Captain America: Brave New World

★★★ | Seems much like the old one, to be honest

Captain America: Brave New World is slated as a new start for the MCU, but it feels like a timid retread of everything the franchise has covered in the past. While it occasionally soars thanks to poignant themes and Anthony Mackie’s effortless charisma, it’s mostly a misshapen, poorly structured sideshow cobbled together from a troubled production.

Set in the wake of the Disney Plus streaming series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Brave New World picks up with Sam Wilson having fully embraced his status as Captain America. Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford), architect of the Sokovia Act which tore The Avengers apart, is now president looking for allies for his new world order.

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One of them is Sam, who Ross wants to lead a new version of The Avengers, one way or another. Before Sam can even consider the prospect, his friend and former Captain America, Isaiah Bradley, is framed for the attempted assassination of Ross. As tensions rise, Sam is forced to consider his allegiances to not just the people in charge, but what the symbolism of Captain America means in an age where the lines between good and evil are murkier than ever.

The first half hour promises so much more than what the rest of the film delivers. With only a minor action sequence to remind us that this is still a Marvel property, the real meat is in showcasing the strengths of Mackie's Cap in a world that's far removed from Steve Roger's.

Mackie, who is as magnetic and charming as ever, rises to the challenge and there is no question that he's the kind of hero we would love to follow for future adventures.

The problem is that this setup only works in earnest if you've watched The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which most didn't. Or probably won't remember, as the series also suffered from a case of tonal confusion and lackluster plotting.

The best thing about it is that Isaiah Bradley, the second Captain America the US military made in secret and then buried in prison to hide their actions, returns for Brave New World. For a brief moment, there's a faint promise that we will get a smart and introspective thriller about the cost of blindly following orders from a government that no longer serves its people.

Instead, Bradley becomes yet another Macguffin, which is just a bad look considering what he's supposed to represent.

That's because Brave New World has no fewer than four antagonists, none of whom are interesting enough to warrant their screen time. They're bits and pieces of four different films, each one a leftover of one version this project was supposed to be during its reportedly troubled production.

There's Ross, a former villain trying to do good before his past catches up with him. The Leader, a villain teased almost 15 years ago when The Hulk was played by Edward Norton. Sidewinder is the leader of Cap's arch-nemesis group, though you wouldn't know it from here. And finally, there's Ruth Bat-Seraph, an Israeli superhero who even the producers realize is such a distinctly awful idea to put into a movie that her part is cut into a bizarre cameo that sticks out like a sore thumb.

It's this cutting and mixing and matching that hurts Brave New World the most. For the most part, it's the kind of comic book filmmaking we've come to expect from Sony, not Marvel. There's a great film buried in here, somewhere. A braver and more nuanced thriller that truly could lead Marvel into new territory.

Instead, at some point, someone panicked, and Brave New World resets right back to the status quo. It's not the fault of the cast, who often remind us why we love these characters, and certainly not Mackie, who carries the film with more charm than it deserves.

But we live in a very, very different world than we did when Tony Stark first declared himself Iron Man. One where the status quo isn't enough anymore. Superheroes need to be aspirational, they can't just uphold the same old thing, because what it once was is now broken.

Brave New World wants to break free of that loop and stand out as something stronger. It doesn't. But boy do we hope that one day it will.