Old Worlds, New Worlds

We're back on our Marvel buulshit again: we watched Captain America: Brave New World (2025). Now, remember, I liked both Quantumania and The Marvels, so it won't come as a surprise that I enjoyed this too. 

So, Harrison Ford is Thunderbolt Ross (minus the mustache), recently elected president. He sends Captain America v2.0 (Anthony Mackie) and the Falcon (Danny Ramirez) to keep Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito) from acquiring a minor McGuffin (adamantium, I think). This lets them show how Mackie is settling in as Cap, but doesn't think Ramirez is ready to go full Falcon.

Adamantium is the engine of the story. President Ford wants an international treaty to share adamantium recources, but there are forces afoot trying to derail this. In fact, at the press event to discuss the treaty, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), a black boxer who was experimented on with the super-soldier serum, attempts to shoot the president - several other bodyguards join him. Shira Haas, an ex-Black Widow and current CIA agent, realizes that there is mind control going on. 

Exploring a secret government lab, they meet Tim Blake Nelson, another victim of government experimentation. His exposure to Hulk blood turned him green, gave him a lumpy head, and made him a genius. We called him Broccoli Head Man, but kept thinking he was Alan Tudyk in Alien Nation. He is behind the mind control, somehow, not really explained. 

Throughout all this, president Ford is getting more and mor frustrated and angry. He tries to deal with things calmly, but finally blows. And when he does, he becomes - the Red Hulk! 

This movie uses material from both The Incredible Hulk and Eternals - Tim Blake Nelson goes back to the first, and the second comes up when everyone is fighting over the adamantium around Celestial Island, the huge stone being that showed up in the end of Eternals. I liked that they went back to these semi-cursed movies. Tim Blake Nelson was even the villain in Incredible Hulk (as if I remembered that).

I liked the hint of blaxploitation they used for Giancarlo Esposito, and the frank treatment of racism with the Carl Lumbly - I believe he was a big pat of the Winter Soldier and Falcon TV series - but I'm pretty rusty on that whole thing. The attempts at making a 90's style paranoid thriller fell pretty flat to me. Same with all the Harrison Ford on Air Force One stuff. I didn't see that movie and have no nostalgia for it.

This movie had an odd shapeless quality - a lot going on upfront, Red Hulk thrown in at the very last moment, almost separate from what went before, then a quick summing up and boom. There were also a bunch of characters who seemed like they were from other movies/shows. or comics who I just didn't get - like Haas. But also, I enjoyed this movie and expect to rewatch every now and then. I like Marvel movies, even if they are not the best ever. I hope they can keep making them, good, bad, and so-so.