Walk into a comic store, and you’ll sometimes find whole collections of comics in one large binder or book. The book that was The Infinity Saga ended with 2019’s Avengers: Endgame and that really should have been the hard stop for Marvel Studios for a while. Still, the Marvel Engine continues to run. Sometimes, we get hits, like 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and 2023’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3. On occasion, we’ve had that rare film that knocks it out of the park in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. Mostly, however, we’ve had “okay” stories, like that comic in a pile that you enjoyed reading, but wouldn’t really remember much about it after 15 minutes. These are the ones like Black Widow and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (the latter of which I personally hated, despite it being a Raimi film).

I enjoyed Captain America: Brave New World, but the story didn’t feel as expansive as I thought it could be. It still is grounded in the political intrigue of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, but I felt like it lacked the same kind of weight those previous films did. There are some good fight scenes and even better flight scene thoughout.

Brave New World finds Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) doing very well since taking on the mantle of Captain America. Despite not having any powers, he can still handle his own, somewhat. With a suit and new Vibranium wings, compliments of Wakanda, Wilson’s quite a force to be reckoned with, though he still tends to approach certain situations with de-escalation in mind instead of brute force. He also has some help in the form of Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), who has worked with Sam even before using the shield. Mackie carries this easily with the occassional joke or two. It’s also amazing to watch when you know the character isn’t enhanced and is really just one or two good punches away from a broken limb. I see in Sam Wilson a pre-super serum Steve Rogers, fending off enhanced bullies with nothing but a garbage can lid and lots of heart. That’s heroic and perhaps even Worthy, an underdog still fighting the fight (at least to me, anyway). Ramirez’ Torres is the plucky comic relief in all this. Serious when needed, but playful otherwise. His character reminded me a bit of Pablo Schreiber’s one in Michael Bay’s 13 Hours.

The political landscape has also changed since the days of Iron Man 3’s Matthew Ellis (played by William Sadler). General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross has risen through the ranks to become the President of the United States. Harrison Ford (Clear and Present Danger) takes over the role of Ross from William Hurt (Altered States), who passed away in 2022. At this stage in his career, Ford doesn’t have to do much to be effective in a scene. He’s played political characters in his Tom Clancy / Jack Ryan era, so this isn’t really new to him. His version of Ross still carries the gruff nature that Hurt had, though personally, I don’t feel either performance was as good as Sam Elliot’s in Ang Lee’s Hulk. Ford’s Ross is a man haunted by the disconnection from his family and a reputation he’d rather put behind him. The same can be said for Carl Lumbly’s Isaiah Bradley. As the forgotten Super Soldier, his character is still slowly integrating into public life after a past that left him cautious and weary.

After a successful mission, Wilson, Torres, and Bradley are invited to the White House for a special announcement. The announcement involves the discovery of the “Celestial Island”, the Continent sized remains of Tiamat from The Eternals. Even better, the entire island is made of a material that appears to be stronger than even Vibranium. The metal, dubbed “Adamantium”, causes a race between the Superpowers to acquire it. Thankfully, a treaty formed by Ross helps to keep conflict at bay.

As exciting as it sounds to hear that this particular Universe suddenly (finally!) has Adamantium in it, the announcement is as far as anyone will get to seeing it. Put away any thoughts of seeing Weapon-X plans in Canada. Japan won’t produce a Silver Samurai, and Russia won’t have Omega Red any time soon. That is not this story, and it’s an outright shame that none of that is even hinted to because the only Marvel solid references we have on Mutants to date are from Ms. Marvel at this point. At best, the Adamantium angle serves as a reason to finally include the aftermath of The Eternals into the story and possibly set up something for future films. Why is Marvel so hesitant on touching the X-Men? Ugh, that’s an argument for a different story.

An incident occurs that finds Sam and Joaquin having to exonerate Isaiah Bradley, while at the same time, trying to unravel the mystery involving a terrorist known only as Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito, Abigail) that puts both The President and possibly the entire nation in danger. Can Sam and Joaquin take down the Sidewinder and save the day? That is mostly the gist behind Captain America: Brave New World.

Outside of the performances, From a production standpoint, the film had 5 separate screenplay writers and a number of reshoots. It’s not terrible, but the film does feel a little like the writers were unsure of what they wanted to do from scene to scene. There was one shot involving a prison ward that made me wonder why more guards weren’t present. It’s more a nitpick than anything else. I compare it more to Nolan’s editing mistake with The Dark Knight, where the Joker crashes a party, but we never actually see him leave or learn the fates of the people there after Batman saves Rachel. There were also a number of cuts made to the film that removed scenes by actors such as Wrestling’s Seth Rollins and Alita Battle Angel’s Rosa Salazar. You won’t even notice those unless you’re actively expecting to see them in the film (I didn’t know either actor was involved, honestly).

The big showdown that all of the posters couldn’t seem to hide does happen, and the sequence itself is good, given the weaknesses of our heroes and strengths of our villains. It felt a little shorter to me than I expected it to be though it could be on par with the now classic Battle of Harlem in The Incredible Hulk. There was a time where Marvel was able to keep things like this under wraps, but given the state of the MCU and Hollywood in general, I can understand the marketing team’s fight to pull more people into cinemas.

Overall, Captain America: Brave New World is a good popcorn flick. Will you rave about it? Perhaps. Was it fun? Sure. Was it memorable? I’m not totally sure. I enjoyed where the story took me, but my expectations maybe veered to levels that the story couldn’t reach for me. That’s more a “me” problem than a movie problem. Also note that the film does have a Marvel Post-Credit moment. It doesn’t reveal much or anything specific of where the overall arc is reaching. It’s more of a “Captain America Will Return” than anything else, but of course, we all knew that.