I'll be honest here. I wasn't all that excited about this movie from the start. The trailer didn't grab me and it seemed like another yawn-fest of CGI. As much as I try to avoid spoilers I did end up absorbing a lot about how this movie was forced. I'll get to that.
One thing I will say outright - I don't like that they cast Harrison Ford as Red Hulk. Why? Because the man is ancient. They already recast the Thaddius Ross role when William Hurt passed away and giving a major, probably recurring role like this to another actor who's getting up there in years doesn't make a lot of sense. There's more about the character that doesn't make sense but I'll get to that later.
I didn't like the movie because I didn't like the story. It felt weak and cobbled together. Test audiences seemed to feel the same way, hence Sidewinder getting a bigger role. Adding another bad guy to the mix seems counterintuitive because that brought the number of them up to three so none of them got proper treatment.
There's a lot of preaching going on in this script. Lots of rah-rah, be the best you can be, try to do better, etc. While it's a lovely sentiment I'm not going to a comic book movie to be preached at. Yes, yes I know that the comic books cover a lot of societal issues too. But this is a discrete block of very expensive time to tell a story and you gotta figure out what story you're going to tell.
They didn't tell a story. At least they didn't tell one that held together or held audiences. There's so many disconnects and leaps of logic that it just didn't cohere into a singular line. There was no grand coming together at the end even though they put all the characters into their own moments.
One thing that has come out during the discussions has been the push to make a Black man Captain America. I will say that it wasn't overtly pushed here. There wasn't much if any race contention. It's established that Sam Wilson is Cap. As said in the movie "he's no Steve Rogers" but that was going to happen with anyone trying to take on the story role and indeed did happen during the TV series too. I honestly don't think the producers were trying to force acceptance of a Black Captain America as much as a Sam Wilson Captain America.
I will say that this movie did address two things that were kind of skipped/glossed over until now.
- The celestial in the Indian Ocean is part of the plotline and is now Elemental Island. I'm not sure but I don't think any of the movies since that one even noted it existed.
- Who's supplying and maintaining all the tech now that Tony Stark is gone. It's Wakanda. I did wonder about that one since Endgame.
There's adamantium in them thar celestials. Yes, adamantium is now officially in the MCU. But it's not nearly as rare as it seems to be in the comics, considering one of the plotlines is the attempt to build a treaty between India, Japan, France, and the United States for all the resources. I have no idea why France would be in there. India and Japan make sense. It's in their backyard. The US is because we're greedy bastages. But France? Why the heck would France make a claim?
India and France get the short end of the stick in the movie. They get one Zoom meeting scene where they defer to Japan for guidance on the treaty. That's because one of the (many) plot points is 'the package' that was being delivered/sold/whatever that turned out to be Japan's refined adamantium, which was stolen by ~gasp~ the United States!
There's a naval battle scene between the US and Japan. Japan is rightly upset that the US tried to screw them over and decided to go out and stake their claim on Celestial Island. I don't blame them. It was nice to see a country not roll over for the US for once in these movies. The battle is another issue because it has the President directly controlling the war maneuvers. Yes, I know he was a general. But he's not a general and he's not the captain of the ship. He's not in that chain of command. Mostly. What he's trying to do is stop the mind controlled pilots from starting a war with Japan but it's still jarring to see him making tactical decisions better left to, oh I don't know, the ship's tactical officer?
Whoops. Gave away one of the sloppy plot points. But the underlying plot under these was the return of Samuel Sterns from the original Incredible Hulk movie. Since I still haven't watched that one I needed to read online why he mattered. Considering the character has been MIA since 2008 I think I'm not going to be the only person questioning who this guy is and why he's in the plot. He's doing mind control stuff. Big surprise.
While we're on the mind control thing either someone paid a lot of money to have their cell phones placed in the movie or someone on the production staff really liked a brand because every freaking cell phone looks the same. I know people are addicted to their phones but there was a LOT of obvious cell phone usage here. Spoiler - it's how Sterns mind controls a lot of people. But c'mon. Everyone carrying large black cell phones with four cameras on the back? I don't see that happening without someone making the decision that's how it's going to be.
Mind control is big in the comics. It's a lovely dux de machina that helps shuffle the plot along. Poor Wolverine has a revolving door in his brain for all the times he's been mind controlled. But this one stretches things to the breaking point with how easily Sterns is able to use what should be highly encrypted communications and pinpoint accuracy to mind control people. I know. It's a comic book movie.
Here's another thing that bugged me. When Ross transformed into Red Hulk (like that's a spoiler) he immediately knew how to use his new form. No learning curve on the size, strength, etc. Just right out there tearing stuff up and doing physics-defying leaps, tearing up buildings, exploding and throwing vehicles, having perfect hand-eye coordination, etc. I'd think if you suddenly became a Hulk you'd have to take a bit of time just not to fall over much less walk.
They are going to form another Avengers team. It's not subtle. President Ross told Sam to do it. We've got him as Captain America. He's already got his buddy in as Falcon. The head of the President's security just happens to be a Red Room trained Soviet, just like Black Widow (no security issues there, right?), and I don't know who else will get in on this since the only other major character was Isaiah Bradley as the Forgotten Supersoldier. I guess they could put him in for his super strength but they might need to be careful about dropping him into the Wise Old Black Man trope. He's already the Wounded Veteran and the Resentful Veteran.
Bucky makes a brief cameo so that he and Sam can have a dialog about what it means to be Captain America. Of course this takes place while the guy who's now Falcon is in surgery and they're watching that. Bucky seems to have won an election to Congress too. I have no idea how that's going to figure into Thunderbolts*, or if it even is.
They put the trope of Alienated Parent in there too with the President being estranged from his daughter since the Incredible Hulk thing and he's trying to show her he can do better. That's brought up several times. Sure. The President of the United States is going to make decisions based on making his kid not hate him. There is a redemption arc at the end but it's forced narrative with a 'blink and you'll miss it' cameo from Liv Tyler, who gets billing in the movie for some reason. Granted she's reprising her role from the first movie but billing? Her agent should get an extra percentage point for that.
Nothing comes together at the end. It kind of trails off with each of the bad guys having a moment with Sam. Ross and Sterns are in the special prison and Sidewinder giving up a lot of narrative to get himself into a regular prison, which he promises he'll break out of. There's what's supposed to be a touching moment with Falcon (I don't even bother to try to remember the character's name) that is supposed to have a tension breaking end but overall feels forced.
Forced is a good way for me to describe this entire movie. They wanted to do .. something. I guess it's a transition movie to build The New Avengers? There's only one mention of X-Men and that's the adamantium. There's no Fantastic Four references. This movie doesn't seem to have much of a purpose other than to keep the characters on screen.
There is one after credit scene that tries to build tension by stating that they'll have to face the Others. What Others? It's more confusing than tantalizing. It's said by Sterns who can calculate probabilities and stuff like that but why would he know anything specific outside of his general area? Maybe something they discovered in the celestial? I have no idea and honestly I won't think of it much past writing this.
So there you go. I'm not nearly alone in my evaluation of this movie as cobbled together and not interesting. Someone brought up the point that with the exception of Ross none of the characters developed. Even Ross is a redemption arc trope but at least he's trying. Every other character is exactly the same as when the movie started so what's the point?
Will I see the next Captain America movie? Of course. I've got the subscription that lets me see movies every week so it's no skin off my nose to use one of my weekly slots to see the new Marvel movie. Will there be a next Captain America movie? Even though this one is getting panned there will be another one. The character IP is too valuable not to keep making movies. I have a feeling it will have different writers and a different director tho.
