Captain America: Brave New World – Can people change (beyond turning into a Hulk…)?

It’s been a while since we’ve had a smaller scale story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – MCU – based on earth and it was a nice change of pace to have a story with more personal stakes than an alien invasion. 

The film opens with Thaddeus Ross (played by Harrison Ford after taking over the part from the late William Hurt) delivering his presidential victory speech emphasising his campaign message of togetherness. Ford is one of my favourite actors (Indiana Jones being one of my favourite fictional characters in cinema), and so maybe I’m biased in this, but he really carried the film for me. His portrayal of Ross as President of the United States felt believable (he’s had plenty of presidential practice from his Air Force One days) and the character was a tragic portrayal of someone trying to change, only for their past mistakes to come back to bite them. 

Although Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, at times, feels underpowered as the new Captain America (some of his fighting moves are questionable as to whether or not someone without taking the super serum could really pull off), by the end of the film you feel a good enough connection to him, especially with his speech about carrying the weight of expectations on his shoulders to his new Falcon (Danny Ramirez). 

Isaiah Bradley also returns from Disney+ series ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ (don’t worry, the film does a great job at explaining what happened in that show to save you the trouble of watching it) and his character’s heartbreak at once again being imprisoned for something that wasn’t his fault was beautifully delivered by actor Carl Lumbly. 

The best action sequence is a Top Gun: Maverick-esque aerial battle involving two rogue fighter jets needing to be intercepted by Captain America and Falcon, dramatically set against the escalating tension of President Ross’ inevitable transformation into a raging monster.