Captain America: Brave New World - Official Trailer (2025)

[Clint_L]

Yeah, I thought about that, but as you say, there isn't even one line in the film to explain why the USA is so worried about Japan's navy. If we are just to assume that in this alternate earth Japan is a much stronger power than in ours, then that runs counter to most of the MCU, which typically represents Earth 616 as being basically like ours but with superheroes on top. Given the location of the Celestial, I was confused as to why they didn't just use Mandripoor as the geo-political complication, since they introduced it in the Falcon+Winter Soldier mini-series and, as an imaginary place, it would have been easy enough to mention that they have a small but incredibly advanced navy, in much closer proximity to the Celestial, or something.

The other odd thing about this film is that they chose the plot "what if the president of the USA destabilized geo-political relations by being an erratic, id-fueled rage monster," and then pointedly fail to address any of the glaring real world inferences. I understand why Disney, wanting to be all things to all people, didn't want to focus on the obvious metaphor...but then why go there to begin with? It's kind of like the barely there discussion of representation in the closing moments of the film. If you're going to go there, then go there. If you're not, then don't even bother - there are plenty of other plots available.

In general, the MCU fails miserably when trying to explore current politics and ideologies. It's much stronger when it focuses on character development.

 

[pukunui]

Speaking of both Madripoor and F&WS, I had assumed this movie would be when we next saw Sharon Carter, but apparently not, so I wonder when her dangling plot thread will be picked up again …

 

[Thomas Shey]

Speaking of both Madripoor and F&WS, I had assumed this movie would be when we next saw Sharon Carter, but apparently not, so I wonder when her dangling plot thread will be picked up again …

I suspect you should be saying "if". (And yeah, that bothers me too. My own suspicion was she was planned to be a Skrull during that period when they were presumably planning to do more with that following Secret Invasion before that turned out to be such a dog (and it should be noted I do not consider many of the Marvel shows and movies dogs)).

 

[jian]

I really think Japan in this movie is actually supposed to be China but they changed that because they didn’t want to offend the Chinese audience. I doubt they asked any Chinese experts - the portrayal of the Japanese PM and military is quite flattering, I suspect it would have been fine to leave them as China.

 

[Hussar]

I really think Japan in this movie is actually supposed to be China but they changed that because they didn’t want to offend the Chinese audience. I doubt they asked any Chinese experts - the portrayal of the Japanese PM and military is quite flattering, I suspect it would have been fine to leave them as China.

I imagine that this is far, far more likely. Portraying the Chinese as aggressively fielding warships is not going to fly, like, at all, in China. And then "losing" to the Americans? Yeah, no. And, the Japanese "losing" (and I'm using scare quotes here because nobody really loses in the conflict) to the US is going to play much better in China.

 

[chuckdee]

Speaking of both Madripoor and F&WS, I had assumed this movie would be when we next saw Sharon Carter, but apparently not, so I wonder when her dangling plot thread will be picked up again …

I think it's supposed to happen in Ironheart.

And I have to say, I totally disagree - I found it pretty engrossing, even though there were misses, those, to me, made it more mid-range territory for MCU, and since everything isn't going to be great, I was Ok with it, though I thought that a lot of it would have been better without the reveal of the Leader and Red Hulk beforehand.

 

[billd91]

Although I do give it a bonus point for finally addressing the problem of the Celestial sticking out of the Indian Ocean, even if it did so in a completely nonsensical way (USA and Japan almost go to war in a scene strongly reminscent of Top Gun, except that had the US confronting the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War rather than a Japan that, these days, is not exactly a believable threat).

My one nitpick here. Considering that this is a US and Japan that have through a 5 year complete upheaveal in the world order (basically a mini apocolypse), and in which alien and advanced technology has been bought, sold, and traded....there is no telling what the world political landscape looks like. It is absolutely possible that Japan came out of the blip stronger than many countries for XYZ reason, and is now a major world powerhouse that the US could legitimately consider a dangerous adversary.

Even with low spending on self-defense forces, Japan's economy has been big enough for so long that they field one of the top navies in the world right now. And they aren't trying to project American power globally - so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for the Japanese navy to achieve local parity with the 7th Fleet in the Indian Ocean. Add to that sophisticated anti-aircraft/anti-missile technology with the Aegis system, and suddenly the US navy could have a real fight on its hands if the Japanese navy wanted to put one up.
Thankfully, the most unrealistic part of that potential confrontation wasn't the relative power of the navies but the likelihood of Japan being particularly aggressive with it toward the US.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I think it's supposed to happen in Ironheart.

And I have to say, I totally disagree - I found it pretty engrossing, even though there were misses, those, to me, made it more mid-range territory for MCU, and since everything isn't going to be great, I was Ok with it, though I thought that a lot of it would have been better without the reveal of the Leader and Red Hulk beforehand.

This is pretty close to my feeling in general.

 

[pukunui]

I think it's supposed to happen in Ironheart.

Really? Seems kinda random ...

 

[chuckdee]

Thankfully, the most unrealistic part of that potential confrontation wasn't the relative power of the navies but the likelihood of Japan being particularly aggressive with it toward the US.

I'd agree, though I thought the reveal of the US being behind the theft and the president's insistence that they were not was enough to offend their honor.