After a year where we only got Deadpool & Wolverine which barely fit into the franchise, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is back with the fourth Captain America film, this time with Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson donning the stars and stripes. Whether it be the recasting of General Ross, the tying up of random loose ends, or fairly publicized reshoots, this latest Marvel outing has had its fair share of mess behind the scenes. While the end result isn't as good as you would want Mackie's first time leading a Marvel movie, it also isn't nearly as weak as some (including myself) feared.
The film follows the new Captain America as he meets with the newly elected President Ross (Harrison Ford). The two have a checkered past but Ross is looking to prove himself a changed man with Sam's help. When someone from Ross' past starts pulling dangerous strings, Sam the new Falcon Joaquim (Danny Ramirez) are thrust into a global conflict.
Anthony Mackie has been relegated to a supporting character for his entire time in the MCU aside from the Falcon and the Winter Soldier Show, so I wasn't sure how he'd handle the spotlight. While the film as a whole has its weak points, Mackie is not one of them. Not only does he carry the story, but there are some moments of Sam grappling with the weight of taking on the Captain America mantle which Mackie plays very authentically. He's great at taking the fun energy he showed previously while also stepping up as the leading man. While it's hard to beat the dynamic Mackie and Chris Evans had, I really loved the relationship between him and Danny Ramirez. Ramirez perfectly fits the Falcon persona while Mackie gets a bit more serious, and I hope he sticks around in future films. I have some mixed feelings on Harrison Ford unfortunately. While I don't know if I could see the late William Hurt as the Red Hulk, I found Ford to be less convincing as Ross than Hurt was. Maybe it's just that I'm used to Hurt's portrayal, but I found that Ford just didn't quite fit with the character. He has his strong moments, but on the whole something just felt a bit off.
One area I appreciated this was that it doesn't have the same kind of weightless fan service Marvel has become a bit too fond of lately. I enjoyed Deadpool & Wolverine, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness, but each had some glaring uses of cameos that felt present just for people to point at the screen with excitement for half a second. I love a good cameo, but they just got overindulgent and felt distracting from the story. This does bring back some actors from previous films, but they all work in service of the story which I enjoyed. Where my issues arise narratively is the ways in which the film works to tie up loose ends. Rather than give Sam his own story for his first cinematic outing as Captain America, this essentially acts as a Hulkless follow up to 2008's The Incredible Hulk, perhaps the MCU movie society has most forgotten about. It also finally addresses the events of Eternals, leaving it feeling like the glue for other stories rather than its own at times.
The action is mostly solid, but the reshoots seemed to leave us with my biggest issue with the movie, it's frankly rough climax. The CGI on the Red Hulk is pretty solid once he enters the fray, but the green screens used in the final fight are really rough. It's a shame as I mostly enjoyed the movie leading up to it, but you can aggressively see where shots were redone later on thanks to how poorly composited things are. Even aside from the visual issues, the climax just feels rushed and underbaked, coming to a close too easily. I also just don't think the Red Hulk made any sense as an antagonist for Captain America to fight, especially not a Captain America without any superpowers.
I did enjoy this, Anthony Mackie is great and I had some good fun with the espionage of it despite the story being a bit messy. I hope Mackie gets another shot as the lead as his great work is sadly undercut by some poor decisions that really limit how good this one can be. 3/5
Comments
Post a Comment