Captain America: Brave New World review: Marvel’s latest reduces Sam Wilson to guest in someone else’s story

Sam Wilson wasn’t always OK with being Captain America.

The former sidekick and Avenger is now the guy with the shield and responsibility of representing the ideals of a country that doesn’t always live up to them.

It’s also a mantle that’s crucial to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a film franchise that also doesn’t always live up to the ideals it’s aiming for.

Captain America: Brave New World is the fourth Cap movie and the first without Chris Evans, whose Steve Rogers used to wear the uniform and the burdens.

Anthony Mackie is a fantastic Captain America. He has gravitas and compassion, and the physical chops to carry those fight scenes as a non-superpowered human. He is also able to play Sam’s inner tussle about living up to the legacy of not just Steve the hero but Steve his friend.

It’s a shame then that Brave New World isn’t the movie that Mackie and Sam deserve. At times, it feels as if Sam is merely the guest star in someone’s else story in this particular chapter of the MCU’s interwoven narrative.

The film is a hodge-podge of other Marvel movies, most notably as a de facto sequel to the 2008 movie The Incredible Hulk, an entry that had been largely marginalised in the MCU until more recently.

The real driver of this story is Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford, replacing the late William Hurt who previously played the role in The Incredible Hulk and in four other MCU titles), a former general and now President of the United States.

He was elected on a platform of strength and togetherness in a tumultuous time (alien invasion, the Blip that vanished and then restored half the world’s population, the dead Celestial in the middle of the Indian Ocean courtesy of the Eternals movie), but there are still questions over his reputation for past unscrupulous and hardline actions.

Ross needs to sign accords with Japan, France and India over the discovery of the fictional element adamantium (which is connected to the X-Men) but the plans are derailed when there is an attack during the ceremony at the White House.

Brave New World is, to start, a political thriller that draws from the likes of The Manchurian Candidate, Parallax View and The Day of the Jackal. There are shady actors at work manipulating events with the view to bring down the government, and you don’t who’s been compromised and who you can trust.

Tonally, Brave New World ticks most of the boxes in the genre — Sam is operating as something of a rogue agent alongside his buddy Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), he’s trying to prove the innocence of Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), who’s been set-up, there are questions over who mysterious agent Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas) really is, and there’s a ruthless assassin (Giancarlo Esposito).

But it never feels grounded or paranoid enough to be a true genre entry.

It’s not doing a homage to the classics, it’s doing a homage to Captain America: Winter Soldier, which was doing a homage to the classics.

The script, which has five credited writers (which might explain some of its truly stilted dialogue), doesn’t keep the mastermind or their motivation in the shadows for very long. In fact, the marketing has been very open that Tim Blake Nelson is reprising his character of Dr Samuel Stern from The Incredible Hulk.

Which establishes the match-up between not Stern and Sam but Stern and Ross, effectively making this film not Captain America 4 but The Incredible Hulk 2, but just without Bruce Banner.

As an antagonist, Stern is underwhelming and small, the film not able to fully capture his threat as a super brain.

What does work well is Brave New World’s action sequences with some inventive set-pieces utilising Sam’s finesse and athleticism with both the iconic shield and his Falcon wings.

There’s the much promoted transformation of Ross into the Red Hulk, which is fine for a smash-smash set-piece.

Also, there are some lines about accepting responsibility for your actions and peaceful transition of power that are very coded to this moment.

But Brave New World just feels inconsequential as MCU movie, no matter how charismatic Mackie is or how much you want to root for his character.

PS. There is an end-credits scene but it’s almost not worth sticking around for if you really need to pee.

Rating: 2.5/5

Captain America: Brave New World is in cinemas