The new biographical film Devotion gives the MCU fans something to really look forward to.

Devotion revealed the story of the first black navy pilot, Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors) and his wingman Tom Hudner (Glen Powell), who flew missions at the beginning of the Korean War.

Why should the MCU fans be excited about this? Because Jonathan Majors is utterly awesome in this film and he is about to become the next big-bad in the MCU, Kang the Conqueror. We saw him in the final episode of season one of the Loki series and he will next appear in Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania. With his amazing acting skills, there could be some wonderful moments ahead.

As for Devotion, Majors is winning throughout, but the film itself is a tad slow and dragged in places. Jonathan Majors commanded everyone’s attention when he was on screen, but the rest of the film was okay, at best.

It is a true story, based on the 2015 book Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice by Adam Makos. I was unaware of this story so the eventual ending for the movie was surprising. Directed by J.D. Dillard, Devotion probably suffered from being in the same year as Top Gun: Maverick. The flying scenes were fine, but unremarkable and when you have such an example of high quality flight, it is difficult not to compare them.

There was interesting aspects of the race, looking at how black people were treated, even a navy pilot, in the 1950s. While this was definitely part of the story, it did not dominate the script or overwhelm the film.

Jonathan Majors is a star on the rise (not only in the MCU, but also upcoming in the next Creed film) and he helped to elevate this film above what was on the page.

3.2 stars