Captain America: Brave New World barely escapes being mid by the skin of its teeth. It excites just enough, and makes you think just enough, despite barely being brave nor trying anything new.
It even starts off with a Captain America: Winter Soldier-esque extraction mission with a mysterious package to intercept, innocent civilians in harm's way, and an excuse for Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) to show off what the new Captain America can do. It's one of the few things Brave New World gets right: the Marvel Cinematic Universe needs a new symbol of hope right the hell now, and Mackie's Cap doesn't waste time wondering if he deserves the shield and spends it instead showing why he earned it—even if watching him sluggishly punch and kick bad guys a few times more than usual to knock them out feels like a chore.
The movie smartly sidesteps this power level discussion by focusing on Wilson's down-to-earth charm and distinctly non-superpowered optimism. Sure, Mackie brings it in whiz-bang aerial battles, but it's when he puts down the shield to talk to you about doing better than you did yesterday that he truly embodies what Cap is about; Chris Evans' Cap inspires you, but Mackie's Cap is the person you aspire to be.
Sal delivers the package to the newly elected President of the United States, Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (Harrison Ford taking over from the late, great William Hurt), who seems to have put his violent past with the Hulk behind him. Ford is notorious for phoning it in with projects that don't interest him, but it looks like he's having fun here, God bless. It turns out, the package contains metal from Celestial/Tiamut Island, the corpse of the emerging Celestial last seen in 2021's Eternals. Not only that, but it's also revealed to be the MCU's version of adamantium, the strongest metal in comics history!
Comic fans might go "Wow!" at that revelation, but the general public might not care much. Hell, the movie doesn't either, as the reveal isn't even its biggest concern. It's not just the U.S. that wants in on the adamantium, hence why Ross is working hard to push for an international treaty to help distribute this new technology equitably. Cue gunfire, mercenaries, double crosses, and a villain stalking in the shadows. Man, why is making countries work together such a chore?
Said villain is revealed to be Samuel Sterns, who uses his ability to "calculate probabilities" via his mutated brain (a callback to one of the MCU's earliest Easter eggs) to orchestrate his revenge tour on Ross, who found Sterns' gamma experiments useful enough to keep his big ol' noggin locked up. Tim Blake Nelson, in unflattering makeup that feels more at home in The Toxic Avenger than a superhero movie, spends most of his time standing awkwardly as he proselytizes about Ross's inadequacies to whoever cares enough to listen. An egregious waste of Nelson's talent.
At least the rest of the cast is nice. Danny Ramirez's Joaquin Torres (the new Falcon) is a refreshingly good-natured foil for Sam Wilson. Carl Lumbly brings a noble air to his Isaiah Bradley and even gets to kick some ass. Firecracker Shira Haas also brings the pain as Ruth Bat-Seraph, making the most of her character even with all the drama that came with it behind the scenes.
But just a nice cast does not a good movie make. Captain America: Brave New World carries heady themes of geopolitics and empathy, but it feels too bored or powerless to deal with any of it. It's perfectly content to follow the Marvel movie formula, beat by beat, until we get to the exciting final battle between Sam and the Red Hulk (curiously spoiled so early on in marketing).
I don't hold it against them. As a victim of the SAG-AFTRA strike of 2023, Captain America: Brave New World had no choice but to work with what it's got. And what it ended up with is a movie that tries its best to soar to greatness but forced to hover around acceptable.
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