Big brands are built on trust and track record. If your name is Stephen King, everything you have ever written is waiting for a chance to come to life on screen. No story by King is too small to make a big splash on camera, and directors and audiences clamor for them. But it must be done right. If you are Marvel, you have earned our love a hundred times over but also courted our skepticism of late. There is so much at stake for our most iconic entertainment dynasties.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is still trying to find its way after the failed efforts to set up Kang the Conqueror as the next big bad. The blame is placed firmly on the shoulders of Jonathan Majors and his violent fall from grace. But even without the unforeseen disaster he turned out to be, the MCU has felt a little flat ever since Tony Stark died and his Avengers team broke up. A few interesting one-offs have come out, but nothing that sets up a new meta-arc to get excited about. “Captain America: Brave New World” is another of those interesting one-offs. The new Cap, Sam Wilson, is trying to work with Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, now played by Harrison Ford after the 2022 death of William Hurt. Ross has a lot of skeletons in the closet, though, and a particularly smart one has been manipulating events (and Ross’ DNA) to bring things to a dramatic head. I need to shame the trailer here, because the choice to reveal Ross as Red Hulk in the early marketing was a huge mistake. It would have served “Brave New World” much better as a third-act surprise. Instead, we know it’s coming from minute one, and the path to it is wholly unfulfilling. Many of the things we love about the MCU are present: a fun script, kinetic action and strong performances (especially Anthony Mackie). So too are the bad things: a weak villain, inconsistent tone, a clunky relationship with its own larger mythologies.
Next up in our double feature is “The Monkey”.
I’m tempted to provide a “if you like this kind of thing” disclaimer over the entirety of this next section because, well, I usually don’t like this kind of thing. Director Osgood Perkins is known for his creepy, offbeat and very personal style. So, his adaptation of Stephen King’s 1980 short story “The Monkey” about a cursed toy was bound to be over the top and, according to Perkins himself, funny. It’s neither. And that’s not the only “neither” in play with “The Monkey”. It doesn’t work as a gory kill-fest. Nor does it work as a parody of one. The distinction between funny and silly does not appear to be well understood in the script, which is full of eye-rollers and lame non sequiturs that land with a damp thud. The visual aesthetic is arresting, which we’ve come to expect from Perkins, and there were more than a few shots that had me nodding my head with respect for his scenic creativity. He doesn’t back it up with worthy action, though. There are a few very enjoyable deaths, if you like that kind of thing, but never any cohesive narrative or coherent momentum to latch onto. By playing for laughs instead of screams, it feels like Perkins missed an opportunity to do both and brings us unfortunately to a third and final “neither”. “The Monkey” isn’t great and it isn’t terrible. It’s…you know.
Neither of these movies is going to set the world on fire, but they will both do their part to get people into theaters during the gloomy last weeks of winter. I liked “Brave New World” better than “The Monkey”, but I’ll always show up for the MCU and anything related to Stephen King. Let’s see what both bring us next.
