Instantly a relic of a bygone era, thanks to the despotic churn of Washington politics,
Captain America: Brave New World not only features a president who has managed to win his seat thanks to tenuous connections to in-world celebrities (in this instance,
The Avengers) but a commander-in-chief who takes his responsibilities as a steward for the world's sole superpower seriously whilst also suffering enormous pain when estranged from his child. Pure fantasy in other words. Dogged by reshoot rumours, as well as whispers regarding the curmudgeonly nature of actor Harrison Ford, Brave New World arrives as a pretty great illustration of how older stars are, seemingly, far better armed to advocate for themselves and their own personal star persona.
As President Thunderbolt Ross, Ford enjoys a layer of expertise and attention that is absolutely not extended to his counterpart, Anthony Mackie's Captain America. Mackie makes do with a re-heated character incline that traps his airborne superhero inside further doubts regarding his suitability for such an incredible role. There is very little personal dimension given to any of his actions (certainly nothing romantic or sexual), beyond him thanklessly performing a series of tasks that facilitate pleasant outcomes for third-parties. And that's really it. Presumably, Disney have decided that a black actor at the forefront of one of their most prestigious properties is a difficult enough sell in today's socio-political landscape and that providing him with any interiority, other than the firmly held worry that he cannot possibly measure up to his white predecessor, would therefore be a step too far.
This listlessness that has been applied to Sam Wilson is compounded by a style of action that leans so heavily on incredible displays of invulnerability that the audience has to be repeatedly coaxed and reassured with asides about magical super-soldier equipment that has been gifted to Wilson by Wakanda. There are deeper layers of disconnection though: Mackie's Cap is a human bird, able to whizz around sixth generation fighter jets without experiencing any of the intense nauseas that usually enact themselves upon our fragile bodies. That may be fine in a Summer cross-over (or their big screen equivalent) when this Captain America is one voice in an enormous chorus of zipping digital bodies but jarring in a piece that otherwise strains to frame itself as some version of a political thriller. Strangely enough Carl Lumbly's Isaiah Bradley, the forgotten Korean war era super soldier, enjoys a more considered framing when he finds himself cornered.
Bradley, already a comparatively complicated approach to the idea that there have been multiple, successive Captain Americas (thanks to his trepidation when engaging with the rulers of his home country) gets to play a thoughtless The Manchurian Candidate-style assassin within an inciting incident then, almost immediately, the much older, frailer man that he actually is when he snaps back to reality as the full power of the state descends upon him. Of course, this compromised human perspective is immediately tidied away from Sam Wilson's wider adventure, lest it confuse the action figure roil. According to the misfiring The Falcon and The Winter Soldier TV mini-series, Bradley spent decades in prison being experimented upon by, essentially, Nazis. His return to unjust incarceration should feel a little more heartbreaking then than the temporary time out depicted here. Which brings us back to Harrison Ford.
Ford's President Ross feels largely out of step with the rest of his film, as if the actor is delivering the performance he prefers to give rather than what was specifically, structurally, on the page. The way he's talked about within the piece - his abruptness or his alarming swings in temper - do not match up with what Ford is actually doing. Even away from scenes that depict extremely unconvincing statecraft (in decades gone by the studios financing these projects would fork out so hotshot political drama writers could take passes at these screenplays, injecting some hint of credibility into them), Ross is a man enacting personal change on a titanic scale. Not just to steward the country he's been elected to lead but as a way to attract the favour of the daughter he has pushed away. Ross has human failings then. Naked, emotional needs further complicated by a body that isn't up to the task of shouldering such relentless physical stress.
Ford, as his character teeters on the edge of giving into his explosive anger, does something that really only Michael B. Jordan in
Black Panther has managed to do: he seizes control of the camera. He is no longer a passive, observed player within a hastily blocked superhero feature. The tidal wave of emotions that his President Ross is experiencing actually enact themselves upon the frame. Aboard a battleship that was itself very nearly breached, the screen begins to tip to one side as Ross seethes through another of his episodes. Director Julius Onah and cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau's film literally upends, standing almost vertical to sink into some unseen abyss while the biggest star in the piece claws at his throat, gasping for air. The transformations experienced by Ross in Brave New World are becoming unexpectedly exciting.
Although pre-release material couldn't wait to trumpet the debut of a new Hulk, the circumstances of the monster's arrival are communicated in dramatically apprehensive terms, rather than just another excuse for a climactic special effects riot. The involuntary anxieties enacting themselves upon the failing Ross recall the shaking tremors experienced by his television ancestor: Bill Bixby's lonely David Banner from CBS' The Incredible Hulk. Another older man utterly appalled at what could become of him. Our familiarity with Mark Ruffalo's increasingly tame and psychologically well-adjusted Hulk, not to mention the demands of always escalating digital filmmaking, have completely dulled one of the core appeals of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee's original comic character: an educated person who cannot contain an awful, uncontrollable violence within themselves.
Perhaps then, with this in mind, Captain America: Brave New World's climax plays differently outside of its birthplace? Presumably we, as viewers, are supposed to be struck aghast that The White House is aflame during the finale; withered by helicopter gunfire and trampled beneath the feet of a boiling, blood-red ogre? However, and this is largely thanks to Ford's uncooperative portrayal of a Thunderbolt Ross who is essentially Jack Ryan with angina, it is actually supremely satisfying to see an American head-of-state rendered in this way: a thoughtless monster who has completely given in to the bilious rages that bubble inside him. Excusing this Hulk's recently extinguished political career, it's supremely entertaining to watch a creature that instantly sets to tearing down facile, faux-Grecian architecture with its bare, bleeding hands. Borderline therapeutic even, given the lopsided reality we're all currently being battered through.