Shira Haas as Sabra can’t shield us from disappointment in new ‘Captain America’ flick
Now in US theaters, Marvel’s 35th movie may just be its worst, while featuring — after no small amount of controversy — the franchise’s first Israeli hero
NEW YORK — Not even a well-trained Israeli security agent slash assassin can save this movie.
“Captain America: Brave New World” is the 35th (!) theatrically released feature film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And it’s probably the worst. The story is clunky, the action is rote, the characters are bland and the special effects look cheap. There are only two attempts at a joke in this whole enterprise, and only one of them lands. Naturally, it was into this turkey that the only Israeli in Marvel’s array of characters, one Ruth Bat-Seraph, got stuffed. What a waste.
Ruth Bat-Seraph (pronounced by some of the other characters as “Bats Are Off”) is played by Shira Haas, star of “Unorthodox.” In the comics, the character, who has only made a few appearances over the years, is a Mossad agent with superpowers and the codename Sabra. One iteration has her with full, bushy hair and a spandex suit mirroring the Israeli flag. (See for yourself.) In the movie, she is a blazer-wearing security aide to the president of the United States. It is mentioned that she was born in Israel but trained in the “red rooms,” a reference to the Soviet-era Black Widow spy program in the Marvel universe. She has no connection to the Israeli government and, at first, the audience is meant to distrust her, but by the end she is revealed to be one of the good guys.
When Haas’s casting for the movie was announced, it caused a bit of a stir online, with many calling for a boycott. (People can accept space aliens and sorcerers, but not a Jewish state.) Watching the film, you can tell the character was probably in it a lot more originally. She just kinda disappears toward the end. If you follow Hollywood trade journals, you can see there were more than the average number of reshoots on the picture.
Funnily enough, when I interviewed former Marvel producer Avi Arad for The Times of Israel in 2012, I asked him if he ever would put Sabra in a movie. He chuckled and said, “We are now in a time when the name ‘Sabra,’ it does not… it is not so good for selling a film in international markets. When you have international, corporate interests… I do not think we could take a film to Dubai with Sabra right now, unfortunately.” Who knew then it wouldn’t be Dubai but rather Columbia University students freaking out?
Anyway, Haas does the best she can with the material — which mostly means being minuscule in stature but occasionally pulling off martial arts moves that take down bulked-up bodyguards in one key move. Talk about suspension of disbelief!
But what about the rest of the movie? Well, to truly follow the intricacies of the plot, you need to have done some studying — specifically of key moments from the movies “The Incredible Hulk” and “Eternals,” released in 2008 and 2021, as well as the Marvel television show “The Falcon and the Winter Snowman,” also released in 2021. That said, this is a movie intended to play to the broadest of international audiences who brought the kids for an entertaining day at the cinema. If you have two eyes and a semi-functioning brain, you’ll follow the story. Good guys, bad guys, explosions and Harrison Ford transforming into an enormous red monster.
The top good guy, of course, is Captain America, but you should know that there’s a new Captain now. Sam Wilson (played by Anthony Mackie), previously Falcon, has been promoted. He’s got the famous Cap shield, but he’s kept Falcon’s wings. Mackie, a co-star of the Oscar-winning picture “The Hurt Locker,” is a charismatic actor, and he does well enough as the hero emerging from the shadow of the previous Captain America played by Chris Evans. He’s got his own second banana, played by Danny Ramirez. We watch them swoop in with their science fiction technology to rescue some hostages (Spanish-speaking nuns!) from dastardly arms traders. Oh, if only it were always so simple.
After the successful operation, we learn about the world’s political situation. Everyone is on edge thanks to the election of a new US president — Thaddeus Ross, played in earlier Marvel films by William Hurt, but now by Harrison Ford. The old, white and male president has a number of controversial skeletons in his past, but he swears that’s all behind him as he hopes to restore unity to the country. Development of this movie began years ago, but it’s a little eerie watching it just a few weeks into Trump’s executive order-happy second term.
Captain America (and all his pals) are suspicious of the president, but they respect the office, so they decide to give him the benefit of the doubt. That includes one of Cap’s mentors, Isaiah Bradley, an ex-soldier who was experimented on by the US government. It’s at an important summit with world leaders when Bradley (Cap’s special guest) goes nuts and attempts an assassination. Anyone who has ever seen a movie — be it “The Manchurian Candidate” or even “The Naked Gun” — will immediately know that Bradley has been triggered by mind control. But it takes the geniuses in this thing another hour to figure it out.
What we discover is that Harrison Ford is actually having his strings pulled by an evil villain from the past, played by Tim Blake Nelson. Gamma rays have expanded his brain power, but also made poor Tim look like a human piece of broccoli. (Hats off to the makeup team on this one.)
Ford’s President Ross is not a righteous man, but he’s trying his best. If there is a message in this movie, it’s that everyone deserves a second chance. Again, weird timing watching this in the United States with the twice-impeached president who has been convicted on 34 felony charges and also held liable for sexual abuse just settling into his new job. (Maybe we should ask the Marvel producers for tips at the track, considering they were able to predict the election.)
But unsettling commonalities with current politics is not what makes this movie bad. What’s unfortunate is that there’s just no zip. The first round of Marvel movies all had a sense of humor — “Iron Man” was about a heartless arms dealer who grows into altruism, “Captain America” had a World War II hero adjusting to modern times, and “Thor” showed a Norse god who made the girls swoon when he tasted coffee, smashed the mug in glee, and demanded another. There’s none of that playfulness here. It just feels like everyone is going through the motions, getting another product on the assembly line.
There are occasional bright spots. Harrison Ford (a Jewish man, by the way!) eventually transforms into a rage beast (a “red Hulk,” if you will) and these scenes are campy and fun. There’s a touch of William Shatner in his performance. Alas, the computer-generated effects aren’t too impressive, and neither is the final showdown with Captain America. A lot of zooming around on greenscreens and smashing into pixelated buildings.
Say what you will about these silly movies, but they usually feel like you’ve gotten your money’s worth. This is one of the few that, when it’s over, you may say, “Wait, that’s it?”
Of course, it’s not it. “Thunderbolts,” the next movie in this endless series, will be in theaters in just three months. We can only hope that one will be better.
