I felt old as watching “Captain America: Brave New World”, another Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) product naturally connected with several previous MCU flicks in one way or another. One of those products in question is “The Incredible Hulk” (2008), and that reminded me that I was old enough to remember when superhero movies were going through a big breakthrough thanks to the considerable critical/box office success of “Dark Knight” (2008) and “Iron Man” (2008) many years ago.

After the enormous box office success of “Avengers: Endgame” (2019), MCU has attempted to recharge our interest in superhero movies during last several years, but the result was not that impressive in my humble opinion. While there were some interesting stuffs such as “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” (2021) or “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (2022), there were also several disappointing products as shown from “Eternals” (2021) and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (2023), and we only felt more exhausted about superhero movies.

In case of “Captain America: Brave New World”, it seems to try some new things on the surface, but it only ends up being quite bland and predictable instead, and that is a big letdown to say the least. While it seriously lacks substance and personality in terms of story and characters, the movie also feels deficient in technical aspects, and it only makes us more bored and tired in the end.

At first, the movie seems a bit promising as we watch how Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is trying his best as the new Captain America along with his new partner who is now the new Falcon. After accomplishing his latest mission, Wilson and his partner are invited to the White House, where he meets President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford). Even though he and several other Avengers members were once quite defiant against Ross when Ross was a US Army general in “Captain America: Civil War” (2016), Wilson is willing to serve under Ross and his government, and Ross also seems ready to support Wilson despite their old conflict in the past.

However, of course, there soon comes a big trouble. When Ross is about to announce the international accord on a new big island which was created due to what happened in “Eternals” (2021), several figures suddenly try to assassinate him, and one of them is Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), who is incidentally a close friend of Wilson. As Bradley and several other assassins are subsequently arrested and then incarcerated, Wilson senses something fishy about the incident, and it becomes quite possible that Ross did not tell everything to him.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell that Ross is really hiding something behind him. Even if you have not seen the trailer yet, you can easily guess that right from his very first scene in the film, and that is the main reason why Wilson’s following investigation is not particularly compelling to watch. We are supposed to be surprised at the certain point where the main villain of the movie is eventually revealed, but that only reminds us more of how much the movie is limited by the ongoing narrative frame of its franchise. 

Furthermore, there is not much character development in Wilson or several other main characters to interest us, and this makes the narrative all the more tepid. Yes, there is some interesting character potential in Wilson for being a Black Captain America in addition to being a lot more physically vulnerable than his predecessor, but the movie does not delve much into that aspect, and the same thing can be said about Bradley, who seems an interesting figure for being a Black super soldier who fought in the Korean War but only ends up functioning as a mere plot element.

 Maybe you can just go for action scenes instead, but, alas, the action sequences in the film are not that exciting or interesting. There are surely lots of bangs and crashes during these action scenes, but they are devoid of style and personality despite being mostly competent on the whole, and we only become more aware of the heaps of CGI added onto the screen.

The main cast members try their best in filling their respective spots, though most of them are under-utilized at best and wasted at worst. Anthony Mackie, whom I will never forget when he played the lead role of Spike Lee’s amusingly flawed “She Hate Me” (2004) 21 years ago, has no problem with playing his familiar role again, but there is not much to do for him besides throwing himself into those perfunctory action scenes in the film. While Harrison Ford, who is replacing late William Hurt here, acquits himself well without embarrassing himself at all, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Giancarlo Esposito, Tim Blake Nelson, and Carl Lumbly manage to leave some impression at least, and Haas has some fun with the unflappable attitude of her supporting character.

In conclusion, “Captain America: Brave New World”, directed by Julius Onah, is a middling product which has nothing new or fresh to provide while tepidly sticking to its increasingly stale narrative formula. After its ongoing Phase 5, MCU will soon move onto Phase 6, but its genre seems to be going down more these days, and I am afraid that I will be more depressed about enduring and then reviewing whatever may be produced next during several more years.