway). Not all the action scenes are so good, the fight in The Leader's barracks was forgettable for example, but there are 3 set pieces that stand out the most:

• The opening action scene

Falcon was never exactly an attractive character, he was a sidekick with a strange jetpack, which was better than having someone with real wings who talks to his eagle like in the comics, but within the range of Marvel superheroes he didn't stand out. His series gave him some scenes to shine that made him stand out a little more, but what this movie does with the character can easily place him as some people's favorite character.

Brave New World begins with an action scene that already seems customary within its microsaga (remember the boat scene in Winter Soldier, the Lagos one in Civil War and that with the helicopters in the series), in which Sam looks more badass than ever. From his landing in which he hits the villains with the sound barrier to his use of the shield and his drones, Wilson shows the best of his two main tools, but without leaving aside the fact that he is a great fighter who earned his place by his merits.

• The Celestial Island scene

Clearly in a movie about a character who has flying as one of his special abilities, there had to be an aerial scene, but this Top Gun-esque sequence caught me completely off guard. 

It was inevitable for me to think about Maverick and Goose while watching Sam and Joaquín Torres fight against those jets, and currently both of them look more like living airplanes than people with a propeller. I understand that Sam's spine resists pressure because his suit is made of vibranium, but how does the new Falcon do?

For those who are waiting for a new Top Gun, this sequence has surely quenched your wait a little with this sequence that seems quite inspired by Kosinski's film.

• The Climax against Red Hulk

Finally we have the icing on the cake of the film, what we were all waiting for in our seats. Although, as said in many places, the scene felt a bit short, being able to see a Hulk destroy things after so many years is very nice. Those blows that destroy half of the White House and shoot down planes as if nothing were happening were what we all wanted to see.

It is also something to remember that after the usual complaints about how the MCU usually pits its heroes against villains of similar powers in their origin films (we could say that Brave New World is in a way an origin film), here we have a climax where the opponents could not be more different.

If there is one thing that I do appreciate about the scene, it was that we saw very little of Red Hulk's calorific power, but perhaps they are saving it for future appearances.

In short, we have another case of wasted potential on for part of Marvel, but at least a tremendously entertaining one that I will surely see many times in the background on television and that leaves Sam and Ross as two of the characters that I most want to see again as with Shang-Chi and Kate Bishop.

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