Last night, I watched a couple of movies I got from my local public library branch. The first one was Captain America: Brave New World (2025). I have to agree with the opinions of most of the other folks who have long since seen this film. It wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t great either.

Spoiler Alert: Before I go on, be aware there are plenty of spoilers below. You have been warned.

I should say that I’ve never seen any episodes of the TV show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) nor do I intend to. I’ll assume that the little bits and pieces in the movie I didn’t understand such as who the heck Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) was supposed to be were introduced in that series.

It seemed a little improbable that Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford) was President of the United States given how hostile and aggressive he had been across his military career. Then again, there were a few small parallels to our real-life President Donald Trump, so maybe it wasn’t such a fantastic leap.

The movie, from what I understand, was styled after any number of political thrillers involving dark conspiracies. That said, I think Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) did a better job in that arena.

This was clearly meant to be a “person-of-color” lead Marvel film, starting with Nigerian-American director Julius Onah and proceeding (of course) to Anthony Mackie (playing Sam Wilson/Cap), his literal wingman Danny Ramirez (playing Jaoquin Torres/Falcon), and the aforementioned Carl Lumbly

As an interesting aside, Lumbly starred as another superhero in the 1994-95 TV series M.A.N.T.I.S. which I recall watching back in the day.

This trend continues to Sam’s informant inside the White House, Secret Service Agent Leila Taylor (Xosha Roquemore) and villain Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito). This is the age of representation in the entertainment industry but to be fair, up until the early 1970s, in comic books, most characters were white (with a few notable exceptions).

The film did present up front and center the fact that Sam had something to prove having taken on board the mantle of Captain America. President Ross in a fit of temper, told Sam that he wasn’t Steve Rogers and in a heartfelt speech to Joaquin toward the end of the movie, he shared his own doubts.

However, the movie seemed to be working overtime to convince the audience that not only was Sam a different Cap, but better than Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). I suppose the distinction was Steve being first and foremost a soldier while Sam having a background as a pararescue and a social worker. That sometimes worked against Sam as he tried to talk down some of his assailants (including Sidewinder) only to have his proverbial ass handed to him.

I don’t think I was sold on Sam being a better Cap than Steve. One of Steve’s defining characteristics was his compassion and sense of fairness and justice. He also didn’t need technology to be a bad ass, which in many cases, made Sam more physically “challenged” in a fight. I accept that Sam, being different, had other strengths to bring to the table, but he still didn’t “Wow” me as the 21st century Cap.

I loved seeing Tim Blake Nelson returning as Samuel Sterns/The Leader and approved of how they “distorted” his face and head. He didn’t look like the big brain case we saw in the 1960s comic books, but that would have been ridiculous on film (you don’t always strive for “comic book accuracy” on the small or big screens).

As in a lot of stories, the villains aren’t truly bad. Even Sidewinder is kind of fun to listen to when he isn’t trying to kill you. Sterns had a very good reason to be pissed off. He never asked for Banner’s gamma-infused blood to be poured into his brain, and Ross himself admitted that after the Hulk and Abomination destroyed Harlem (see the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk), the government used Sterns as their fall guy. Ross, as a General, took control over Sterns, further experimented on him, and used his ability to accurately predict probable futures to make himself President–and then still refused to free Sterns as promised.

He programmed numerous people including Sam’s friend and fellow “experimented on prisoner” Bradley to become murderous, mind-controlled pawns. I was particularly put out by Sterns causing the death of Cmdr. Dennis Dunphy (William Mark McCullough) since he was such a likeable sidekick to Sam (in “person-of-color” lead movies, white people are either sidekicks or bad guys. Ross is white and so is Sterns [Jewish]).

At first, I thought the President’s security advisor Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas) was a willing pawn of Sterns’ and was pleased see that she wasn’t and that it didn’t take long for her to figure out that Sam was right about Bradley being innocent of an assassination attempt. I hadn’t been reading comic books by the time the Israeli superhero Sabra appeared (1980), so I didn’t pick up on who she was at first. Of course, given that the press have amplified Israel as a villain yet again, the movie removed all mention of Sabra though amazingly, they left her as an Israeli. She had no superpowers but instead was a graduate of the “Red Room” making her an “ex-Widow” like Natasha Romanoff (the Black Widow in the MCU).

Actress Shira Haas is Israeli and on screen looks smaller than her five foot four inch stature. I was surprised to find out that Scarlett Johansson is only five foot three because I would have sworn she was taller than Haas. With that in mind, I had a hard time picturing Bat-Seraph as just as much of a bad ass as Romanoff.

In addition to Nelson, Liv Tyler reprised her role as Betty Ross in the film, although we only heard her voice in one phone call and then saw her in a brief physical appearance at the film’s ending. The person who probably should have been there was either Bruce Banner or his now pale green alter ego “Professor Hulk” as he appeared in Avengers: Endgame (2019) or TV’s She-Hulk. Although, in my opinion, robbed of being the far more interesting “Incredible Hulk” rage monster, Banner would have been ideally placed to confront Sterns and manage Ross’s own red-eyed monster.

I’ve already mentioned how Ross, who said he was trying to change his proverbial stripes, had continued to be up to no good, especially in his treatment of Sterns, but he was also upright in wanting to use the resource Adamantium for the benefit of the world and, when faced with his now being the red-Hulk thanks to Sterns, willingly surrendered, giving up his office and quietly going to prison. That pretty much erases any similarity he may have had to Trump, who under similar circumstances, would probably have twisted all that into some sort of asset for his office. Beyond that, I can’t imagine ANY career politician willingly surrendering their power unless the body of evidence against them was so overwhelming that pretending to be noble and self-sacrificing was the only option left.

Then again, I’m not fond of politicians regardless of party.

Presidents tend to select Vice-Presidents who they don’t have to worry about supplanting them (though that didn’t workout so well between Biden and Harris) and in this case, Sam chose Joaquin as the new Falcon. Torres is likeable but clearly comedy relief. The guy won’t stop talking and cracking jokes which Sam comments on repeatedly. He’s a good guy, but should something happen to Sam, I can’t see Torres becoming Captain America 3.0.

Sebastian Stan made a cameo as Bucky who was running for office which made zero sense. The guy had been a mind-controlled assassin for HYDRA since 1945 and kept in suspended animation between missions so he barely aged. Even into the film Captain America: Civil War (2016), Bucky was susceptible to being controlled and commanded to murder. And he’s positioned himself to become an American politician? I guess that says a lot for the government we have today. Actually, it says more about setting up the movie The Thunderbolts* (which I haven’t seen and don’t plan to).

I’ve had a lot to say about a movie I thought was only so-so. I think that’s because so much more was expected of this film, not only by the studios but the fans as well. My understanding is that it underwent extensive reshooting after being shown to test audiences. Somehow, whatever they were aiming for, I don’t think they ever got it quite right.