CAPTAIN AMERICA BRAVE NEW WORLD

If you managed to watch Captain America, Winter Soldier (2014), it showcases the moment The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) joins the Marvel adventure with Captain America in

Eleven years later, those same action sequences are breathtaking, the story just moves along at a high-speed clip, breezes the viewer into one of the first major wrinkles inside S.H.I.E.L.D. and the soundtrack is just amazing, like rocket boosters along with the editing and some of the best cinematography around to this day.

From the opening act where Captain swarms a pirate ship and with amazing first-rate stunt work just slices through one platoon after another of bad guys like a Jedi lightsaber cutting through butter. The action editing is so superior it feels natural, dangerous, authentic and a delight to watch.

Next, we have Nick Fury’s attempted assassination, an incredible fast-paced bruising sequence culminating with Cap giving chase to the Winter Soldier, again the stunt work and action is five stars, incredible acting, editing, and music. The action in the middle of the street and the camera work is just amazing. And it just keeps going like that to the finale.

Eleven years later, Captain America The Winter Soldier remains leagues ahead in suspense, action and excitement from Brave New World. This year’s installment does not even compare on any of the various dimensions and weighing factors for a film’s ability to entertain the moviegoer.

With Brave New World, the intro with Ross is weak, the slogan Together for Ross is lame, and to again tout CHANGE, as if it and “family” are some magic words to stun the viewer. Change is ongoing on our planet, every day it experiences change from the moment it formed millions of years ago.  It is like saying dirt is amazing and special, because in reality dirt is ubiquitous.

Entropy ensures that change is like gravity, it is ever happening all around us, from the workplace to birthplace. To this day I still don’t understand the value of this coined “change” golden word in Hollywood as if script writers had suddenly discovered the fountain of everlasting life with this word.

The constant harping on the word “change” and the concept in entertainment is irritating because the idea that the world is changing has been around since the old tall tales of Aladin and the Magic Carpet.

And with Brave New World, the opening score is so below the typical expected in a Captain America movie. The musical notes boom and drop for the action edits but they only conjure up laughs or smirks because the score feels forced and does not elevate nor enhance the visual spread, one such instant is when Captain America lands in the middle of soldiers and says “wait for it”, at the moment of landing and folding his wings the music growls loud but it doesn’t do the action justice or impart any kind of grandeur, it just feels over-orchestrated.

Throughout the new BNW film, this movie lacked a Captain America theme, a musical anthem that would play to our feelings about warmth, love, courage and perseverance. But the film is instead peppered with incoherent noise and poor music mixed with bits and pieces of jive, hip-hop and rap. 

What is obvious from the beginning is that the script has Sam attempting to match the physical action (stunts) that Steve used to do but we are all aware that Steve was enhanced with a super soldier serum, that gave him physical abilities above those of battle-hardened soldiers and the ability to absorb impact, shocks and be able to bounce back and shake them off like they didn’t happen.

But in the story of the new Captain America Sam Wilson, if you look at the short TV series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, we never once see any indication that Sam Wilson was treated to the super soldier serum and many of us were already griping about the disconnect in story telling continuity. 

Yet in the first BNW action sequence he is carrying on as if he were even stronger than Steve, more agile and way sharper.  From a superhero perspective, the story doesn’t make sense because Sam would not just be wistful about it “I should have taken the serum” he would not be able to charge a dozen killer soldiers and mercenaries without getting bloodied or killed.  

So is this Black macho “machismo” culture being nurtured or am I missing something? Black Captain America, no serum, even meaner and stronger, faster and sharper than a Hulk in a mini package? 

I was expecting some kind of explanation later on in the film via flashbacks but oh no, Sam just confirms that he is NOT like Steve on super serum, he is just one tough incredibly built son of a Gunn. Oopps I am having fun with the Marvel DC back and forth, where a human being is as strong as Superman just because he carries an almost indestructible shield and has a jet pack packed with miniature technologies (which also begs a question as to how indestructible nanotech is, because in the real-world nanotech is super fragile).

But fans of superheroes and comic book lore have on more than one occasion, in the websphere and with online comic books advertising destinations like Screen Rant, pitted Superman against the older

raging version Hulk (The green Incredible Hulk) who is supposedly indestructible, the more pain the more the Hulk grows and becomes more powerful. Even Superman who can barely take a nuclear warhead at point blank (2016 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) was able to subdue the Hulk.

So the question is, can Sam Wilson, with just physical combat training and a super shield, tap dance around Superman? The extent of super stretched science fiction which had recently become the laughing stock and private reserve of the Fast and Furious stunts is now all of a sudden being foisted on a Marvel superhero who is supposed to be most of all human, not indestructible. That was the winning point about Steve, his compassion and love for his country, for his fellow human being, for those getting bullied, and his propensity for ethical conduct – that was his real weapon, not Thor-like, god-like powers.

In the initial Captain America The First Avenger (2011), it was drama and intense war action set against nazis and World War II battles, assassinations, and the threat of global ascendancy of a fascist super power led by Red Skull. It was not until the second movie, when Steve was de-iced and became essentially a fish out of water, that Sam ran into him while running circles around the Washington Mall.

Sam became the essential humor to a straight forward hero who is completely carrying on as he did before and Sam and Natasha and Tony were constantly reminding him the WORLD IS DIFFERENT BECAUSE SO MUCH TIME HAS ELAPSED. Sam became Steve’s sidekick who would often provide the humor while Steve was the heavy muscle because of the serum and physical superhuman transformation.

Sam Wilson became a hero as The Falcon when he sheltered Steve and Natasha and offered to volunteer and help them if they got him the Falcon suit, the turning point from a bystander pep talk provider to an Avenger.  The ensuing team-up side-by side-with Steve at the helicarriers launch facility is part of what made The Winter Soldier (2014) all the more satisfying and replete with meaningful story developments.

There are a few more important comments in the Gold Members Edition,
of this review, some excerpts and highlights follow

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