Captain America: Brave New World

Director: Julius Onah

There is a new President, Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford), who despite his Hulk history, wants to work with Captain America (Anthony Mackie) to give hope to American’s and help him drive through a global accord to ensure responsible use of the rich resources of Celestial Island. However in the background, a shadowy figure has hatched a plan to wreck Ross’s plans. It’s up to Captain America, with help from Joaquin Torres’s Falcon (Danny Ramirez) and Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas) to uncover the plan and defeat its nefarious ends.

As the Marvel bandwagon controls rolling, the next phase still doesn’t feel like it’s quite started. This latest Captain America still feels like more scene setting for a bigger story. And that seems part of the problem with Marvel films currently, everything seems to be setting things up, probably well summed up here in its post credit sequence.

But that said, that doesn’t mean this is a terrible film. Far from it, it’s a relatively entertaining super hero adventure, although I’m not sure how long it will stay in the memory.

Mackie is likeable in the role and brings a more human vulnerability to the franchise. No film ever suffers from having Harrison Ford in it, and he brings some gravitas to proceedings. Tim Blake Nelson’s baddy is fine and there are also good additions from Giancarlo Esposito and Carl Lumbly.

The story is fine and rattles along, although it occasionally runs into some pretty lumpy dialogue. The action is fast and frantic and at under 2 hours it doesn’t outstay its welcome. It’s all just fine, no more.

The latest Marvel outing is a perfectly serviceable super hero film. It’s not overly long, the action zips along nicely and no film feels worse for having Harrison Ford in it. But it’s also a bit samey and, like most current Marvel fare, feels like a setup for something else. It’s fine, but not one that will stick in the memory.