| Updated:
Captain America: Brave New World review and star rating: ★★
Hollywood’s biggest franchise is at a turning point. In the six years and 11 movies since the all-conquering Avengers: Endgame, few entries in the franchise have felt like a genuine event. It’s partly the arrival of lesser-known new heroes, but also the sheer fatigue that has set in after 34 films and over 20 TV shows during the shared universe’s lifetime.
Hoping to reinvigorate the series is Captain America: Brave New World, Anthony Mackie’s first feature as the new Captain America, aka Sam Wilson. Following the election victory of Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford), Wilson is contacted by the new Commander-In-Chief to help build a new Avengers.
Captain America: Brave New World is the worst thing a Marvel movie can be
Let’s start with the positives. Mackie is a great successor to Evans, offering a new twist on the problem his predecessor faced. Whereas Steve Rogers was a super soldier clinging to old fashioned values of decency, Sam Wilson is an ordinary man who fights to see the good in people.
A better film would have made the excellent Mackie a figurehead to take the new Avengers forward. Ford is also terrific as Ross. The casting came from sadness, as William Hurt, who played the role five times in the MCU, passed away in 2022. However, if you’re going to pick a Marvel president, Ford just feels right. While undoubtedly here for the payday, he commits to the role as if he were a lifelong fan.
It’s a shame both he and his co-star are let down by a plot that feels made by committee rather than inspiration. There are connections to 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, to the point that it is a sequel of sorts, with storylines from that film continued here. It also features a plot point from 2021’s Eternals, a famous Marvel flop that half the audience won’t have seen, and the other half wish they hadn’t.
Add in some returning faces from the Disney+ series Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and the result is a mishmash of lore building that will leave most cold. Worst of all, however, is the story.
Instead of delving into the perspective of a Sam Wilson struggling to live up to Steve Rogers’ legacy, or President Ross’ need to prove he’s a changed man, director Julius Onah and the five different credited screenwriters reheat the plot from 2015’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, with a new Cap facing the old problem of not knowing who to trust.
The action is solid, albeit brief – Ross turning into The Red Hulk would have been a wonderful surprise had it not been on every piece of advertising for the movie. In the end it’s little more than a diversion, given surprisingly little screentime.
Ultimately, Captain America: Brave New World is the worst thing a Marvel movie can be – just ‘alright’. Some solid action and committed performances can’t cover up the superhero fatigue Hollywood is battling, where everything has been done before, and better.