Picture this: Blond and blue-eyed Steve Rogers, the superhero known as “Captain America,” has chosen to retire. He handpicks as his successor Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), the high-flying “Falcon,” with whom he was very close. Wilson is a Black man from Delacroix, La., who, before becoming an Avenger, was a pararescue pilot in the Air Force and then a mental health counselor for veterans. After taking up the mantle of Captain America, Wilson contends with recently elected President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford), a former general with an aggressive populist platform. When a terrorist plot to assassinate Ross threatens to derail a peace accord and destroy American international relations, Wilson and Ross go head-to-head about how to deal with the situation.
In another universe, the premise of a Black Captain America with a background in veterans’ affairs publicly warring against a populist and demagogic U.S. president might have made for a film with some real teeth, especially in the wake of recent events. As it stands, however, “Captain America: Brave New World” is about as toothless as you can get with the concept.
It is aggressively mediocre in its execution and often downright clumsy. Thematically, it is confused—there is very little to chew on here. Wilson and Ross’s conflict could have made for some striking imagery; it would not be the first time that Captain America has gone against a higher authority (in fact, Steve Rogers did so in almost all of his prior appearances), but it is the first time that he explicitly opposes a U.S. president, and one with more than a few similarities to our current head of state.
While not a Trump analogue per se, it is clear that the movie was meant to at least appear provocative: The foremost American superhero defies the whims of a corrupt executive branch that has overreached in its ambitions. Instead, the movie consistently flounders in trying to say anything at all.
Mackie puts in a good performance as Wilson, but there is a holdover flaw from the prequel series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” his first outing as the new Captain America, where the script calls for him to make dramatic speeches that inspire people and change their minds. Though Mackie is usually a magnetic and charismatic actor, something that shows through on occasion in this movie, the script tries to crowbar him into being someone he is not, and his dialogue comes off more awkward than effective. One speech in particular, attempting to talk down Ross and essentially solve one of the main conflicts of the movie, comes across as laughable and childish, particularly in our messy political landscape. The film’s solutions for complex American problems are awfully simplistic.
This story badly wants to be a conspiracy thriller, yet it shows little interest in marinating in the grayness that the genre requires. Usually, when Captain America is embroiled in a situation like this in his previous films, he is the moral man that must come to terms with an imperfect world filled with imperfect people. This worked better when Steve Rogers was a man out of time from the ‘40s, as he came from a (supposedly) less complicated era. But Sam Wilson is a Black man of today: He grew up as a Black man, experienced discrimination as a Black man and now fights back against the government as a Black man.
Much of these themes were covered in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” albeit in a flawed way, but it is bizarre how none of it seems to show up when it comes time for the big theatrical movie. The stakes of the story are instead laid in the personal grievances between Wilson and Ross, and in their methodological disputes, not in their ideological ones.
One positive point is Harrison Ford’s portrayal of Ross. It would have been very easy for the film to fully embrace the comparison to President Trump, but Ford’s acting is so naturally charismatic and willful that even as a gravelly warmonger, he gives the viewer a sense of internal complexity and a deep well of emotion.
There have been many accusations made over the years against Ford for sometimes phoning in a performance whenever it is a corporate gig like this Marvel movie—but Ford brings his A game to what is an otherwise lackluster script. Ford is one of the best actors of his generation and he acts circles around everyone else in this film; he is the clear highlight.
More damning, unfortunately, is that action cannot save this action movie. The editing and pacing can be wonky, a particularly evident problem during the fight sequences, which are sluggish and far too reliant on C.G.I. One of the things that I liked about prior Captain America films was that his particular power-set led to more interesting stunt work and fight choreography without an overreliance on special effects. The same is not true for Sam Wilson’s Captain America, whose powers of flight tend to make the fight scenes feel unreal and weightless in a film that is trying to be grounded and serious.
In addition, the production was clearly the victim of reshoots and overediting. Giancarlo Esposito, who is otherwise an excellent character actor, plays a middling secondary villain that was added to the movie after principal photography was already finished—and it is very easy to tell, given how the movie seems to cut around his presence. Meanwhile, Shira Haas’s role as Israeli superhero “Sabra” was transformed into something else entirely after the outbreak of the war in Gaza. In general, one gets the feeling of a narrative constantly tripping over itself, unable to decide what it wants to be about and trying its hardest to offend the least number of people possible.
Is “Captain America: Brave New World” irredeemably bad? Not necessarily, but it may well be the most boring and lifeless movie that Marvel Studios has yet released. It has the look and feel of a direct-to-video movie—albeit one that supposedly had a $180 million budget. It just goes to show that all the money in the world can do nothing in the face of clumsy direction and a lackluster script.
