CAPTAIN AMERICA : BRAVE NEW WORLD - Tuesday 18th February 2025.

I saw the M Rated 'CAPTAIN AMERICA : BRAVE NEW WORLD' earlier this week, and this American Superhero film is based on the Marvel Comics character Sam Wilson / Captain America, and is the fourth instalment in the 'Captain America' film series, a continuation of the TV miniseries 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' and the 35th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). This film is Directed and Co-Written for the screen by Julius Onah in his fourth feature film Directing outing following 'The Girl Is in Trouble' in 2015, 'The Cloverfield Paradox' in 2018, and 'Luce' in 2019. The first three films in the 'Captain America' film franchise - 'Captain America : The First Avenger' in 2011, 'Captain America : The Winter Soldier' in 2014, and 'Captain America : Civil War' in 2016 grossed US$2,238B at the global Box Office from combined production budgets of US$560M, making this fourth offering a no brainer. That latter film ended the 'Captain America' trilogy starring Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, and Sam Wilson becomes the new Captain America in 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier'. This film forms part of Phase Five of the MCU, was released here in Australia and the US last week, has so far grossed US$205M off the back of a US$180M production budget, and has generated mixed or average critical reviews.

The film opens on US Presidential Election night and a triumphant Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) takes the microphone to thank the American people for voting him in, and stating that they can achieve great things 'together'. We then fast track five months and Ross sends Sam Wilson/Captain America (Anthony Mackie) and Joaquin Torres/Falcon (Danny Ramirez) to Oaxaca, Mexico to thwart the illegal sale of classified items stolen by the Serpent Society, a rogue special-ops team led by Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito). The pair successfully recover the items, but Sidewinder escapes. Following the mission and back on home soil, Wilson and Torres both train with Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), a super soldier who was imprisoned and experimented on by the US government for thirty years, and his existence kept a secret, even from the former Captain America.

Ross invites Wilson and Torres to a summit with world leaders at the White House, and Wilson accepts on the condition that Bradley is also invited. Ross asks Wilson to help him reform the Avengers. During the summit, Ross explains that a new metal, adamantium, has been discovered on 'Celestial Island', which was formed when the Celestial Tiamut partially emerged in the Indian Ocean, and was petrified by the Eternals. The recovered items were the first refined samples of the metal and were stolen from a Japanese mining operation. To avoid an arms race, Ross proposes a treaty to govern adamantium's mining and worldwide distribution. As he is talking, the 1959 song 'Mr. Blue' by The Fleetwoods, plays and causes several men, including Bradley, to begin shooting at Ross and other gathered dignitaries. Apprehended by Ross's Security Advisor and former Black Widow Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), the men come to their senses and deny any knowledge of the attack.

While investigating, Wilson is ambushed by Sidewinder. Wilson over powers and captures him. Torres tracks a call on Sidewinder's phone to a hidden black site in West Virginia called Camp Echo One. Ross tries to keep the treaty alive, but the Prime Minister of Japan Ozaki (Takehiro Hira) blames him for the theft of their adamantium and the subsequent White House attack. Ross realises that the mastermind of these events is Dr. Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), who gained advanced intelligence after being exposed to Bruce Banner's blood during the Abomination's rampage through Harlem. Ross imprisoned Sterns at Camp Echo One, publicly blamed him for the Abomination's actions, and promised to release him if Sterns helped advance him to the presidency. Wilson and Torres find Sterns and learn how he uses technology and the song 'Mr. Blue' as a mind control tool. He escapes while they are fighting mind-controlled soldiers.

Bat-Seraph investigates Camp Echo One herself and helps Wilson and Torres. They meet with Wilson's military friend Dennis Dunphy (William Mark McCullough), who has Sidewinder in custody. Wilson learns enough from Sidewinder to deduce Sterns's plan to destroy Ross's reputation. Wilson, Torres, and Bat-Seraph go to Celestial Island where Ross and the Prime Minister Ozaki are racing to claim ownership of adamantium. 

Sterns controls the minds of two American pilots who attack the Japanese fleet. Wilson and Torres intercept the fighter jets and convince the Japanese to stand down. Torres is shot out of the air and plunges into the Indian Ocean, critically injured. Ross tells Wilson that he is dying of heart failure and had Sterns develop pills that have prolonged his life. Ross refused to release Sterns for fear that he would no longer make the pills, leading to Sterns seeking revenge.

Sterns kills Dunphy, preventing him from calling Wilson and explaining that the pills, taken one at a time three times a day, have been adding gamma radiation to Ross's body. At the hospital, where Wilson is watching on as surgeons restart Torres heart, he is consoled by his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Sterns later surrenders himself to Wilson. During a press conference on the White House Rose Garden, Ross loses control of his emotions and transforms into a red Hulk, and destroys part of the White House. Wilson rushes to stop him. 

Unable to overpower Ross, Wilson attempts to calm him down by reminding him of visits to Washington, D.C.'s cherry blossom trees with his estranged daughter Betty, when she was much younger. The two fight until they can fight no more, and Ross reverts to his normal self. Later, Bradley is exonerated, Wilson invites a recovering Torres to join the Avengers, the treaty is ratified, and work has begun on repairing the damaged White House. Ross resigns and has himself incarcerated at the Raft (an underwater maximum security prison located in the Atlantic Ocean), where Wilson and Betty (Liv Tyler) visit him. 

'Captain America : Brave New World' is an OK entry into the MCU canon - it's not great but it's also not that bad either. Anthony Mackie/Sam Wilson is a more than acceptable replacement for Chris Evans/Steve Rogers even though he is a mere mortal and doesn't posses the super powers that the latter had, but he still has the wings, the suit, the shield and that gadgets that help him get by. Harrison Ford chews up the scenery, especially when he transforms into Red Hulk and looks as though he's having a blast, and there are some parallel's to be drawn here with the current presidential administration too. As for the two villains in the piece - Sidewinder and Sterns, they are largely under utilised and really serve as mere McGuffin's to move the story along. Whilst the action set pieces are well choreographed as we have come to expect from the MCU, the CGI at times leaves much to be desired, especially in the case of the cherry blossom scene in which Cap and Red Hulk go head to head and toe and toe in close quarter combat - so obviously computer generated that the techies must have been asleep at the wheel the day they programmed that sequence! 

'Captain America : Brave New World' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

TOP GUN : MAVERICK - Tuesday 31st May 2022.

I saw the M Rated 'TOP GUN : MAVERICK' earlier this week and it is finally here, after its originally scheduled release date of mid-July 2019 was pushed back to allow for the production team to work on the elaborate action flight sequences, and was reset for late June 2020. It was then moved to Christmas 2020 because of the COVID-19 outbreak and then delayed again to early July 2021 due to scheduling conflicts and the ongoing escalation of the global pandemic. It was further pushed back to a mid-November 2021 release before its final delay to last week for a global release, following its World Premier at CinemaCon in late April and a screening at the Cannes Film Festival earlier in May in an Official Selection Screening, where it received a five-minute standing ovation. This film is the sequel to the 1986 film 'Top Gun' and is Directed by Joseph Kosinski whose previous film making credits are 'Tron : Legacy','Oblivion' and 'Only the Brave' with the upcoming 'Spiderhead' due for a release on Netflix from mid-June. This film cost US$170M to produce, has so far grossed US$391M and has garnered widespread critical acclaim, with many saying that it is better than Tony Scott's original. 

Following on from the events of 'Top Gun' albeit thirty years down the track, Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell (Tom Cruise), has remained a US Navy test pilot in order to deliberately avoid promotion which would see him grounded rather than doing what he loves - flying. Rear Admiral Chester 'Hammer' Cain (Ed Harris) has plans to visit the airbase where Maverick is located to shut down the hypersonic 'Darkstar' scramjet programme and redirect the funds to drone programmes which he sees as the future. Maverick has taken the jet to MACH 9.0 before but needs to prove that it can fly at MACH 10.0 and so takes the prototype to its speed objective before Cain arrives, and ultimately takes it to MACH 10.3 pushing it yet further into the boundaries of its capability, and ends up destroying the prototype and parachuting to safety before the jet crashes down to Earth and erupting in a ball of flame. Cain is poised to ground Maverick for his recklessness, but his friend and former rival Admiral Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky (Val Kilmer), now commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, intervenes and orders Maverick to NAS North Island as a TOPGUN instructor. 

Upon arrival as North Island, Maverick is ordered to train an elite group of pilots assembled by Vice Admiral Beau 'Cyclone' Simpson (Jon Hamm) and Rear Admiral Solomon 'Warlock' Bates (Charles Parnell) to bomb an undisclosed uranium enrichment plant that is seen by the Pentagon as a threat to the USA. The plant sits in a deep gully with steep mountain terrain on all sides and at the end of a winding canyon and is defended by surface-to-air missile batteries and both old and new enemy aircraft. Maverick plans an attack with two pairs of F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets, which will fly through the canyon and destroy the plant, while also exceeding the Hornet's general flight and operating instruction limits. Maverick is initially rebuffed by the pilots, particularly by Lieutenant Jake 'Hangman' Seresin (Glen Powell) and more so by Lieutenant Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Maverick's former best friend and Radar Intercept Officer Nick 'Goose' Bradshaw, who died so tragically in the first film.

As the pilots train for their mission watched on closely by Cyclone and Warlock, animosity develops between Hangman and Rooster, who resents Hangman's cavalier attitude towards his wingmen, while Hangman criticises Rooster's caution. As the pilots observe and succumb to Maverick's skill as a pilot they reassess and amalgamate around him. Maverick also reunites with former girlfriend Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connolly), who now owns and runs a popular bar on North Island, and who he hasn't seen for the last three years. He admits that partly the reason for Rooster's reluctance to bond with him is because after Rooster's late mother Carolyn made him promise to keep her son from flying, he blocked Rooster's application to the Naval Academy, setting his career back by four years. Maverick later meets with Iceman, who now has throat cancer and communicates by typing. Iceman reassures Maverick about teaching the pilots before passing away days later. Maverick and the pilots attend his funeral with full military honours. 

With Iceman gone, Cyclone removes Maverick as mission trainer and takes over setting new parameters that are less risky on going in but more risky on coming out. However, Maverick makes an unsanctioned flight of the simulated course with the original parameters, proving that it could be done within a two-and-a-half minute timeframe. Cyclone is reluctantly convinced, and appoints Maverick as the strike leader in a F/A-18E Super Hornet.

The day of reckoning arrives, brought forward by one week because the uranium enriching plant was taking receipt of its uranium deposits a week ahead of schedule. Maverick chooses and pairs himself with pilot 'Phoenix' (Monica Barbaro) and her Weapon Systems Officer 'Bob' (Lewis Pullman) in a two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet, while Rooster is paired with 'Payback' (Jay Ellis) and his Weapon Systems Officer 'Fanboy' (Danny Ramirez). Hangman and the remaining pilots are put on standby. The team launches from an aircraft carrier while a cruiser fires Tomahawk cruise missiles to destroy the landing strip at the air base near the plant. The strike team reaches the plant and destroy it. They are attacked by surface-to-air missiles and a pair of patrolling Su-57 fighters. When Rooster runs out of countermeasures, Maverick sacrifices his jet to protect him and ejects. The remaining aircraft return to the carrier, believing Maverick was killed in action. Against specific orders issued by Cyclone, Rooster turns back and saves Maverick from an Mi-24 helicopter gunship, but is shot down immediately afterwards by another surface-to-air missile and ejects nearby. The two reunite and head towards the destroyed airbase, where they steal an old albeit still working F-14 Tomcat and head back to the carrier. Maverick and Rooster get into a dog-fight with two intercepting Su-57's ultimately shooting them down, but as third arrives and begins to attack they run out of their own missiles, bullets and incoming missile countermeasures. Hangman arrives from standby to shoot down the Su-57, and the planes return to cheers on the carrier, where Maverick thanks Rooster for saving his life, and Rooster says that's what his dad would have done. The pair reconcile their differences.

Following the mission, Maverick and Rooster are seen working together to restore a P-51 Mustang at a hangar close to the test facility where Maverick was previously stationed. Penny arrives with her daughter Amelia (Lyliana Wray), and Maverick takes her for a ride in the P-51.

'Top Gun : Maverick' is a fist thumping, heart pounding, edge of your seat, adrenalin packed thrill ride film that will leave audiences remembering why they go to a movie theatre in the first place - to see big screen blockbuster action spectacle writ large. And this film doesn't disappoint in any of those departments. The aerial flight sequences of which there are plenty, deliver in spades, thanks to Tom Cruise penchant for keeping his practical stunt work real and putting all his other 'pilots' through the same rigorous training regime to deliver the viewer the bona fide in-cockpit experience. The film has fast paced thrilling flying sequences at its core, but it also has emotion, heart, humour and drama that elevates it above the 1986 original, whilst maintaining some of the touchstones from 'Top Gun', including that this is a Don Simpson / Jerry Bruckheimer production, even though the former died twenty-five years ago; the Kenny Loggins 'Danger Zone' plays in the opening sequence aboard the aircraft carrier; Rooster sits down at the piano in Penny's bar and belts out 'Great Balls of Fire' just as his Dad Goose did; and the closing credits make tribute to the memory of Tony Scott, who Directed the original and who died in 2012. All of that said, it is glorious eye candy that still proves that Tom Cruise still has what it takes in the action stakes and continues to raise the bar in all of his own stunt work while bringing an ensemble cast who together are greater than the sum of their parts, and Joseph Kosinski has proven his deft touch at big action spectacle whilst keeping the human element grounded. See this film on the biggest screen you can. 

'Top Gun : Maverick' merits five claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-