Captain America: A Brave New World Movie Review — Sucharita
Raise your hand if you also think the last truly enjoyable thing that came out of the MCU — or any of these universes — was maybe WandaVision? Or Loki Season 1? Or like four episodes of Ms. Marvel with Iman Vellani? Oh wait, Shang-Chi was fun too.
Which phase are they in right now? Does it matter? Is this why film critics are retiring?
Don't look at me for answers, I don’t have any.
Lekin, one correlation I found between the recently introduced Israeli character in this film and a small Indian indie — which, honestly, was far more interesting than anything in this film — but we’ll get to that in a few minutes. First…
Picking up after — honestly, I couldn’t tell you where — maybe Ed Norton waali Hulk, Maybe Eternals, A Brave New World has a younger Captain America and Falcon at the centre. Looking for mentorship and guidance, they go back to a super soldier Isaih Bradley, played by Carl Lumbly, who was imprisoned and experimented upon by the government for 30 years. But more than anything, they need to bring him over to the side of the current ruling regime and convince him that President Ross, despite his history of spearheading the super soldier program and his overzealous use of the military to subdue Isiah, is now a changed man who just wants to do right by the nation and reconcile with his daughter. Isiah reluctantly agrees, but once everyone is at the White House, an attack on the President changes all plans, and it’s anarchy once again.
The first and biggest issue with this film about politics is… its politics — confused at best, dangerous at worst. Captain America, a Black man, is shown to be increasingly sympathetic towards a monstrous president whose policies and actions have actively caused disharmony and destruction. In one scene, he, Falcon, and Isiah are thrilled to be sent a limousine to attend a dinner at the White House. I paraphrase, but I believe the dialogue in that moment emphasizes, “Who cares what that man did, we are going to the White House!” — putting a flimsy bandage over a deep, still-bleeding wound. It’s an active invitation to ignore allegiance in favor of the cult of personality.
Never mind the incoherence of the story — kaise suddenly Washington D.C. ko Eternals ka cliffhanger yaad aaya, ya woh statistics professor jo saalon se kaid tha, ab kyun jaakar asli rang dikha raha hai, etc. etc. — A Brave New World, despite its title, is neither Brave nor New.
In an America ruled by chaos, gunfights break out in the streets, people vanish and reappear — bizarre even by the arbitrary rules of sci-fi. It’s all but a mere shadow of when this genre used to be engaging. Giancarlo Esposito plays Sidewinder, a megalomaniac undone by his delusion of grandeur, set up to fail so spectacularly from the first frame he appears in that there’s no intrigue, no excitement.
Somehow, major decisions about the celestial island in the Indian Ocean are being taken by… America, Japan, India, and France?! An Indian Prime Minister in a Nehru jacket stand-in makes an appearance, yells at the U.S. President to get his house in order, and then instantly vanishes from the narrative. Maybe, maybe there’s an attempt to comment on how cherry blossoms were a gift from Japan, so now America mustn’t beef with the Japanese government and should think about the peace between the countries… but any attempt to explore this is overshadowed by terrible CGI green screen.
Brave New World also feeds into America’s current Rhetoric of Fear — that survival instinct that kicks in when someone in power convinces you that you’re in danger. Watching this film almost convinced me that one must stand by their government under all circumstances. That civilians, normal people, need protection from an invisible enemy that is all around us. Who this enemy is keeps changing based on trends. But the fear of a dark force always looms large — if pop culture and mass media tell you it does — convincing you that a savior is needed, even when you don’t know why.
It’s a ploy used by politicians since forever, but it is disconcerting to sit in a theatre and witness something that almost feels like part of that plan in action. I believe a variation of the phrase “That was his past, he is a different man now” is repeated about five times — imploring you, the viewer, to just trust. There is a hint of “look he is volatile like maybe the current President haha”. But the overall implication is that the big man in the big house with the secret planning rooms and the latest tech is doing the right things, despite his methods. Because you know, we are always at war, beware!
Even if you just shut off your critical thinking and choose to watch this as two hours of brain rot, you’ll still be disappointed. The pageantry one expects from a film like this is reduced to one scene where Red Hulk and Captain America fight — the rest of it is bereft of soul or spectacle. Harrison Ford banging a marble table in anger, causing it to crack, shouldn’t be enough as acceptable entertainment from a franchise that has demanded SO much of your attention and time over the last 20-ish years.
So, on a scale of 1 to 10, Captain America: A Brave New World is… 1 Israeli agent, a Black Widow Ruth Bat-Seraph shows up here. The film just throws in this character without anything even remotely resembling an arc, so there isn’t much to get into, but her name is Sabra in the comic books. In my limited understanding, that term came to refer to the first Jewish people born in Palestine, and later, Jewish persons born in Israel once that nation was established. Originally the word Sabra shares etymology with the word Sabar, which we know means patience, and it is the name given to the patient prickly-pear cactus that grows abundantly in Palestine.
This prickly pear cactus as a symbol has a turbulent past and deep significance across many cultures all over the world, it is even the state plant of Texas in America. The Sundance-winning Marathi film Sabar Bonda, also called Cactus Pears takes its name from the same plant. This bit of info has little to do with either of these films actively, isliye end mein bata rahi hoon, but once I got into it, I think I spent two hours just reading about the Sabar’s significance!
