Captain America - Anthony Mackie Controversy- Patriotic?

Welcome back to the channel. I hope you're all having a great day. So today we want to talk about Captain America: Brave New World, uh, that's been receiving a lot of controversy even, even before, uh, what we recently got here with the Anthony Mackie situation, right? Now I like Anthony Mackie, uh, he portrays the Falcon. And, uh, we know there is an era in the comic books where the Falcon takes on the mantle of Captain America, right? So what did Anthony Mackie say that, uh, created the controversy? So he was asked in an interview in Rome— remember, he was outside the country, he was in Rome on his press tour— and he was asked, what does Captain America, you know, what, what does it represent for him? What does it mean for him? And Mackie said that it represents a lot of different things, but the term America is not one of them, right? And so that's the, that, that was the, the big issue, right? And, you know, in the, with the controversy, because if You're, if you're Captain America and you're, you're donning that representation of America, you know, how is Captain America not going to represent America, right? So we're going to talk a little bit about that today. My opinions of, of, you know, you know, as, as Anthony Mackie did clarify a lot of the statement, right? And so we're going to talk a little bit about, you know, where I think he was coming from, right? I can't speak for Anthony Mackie, but I, I, I, I, I do understand where a lot of Americans understand where he was coming from. And so we're going to talk about that a little bit, uh, but before I get into that, right, let me just say a few things about just the situation and the logistics on Captain America: Brave New World, right? And that is, uh, a lot of what we're getting with this film is that it's gonna bomb, it's gonna flop. People are saying that it's not going to, you know, be a billion-dollar, you know, film and all that stuff, and that that's going to be a problem for Marvel, right? But I would disagree a lot on the ideas out there about Captain America: Brave New World, right? First, I would say that the Captain America series— if you look at Captain America: The First Avenger, you look at Captain America: Winter Soldier, maybe Captain America: Civil War, kind of you know, bridges off a little bit more into the comic book world. But if you look at these movies, they feel like standalone movies, right? They feel like spy thrillers that are well grounded, right? And you just get that image and energy right now. Of course, you, you see the Red Hulk and Brave New World trailers, right? But my understanding is you're only gonna get about 4 minutes of the Red Hulk. So I want you guys to, to think about that, and I want you to understand something, um, that this kind of grounded story that Captain America tells in his particular movies, it, it, it's different than I feel your traditional Marvel comic book stories, if that makes sense. Right? Now, there was a rumor out that this movie was costing like $400 million. Now they're correcting that, saying no, this movie is on the cheap for a Marvel superhero movie. It's only about $180 million to make it. And so it's going to, uh, if it makes like $600 million, that's going to be a good return on that movie, right? So keep that in mind, right? If that's true, if all in all we can really go upon is what they say is true. Right? So I don't think they would lie so much about— well, I don't know, but I don't know if business-wise they could really lie about the numbers like that. So anyway, because you got investors. But anyhow, uh, you know, this is a kind of a different type of movie, right? Again, when I look at these Captain America movies, I put them in there almost a different Marvel genre, and I can watch them standalone, almost separate from the Marvel Universe, and get something out of that. I really do like the direction that the Captain America movies take. It feels spy thriller, it feels grounded espionage movie, uh, you know, that's something that could really happen, right? Like, you could probably have a hero on steroids, on some kind of serum, right, who's just a really good, you know, who's in this, uh, geopolitical spy thriller movie. That can almost feel grounded, right? Because Captain America, you know, he's not flying around, he's not, you know, doing all this stuff. And although the Falcon is, you know, he's doing that with an assisted wingsuit or whatever, right? But there, you get what I'm saying. There are elements of that. The, the other part I, I'd like to say about just this movie overall, Brave New World, that I think is going to be entertaining— it's gonna— it's my type of movie because, uh, you know Uh, whether people believe it or not, right, or it might surprise some people that although I've been promoting and pushing, uh, this very comic book looking Superman Legacy movie coming out with Gunn, that's only because I probably wouldn't have done it for anybody else but James Gunn because James Gunn just has a talent in bringing comic books to the screen, right? But I more so like the superhero more mature grounded films, right? And so I flock to the Captain America films, as it were, but because it's in that particular genre, I've never looked at these movies to make billions of dollars, right? The Captain America movies, uh, you know, they, they're not like that level of comic book movie, right? And so you're going to have a less, a, a smaller audience, I would expect, to that. I don't know why they're comparing Captain America: Brave New World to all the other big Marvel films that gross a billion dollars, right? Now that we've already covered the $180 million mark that it's only costing this movie to make, meaning that it's going to be a profitable movie, it's not going to flop based on those numbers, we also have to keep in consideration that Marvel Disney, right, is the only movie franchise that's been bringing out billion-dollar films, that's been bringing out films grossing billions of dollars. Remember, they've just done The Lion King, right? So Marvel Disney can take losses all day long. And even if they were to take a loss on this film, right? It still doesn't mean that it's not a good film, right? I, I just don't think it's a wide audience film like people might think. Now let's get to the Anthony Mackie comment, right, of Captain America not representing the term America, right? I've, I've been watching what some content creators had to say, some big YouTube channels. You guys know I have a a big issue with a lot of these big YouTube channels, and I'm not going to name names, right? Now you guys are going to know right off the ones I'm talking about that you watch. But my, my big issue with these guys as of late is that I understand, I get it, and I agree with them, right? If there's a certain type of hero, right, that represents a certain origin story creation, uh, whether it be race or gender. I, I agree that, hey, you know, we don't need to make characters into women or other races and such genders that we came aboard on with that were something else, right? I, I— that, that makes sense to a lot of people, right? That you're gonna like the original creation of what a thing is, right? And I'm with them on that part. Here's the issue though. A lot of these big YouTube channels, right, and I get they've had trouble with the woke stuff, but now they seem to just focus on that. Like, they're not even doing comic book stuff anymore, right? In my opinion, they're not focusing on, uh, elements of the comic— comics more so than they're focusing on that. And, and that's almost as bad as the woke stuff. It, it's very similar because what they're doing is they're, they're taking the content off the comic books, and, and a lot of their content is now just woke stuff, right? And I know they say that that was started by the studios and franchises at first, but I, I, I, I'm optimistic and I'm confident that even if we look at what's happening with Superman and James Gunn, right, when you take out the Snyderverse fans, a lot of people believe that the last era of Superman, that Man of Steel stuff, wasn't Superman. They didn't like that. They felt that Superman was too dark. They felt that that Superman was, uh, too violent. They felt that that Superman was not this Superman we wanted to see. And then some people might say, oh no, I disagree, it was better. But whatever you agree or disagree with, there's a lot of people who believe that, and the studios have moved on from that to a more colorful, comic booky, Boy Scout-like Superman, right? So here's the point I'm making: that the studios do begin to listen, right? Especially when it affects their bottom dollar, right? And they do start to make changes we want over time, right? But I'm wondering, are a lot of these big YouTube content people gonna do that? You know, are they going to keep up with those times? Because they're spending so much time focusing on that, I'm not hearing comic book content much anymore. I'm hearing these stories like this Anthony Mackie story, right? But let's get into the relation of Captain America, you know, with comments like what Anthony Mackie had to say about it not reflecting America. So first, when I think about Captain America as a character, as a superhero, being synonymous with America, the state, America, the country, I'm thinking Steve Rogers, World War II, where citizens did trust their government, right? Where it was a lot of patriotism, where it was a lot of more unity as Americans, right? There's a lot of more traditionalism. That's the Steve Rogers era. So it makes sense to me that the character of Steve Rogers as Captain America would be that version of Captain America right now. Even when he goes to modern times, you know, he's fighting with ideas in America like, you know, this isn't what America's supposed to be. America's not supposed to be based on fear but freedom, right? Even he's having trouble with the future America he sees from that World War II era. But specifically to the character of the Falcon, when he dons the mantle of Captain America— and I'm not big on comic books where he's featured as Captain America, but I did understand the era Falcon comes out of, of being like amongst the first superhero Black superheroes And he kind of comes out of this Black Panther, Luke Cage era of, of, of, you know, a lot of the Black exploitation, you know, era, uh, uh, culture, right? And so it's kind of like the soul power, Black power type, you know, he's kind of drawn that way. So that Falcon, Falcon to me wouldn't be a Steve Rogers Captain America. Right, if that makes sense. Also, even in the trailer clips, what we get is we get Harrison Ford, you know, playing Thunderbolt Ross, the president, now saying that you're not Steve Rogers, right? And that, that right there to me opens up the door that this is a different type of Captain America with different values, right? Uh, not the same values, but maybe expressed in a different way. You know, this is a Captain America who isn't on the America is the beacon of the world and hope of the world anymore. This is an espionage movie. This is a spy movie where, uh, they're trying to reach those, uh, uh, those goals of being that type of American. They're trying to defend America, get it to that place. Right. And when Anthony Mackie clarifies many of his thoughts on that, right, he basically says that, you know, these— that, you know, all of the ideas of America, you know, all the good things, you know, it representing, you know, these goals and dreams of what it could be. Right. Unfortunately, he didn't say that in Rome. Right. He didn't say it at the end. But he did say, uh, he did speak about, you know, those, those, uh, traits, right, of, you know, the idea of what America could be, right? He speaks about— but he, he should have said at the end that that's what we hope America would be, right? But a lot of us understood what he meant when he said it's not America because he's talking about that America, that deep state America, right? That government, uh, America of today that's been in all these wars, that's been in all these controversy, that's been in all these conspiracy theories, that's not trusted by the American people. That's what we got, right? But people are trying to say, oh no, he shouldn't represent Captain America because he doesn't believe in America, right? But a lot of people would say The, uh, traits and attributes that he's speaking of, right, that, uh, America wants to live up to, is that America, right? It is a dream, right? It is a vision of that shiny city glistening in the sun, right? It, it, it, it is what we aspire to be. So that, that's what it's about, right? But the Falcon version of Captain America It's not Steve Rogers. So even if you wanted to kind of just take it for face value what he said, right, without any deeper meaning into it, uh, the, the, the, the Falcon that exists in the comic books, um, you know, to my— I, I never caught that he was like gung-ho supporting America. Also, when you're, you're going around the world on press tours you're in these different countries. And remember, these— and being in these different countries, these people know the real America. And some of those people have been victims of America, and they think America is a joke, right? So if you kind of get up there like, truth, justice, the American way, these people are going to think you're, you know, you're crazy, right? So I think Anthony Mackie may have been, you know, looking at it from that perspective as well, to go home and Yeah, because he wasn't in the United States saying this. He was in Rome, Italy. And so he probably was like, well, these people, I'm trying to get them to come see this movie, but they're not going to believe this hogwash that America is all this great stuff we tell the world they are. We're telling the world we're trying to get— we're working to get America to that, right? If all that makes sense. That's all I want to say in this video. Tell me all what you thought about his comment and if he should don the Captain America mantle, because, you know, let's be honest, after comments like this, uh, you know, or at least the way the internet is taking it, you know, they're probably going to want to get him back to being the Falcon after this, right? They, you know, some people might just feel like he's not representing Captain America clearly, not like Steve Rogers, because Again, Steve Rogers was from an era when a lot of people believed America was this way, right? World War II. I mean, this is the greatest military victories in American history. It's probably the greatest economic time. It's probably the greatest family value time for certain families. So yeah, you know, when you, when you consider all those things, right, you know, uh, as what Captain America should be. The Falcon is not that, right? Falcon's, uh, isn't it like a 1970s-created comic book hero that lives in an America that is a Vietnam War era that is in a lot of a hot mess, right? This isn't the glory of the, uh, the '40s and the '50s. But anyway, that's all I got to say, guys. If you like my breakdowns of information content like this, comic books, do us a big favor, hit that subscribe button. Don't wait to do it, don't be lazy about it, just hit it. That way you'll be notified to get more, uh, you know, uh, breakdowns like this information as we get it, as it becomes available. As always, take care of yourselves and each other.