Captain America: Brave New World Isn't the Fresh Start Marvel Is Hoping For

I have to start this review with a confession: I have not seen or otherwise interacted with any movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Avengers: Endgame. With the end of the "Infinity Stones" saga, I felt the need to disembark from Disney's endless train of superhero action.

I doubt I'm alone in feeling this way. The MCU's expansion to streaming and the retirement of major characters such as Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man have led to poor box office results and pitiful reviews. They've also failed to launch new sub-franchises and plotlines due to scandals around critical actors and apathy from viewers. Featured characters are increasingly marginal and the need to follow complicated, interconnected plotlines over different media is a chore. Marvel's troubles are part of a larger phenomenon of "superhero movie fatigue," in which audiences have fallen out of love with caped crusaders (with notable exceptions). It's led some to hope that Hollywood will pivot away from franchises and back to original stories.

Of course, it's foolish to count out the biggest entertainment company in the world, and after a fallow year, Disney is now readying a comeback with Captain America: Brave New World. As the title suggests, it's positioned as something of a fresh start for the MCU, with a new Captain America. With Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) having retired at the end of Endgame, they've subbed in Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), formerly Rogers' high-flying sidekick the Falcon, to pick up the shield.

Rather than catch up on all the missed MCU content, I decided to go completely blind into Brave New World. I figured the film would serve as a reintroduction to the MCU for many, including myself. I expected action, thrills, and few complications. Instead, I think I watched a movie about Joe Biden.

Between all the knock-down, drag-out superhero brawls and scenes of Captain America slicing up fighter jets, much of Brave New World focuses not on the Captain himself, but on Harrison Ford's character: Newly elected President Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, who is also secretly the Gamma-irradiated fiend Red Hulk (like the regular Hulk, except he's red). Ross is a clear analog for the now-former president: He's an older politician with an ornery personality brought to the nation's highest office to deal with multiple crises, but because of his age, pride, and skeletons in his closet, he ends up letting a monster with an unconventional skin tone wreak havoc in our nation's capital. Ford is the best thing about the movie and has a lot of fun with the role, which also attempts to invoke the actor's previous thrillers like Air Force One and Clear and Present Danger. He chews the scenery appropriately, barely containing Ross' explosive urges to Hulk out. (Sadly he only does this once, at the climax of the film, and the disappointing CGI rendering of the big guy looks pretty underbaked.)
As a character, Ross is not new to the MCU. He appeared, played by William Hurt, in The Incredible Hulk way back in 2008. Likewise, Sam Wilson's replacement as the Falcon, Air Force Lieutenant Joaquin Torres, will be unfamiliar to anyone who didn't watch The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the Disney+ streaming series which paired Sam as the new Captain America with the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). The overarching plot, meanwhile, centers around a mysterious new mineral found on the "Celestial Island" that appeared at the end of Eternals. Amid the diplomatic efforts of newly-elected President Ross to secure a treaty gaining access to the island, Sam, while dealing with insecurities over living up to Steve Rodgers' example, investigates a conspiracy surrounding efforts to sabotage it and uncovers a plot to discredit the increasingly unstable Ross.

As ever, it helps to have studied up on MCU lore to understand one of these movies, and that's a problem. For a supposedly crowd-pleasing, patriotic action film like this, one shouldn't have to feel obligated to keep up with three other interrelated, non-sequential movies. References to older, underseen, and obscure parts of the Marvel mythos may appease hardcore fans who have shown up for everything, but they won't engender goodwill among the casual moviegoers who just want to watch an exciting movie about a recognizable and beloved hero.

The need to balance these dueling obligations may be one reason why the film's development was so troubled. The screenplay boasts five names, including director Julius Onah. Meanwhile, much speculation has occurred over its reshoots and budget, and controversy has loomed over the film due to the presence of Sabra, a Marvel character of Israeli origin. She's present in the film as Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), a short and acerbic former Black Widow now serving as Ross' top intelligence agent. Her origins and comic-book status as a Mossad agent are removed entirely, leaving us with a character as unpleasant as she is inexplicable.
In fact, most of the main cast is pretty unremarkable and unpleasant: Haas gives her character no personality beyond a scowl and a domineering attitude. The new Falcon, Joaquin Torres (Miami-raised Danny Ramirez), is a cocky, happy-go-lucky air force lieutenant. An uncharismatic Mackie is upstaged at every point by Harrison Ford. The only other actor who can compete is Carl Lumbly, who steals every scene he's in as the "secret Captain America" Isaiah Bradley, returning from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Once fed the same super-soldier serum as Steve Rodgers, he finds himself wrapped up in the plot against Ross after years of mistreatment by the U.S. government.

After such a long time away from the MCU, I didn't know what to expect from Brave New World. Ultimately it feels as disposable as the rest of the franchise's recent output, elevated slightly by some bizarre, possibly unintended political commentary. There will be more to come, and fans will inevitably jump on certain plot details like wolves looking for scraps of information about the future. For the rest of us, it's not worth the effort.

Captain America: Brave New World. Starring Anthony Mackie, Joaquin Torres, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly, and Harrison Ford. Screenplay by Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, Julius Onah, and Peter Glanz. Directed by Julius Onah. 118 minutes. Rated PG-13. Opens Friday, February 14.