A film review by Cliff Homewood
Brave New World or Same old Shit? The trailers made me fear the worst, looking like a Chinese knock-off. Letting Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) combine Falcon with the Captain America schtick makes it look like a mashup and feel like desperation. The trailers did nothing to inspire confidence, the reviews backed this up: 53% on Rotten Tomatoes. In its defence, at least half the critics liked it. I’m one of them. IMDB states it was nominated for one award – Worst Trailer.
After a brief prologue it starts with Harrison Ford waiting to come onto the stage as the President, as well as flashbacks of Airforce One I wanted his brains to be blown out as he appeared, but realised that’s The Boys and this is the family friendly Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). This does turn out to be a dark film, a political thriller/satire so not for children, although of course there are fight scenes. Harrison Ford plays President ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross, previously played by the no longer with us William Hurt, and we find ourselves saddled with continuity from a 20-year-old film we’d all but forgotten, 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. The character last appeared in Black Widow (2021). We soon learn he’s not a popular choice for President as it becomes apparent this is the Marvel Universe equivalent of Trump. This political satire previously happened with George W Bush calling those that didn’t support him Un-American and the divided society inspiring the Civil War storyline. V for Vendetta incidentally, written in response to Thatcher’s government, had its fascist Voice of Authority declare an intent to ‘Make Britain Great Again’* and before that Hitler wanted to make ‘Germany Great Again’.** When President Ross declares ‘it’s the not the first time I’ve been shot at’ it further cements the Trump parallels, although as an ex-General Ross has good reason to have been shot at. This might be coincidence as a fairly recent event and reviewers sometimes see things that aren’t there, but it seemed pretty obvious as Ross is told to let the hatred out that they are riffing on Trump and this made the film interesting. A bleak storyline, a President many people don’t like but must respect as he is the President.
<Initiate Spoiler Shield Protection>
Captain America’s friend, Isaiah Bradley early on asks, ‘So why are you working for him? As long as you do, Captain America stands for people like him.’ He responds, ‘He’s the President’. Isaiah has great charisma and is a treat for the screen, all gravely and grouchy. Previously in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Carl Lumbly plays this wronged man well. At one point it felt as if he could commit suicide which is a sinister thought for a Marvel movie. He has a genuine grudge against the US Government having been falsely incarcerated.
The villain does the classic exposition of telling our hero information he wants to know. A bigger flaw is the villain thinks of everything, but it doesn’t occur that some superhero or other is going to try and foil him. Even Lex Luthor knew to do that back in Superman (1978). When the villain does emerge from the shadows he is suitably scary looking, with the tinge of a zombie. We’ve had a similar villain in The Boys and The Suicide Squad recently but full points for grotesque makeup.
In 1962 the film The Manchurian Candidate came out, after that TV series often copycatted a trope labelled as ‘Manchurian Agent’ on TVTropes.*** Another movie based on a comic, the 1979 TV movie Mandrake the Magician is very similar in its use of the trope to Captain America: Brave New World. Sacha Bara Cohen is currently pegged to play Mandrake in a movie reboot. Mandrake, first appearing in 1934, is sometimes thought of as the first superhero.
< Shield Protection Off >
On the Trumpian aspects of this film, its title, Brave New World, being that of Aldous Huxley’s famous work about a society where the lower class are looked down upon by the elite as barely human. Seem Familiar? The film was called New World Order, but studios worried that it might get caught up in anti-semitism. In the MCU world ‘Brave New World’ alludes to the recent discovery of adamantium. Adamantium being the ‘Oil’ that they fight over. I don’t like this delineation of MCU and non-MCU, they are all Marvel comics and adamantium has been about a long time as Wolverine’s claws are made of it. But X-Men was Fox. Then they started appearing in Deadpool which is MCU … Turns out on a different timeline.
The film equates being in Japan with seeing cherry blossoms. Washington DC has cherry trees, donated by Japan as a sign of friendship. Unfortunately, moviegoers aren’t equating this with a good Marvel film. Trailers making it look faintly ridiculous and over the top. The Trump allusion falters towards the end with the wish fulfilment of a President that owns his mistakes. That’s not the Trump I see. I see someone appearing to form a Nazi-like collective.
*https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/gskzht/has_anyone_ever_noticed_the_parallels_that_exist/
**https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/make-germany-great-again/
***https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ManchurianAgent