- Director: Julius Onah
- Screenwriter: Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, Julius Onah, Peter Glanz
- Cast: Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly, Xosha Roquemore, Giancarlo Esposito, Tim Blake Nelson, Harrison Ford
- Cinematography: Kramer Morgenthau
- Editing: Matthew Schmidt, Madeleine Gavin
- Score: Laura Karpman
- Genre: Superhero
- Runtime: 118 minutes
There’s a brave new world out there. And it needs a hero. It needs Captain America.
With fan favourite Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) having hung his shield up following the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame‘, the mantle was passed down to his sidekick Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), formerly known as ‘Falcon’. What may seem like a gigantic act to follow, I actually prefer Sam Wilson as Captain America – Rogers was too goody-goody; Wilson has an edge to him. He feels he has something to prove coming off the back of Rogers’ success. And he’s a ‘proper’ human, not an artificially enhanced ‘super soldier’ the same way the previous Cap was. He earns his victories through hard-fought combat. Everything good about Rogers came out of a bottle.
The title is curious choice: sure, we have a new lead actor, taking the ‘Captain America‘ series in a fresh direction. Yet with MCU blockbusters, especially this one, a history lesson is required to keep up with the lore. So not exactly a new world, not when the villain from 2008’s ‘The Incredible Hulk‘ (only the 2nd movie in the MCU) shows up, a total of 17 years later.
Not so much out with the old, but in with the new. With Wilson being upgraded to Captain America, we have a vacancy in the Falcon department. Enter Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez). He was already established in the Disney+ show ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘ but a couple of lines of dialogue lets casual viewers know the score. Same goes with Carl Lumbly’s character Isaiah Bradley, an army veteran and super soldier experimented on by the government. We have a new Thaddeus Ross too – the character was too central a cog in the overarching storyline so writing him off after the death of actor William Hurt was inconceivable. Instead, he’s recast with the legendary Harrison Ford, who has ample material to work with (the most Ross has been utilised since ‘Civil War‘) now that Ross is President of the United States (because even fictional presidents are in their 80s).
Overall, it’s enjoyable; less cheesy quips and more solid, dramatic set pieces, including an action-packed sequence in the Rose Garden. Stay for the post-credits scene teasing the Multiverse. Captain America is great again!
My rating: 7 / 10
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