Despite what many people are claiming online, the fourth Captain America film, Captain America: Brave New World, is not a misfire. It’s not perfect and has to be ranked fourth in the Captain America film series of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Yet, it largely hits the mark and is a solidly good political thriller. There will be SPOILERS.

The film serves many functions. It is a continuation of the Disney + TV show, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and a semi-sequel to the film The Incredible Hulk. At the same time, it sets up future events in the MCU while answering a nagging question from Eternals.

This is the first Captain America film to not feature Steve Rogers as the superhuman soldier. Instead, the mantle is taken up by Steve’s former partner and friend Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), a non-superpowered former soldier. In addition to his combat training and wits, Sam dons an armored suit made of vibranium that provides protection with its unique property of absorbing and dispelling kinetic energy. The suit also allows Captain America to fly and is adorned with drones called Redwing. Then there is Captain America’s nearly indestructible shield which was given to him by Steve. Even with all these adornments, Sam is conflicted about his capability to live up to the name of Captain America. But thankfully, by the end of the film he dispels his self-doubts.

Captain America: Brave New World begins with the U.S. presidential election of former general Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford taking over the role from the late William Hurt). Despite his political victory, Ross is devastated over the fact that his daughter Betty (Liv Tyler) no longer talks to him due to his obsession in the past with hunting down her boyfriend Bruce Banner aka the Hulk.

Five months later, Captain America is working with the U.S. military to recover classified items from a terrorist group called the Serpent Society, who are also holding hostages. Sam lets his friend and partner Joaquin Torres aka the new Falcon (Danny Ramirez) recover the items while he rescues the hostages. During the rescue, Wilson meets the group’s leader Seth Voelker/Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito), who escapes.

President Ross invites Sam and Torres to a White House summit with world leaders including those from India, Japan and France. Before the summit, Sam invited his friend Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) to the summit. Bradley was introduced in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as a recipient of the super-solider formula that gave Steve Rogers his powers, but because he is Black, he was horribly treated and jailed by the U.S. government in the 1950s.

At the summit, Ross tries to make amends with Sam due to the antagonistic relationship he had with superheroes like Sam and Steve in past MCU films. He also asked Sam to rebuild the Avengers team, but Sam is hesitant because the team would have to answer to Ross. Still, Ross is willing to negotiate with Sam.

During the summit, it’s revealed that the items Sam and Danny recovered were Japanese samples of a new metal called adamantium that is stronger than vibranium. This metal was found on the newly created Celestial Island in the Indian Ocean and is part of the remains from the Celestial that the Eternals killed in their film. Ross proposes a treaty to mine and distribute the adamantium worldwide as a counter to the nation of Wakanda who exclusively owns vibranium. The event is going well until Bradley and few government agents get a musical signal which triggers them to attempt to assassinate Ross.

Even though Ross is saved, the summit is considered a failure as Japan blames the U.S. for the theft of the adamantium and threatens to pull out of the treaty. Sam, Danny and Ross realized that the person behind the theft and the assassination attempt was Dr. Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson). During the events of The Incredible Hulk, Sterns was infected by Banner’s gamma-irradiated blood and became a disfigured mutate called the Leader with an exposed cranium and the capability of a quantum computer. After that film, Ross imprisoned Stearns and secretly used Stearns’ advanced intellect to advance his career and keep him healthy.

After Sam and Danny try to confront Stearns, he escapes custody and launches a new plot to create a war between the U.S. and Japan and ruin Ross politically to get revenge on Ross. It is clear that Ross is having trouble dealing with the stress, which threatens to get out of control, and leads to Stearns’ trump card on Ross by turning him into a Red Hulk.  

Captain America: Brave New World featured many elements from past Captain America films chiefly the political thriller aspect and tight action scenes. However, it never achieves the greatness of Captain America: The Winter Soldier or Captain America: Civil War though it does its best to emulate those classics. There are a few reasons for this, but it mainly has to do with the script and editing. Putting aside the many creative fight scenes and thrilling action, the film is riddled with obvious exposition which led to some clunky dialogue. At times the exposition is organic and flows well such as scenes dealing with Bradley. Even though he originated in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it doesn’t feel as if we had to have seen the show. Other times the explanations are overdone, especially with Ross’ history. Then there isn’t any explanation about how the Celestial Island came about. Anyone who has not seen Eternals will be left in the dark. Some other questions are also never addressed, mainly, is Steve Rogers dead?

Most fans know that entire characters were changed or eliminated altogether and the film was heavily edited because it had poor test screenings that required the major reshoots. These included the removal of certain members of the Serpent Society, the insertion of Esposito as Sidewinder, who was sadly underused, and some obvious automated dialogue replacement (ADR), which was done to change the background of Ross’ security advisor Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas). The film’s sole post-credits scene was a bit disappointing as it’s just another exposition dump to let us know, quite blandly, that the Secret Wars are coming. It’s a miracle the film is passably coherent and to its credit, the plot moves along briskly.

While the issues with the film are valid, some of the negative online reactions have been over the top. Captain America: Brave New World is still an enjoyable political thriller with some terrific and creative action scenes that help differentiate Sam’s fighting style over Steve’s. Sam puts to good use the fact that he can fly as an inventive way of combating his opponents. The sequence where he and Danny confront fighter jets around Celestial Island was so tense and invigorating. Then there was Captain America’s confrontation with the Red Hulk. There really was a sense of danger for Sam as he fought the red monster because Sam did not have any superpowers and had to use his wits and ultimately his empathy to deal with Red Hulk.

All the performances help elevate the film from a standard superhero film as Mackie easily shows that he has what it takes to take up the mantle of Captain America. Harrison Ford also shined as Ross as he injected some much-needed humanity and depth to the character. In the past, Ross was often obtuse and narrow minded without any empathy. Ford’s Ross is a man with a lot of regret for his past and wants to do what is right. His emotional journey turned out to be a compelling story for the film that complimented Sam’s journey to get over his doubts and embrace his role as Captain America.

Overall, Captain America: Brave New World is a mid-tier MCU film that could have been great given more time and handling. Nonetheless, it is still worth watching despites its faults, which are countered by its many strengths.

José Soto