“Captain America: Brave New World” follows Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), former Falcon and current Captain America, as he investigates a conspiracy involving President Thaddeus Ross, also known as the Red Hulk (Harrison Ford). The investigation drags Sam and the new Falcon, Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), deeper into government conspiracy and leads them to find an incidental ally in Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas). Ultimately, Sam and Joaquin are able to come out on top and begin creating their brave new world, free of corruption.

Arguably the most important aspect of any Captain America is their commitment to the ideals of a truly “good” America. The original Captain America, Steve Rogers, exemplified this heart as he genuinely cared about the ideals of this nation and rooted for the people—not necessarily the government. Sam was chosen to take on the mantle of Captain America because he upheld these same ideals. Sam and his protégé, Joaquin, continue this legacy as soldiers rising to a higher calling and protectors of not just the American people, but the world. Mackie and Ramirez clearly value these roles and are able to give this otherwise gaudy action movie the care that it needs to draw the audience’s empathy. While at first glance Captain America is a shallow hero, the fact that he represents America in its entirety opens up interesting avenues for the character’s growth. When the interests of the American people align with the government, Captain America can be their biggest supporter. However, as in both “Captain America: Civil War” and “Captain America: Brave New World,” Captain America is the biggest threat to the government if it means they do not support the American people. Captain America will always be conflicted between supporting his great nation and the people in it: it’s a balance between the America the world sees and the America people call home.

One such way “Captain America: Brave New World” explores this internal conflict is with the treatment of abandoned super soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly). During the mid-century, Marvel’s America performed experiments on unwilling Black men to try and recreate the original Captain America’s super soldier serum. Some of these experiments were ultimately successful, which is Isaiah’s origin story. After years of service, he attempted to save his troops like Steve, but unlike Steve—who was heralded as a hero—Isaiah was sentenced to life in prison and erased from history. The Disney+ show “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” dives deeper into this backstory, with “Captain America: Brave New World” providing a cursory recap. Once again, Disney fails to trust audience retention or investment from their shows and overcompensates with exposition. At the very least, it was reassuring to see that something from the Disney+ show mattered to the main Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) plot. 

The inciting incident in the film is when Isaiah is falsely accused of attempting to assassinate President Ross. Sam’s motivation for most of the film is bringing justice to an unfairly incarcerated Black man, which is a harsh reality reflecting both America’s past and present. It is later revealed that Isaiah was programmed to attempt this assassination by the movie’s main villain, Samuel Sterns. For those who know Marvel’s history, this may seem eerily similar to Bucky Barnes’ (Sebastian Stan) origin story as a conditioned super soldier for Marvel’s Nazis, HYDRA. 

However, while Bucky was able to redeem himself and later run for Congress, Isaiah has not been given the same treatment. He is consistently wiped from history books and villainized by the MCU’s American government and press. Real historical ties such as these further add heart to action movies, a genre that easily loses their audience to the awe of violence. The blatant hypocrisy highlights real racism within our own justice system. Marvel writers attempted to underline an important hypocrisy here, but with the amount of plotlines present in “Captain America: Brave New World,” it just gets lost. They had a real chance to explore a major theme of their Disney+ shows, but the MCU’s writers just fell short.

Another major issue working against this movie was the addition of Sabra. In the comics, Sabra is essentially an Israeli version of Captain America. The character is criticized for being a proponent of Zionist Israel, and often unabashedly so, with most of her appearances including her being explicitly racist towards Middle Easterners. Pro-Palestinian organizations have called her inclusion in this movie insensitive given the current genocide in Gaza. In response to public backlash, Marvel reduced Sabra’s role and cut most of her ties to the Israeli government. In the film, she solely goes by her alias, Ruth. While she remains Israeli, Ruth is now a former Widow, like the beloved Natasha Romanoff. Sabra is not a beloved character; she is a niche, politically charged quasi-hero. After the backstory change, there was no reason for this agent to retain the identity Sabra. This could have been any widow, any woman. One can assume that she originally had a larger role that was cut down, as early promotional material shows Sabra in her own superhero suit. This suit, and any further background that could have given this supposedly new Sabra a fresh start, do not appear in the movie. Marvel and Disney’s superficial attempt to quell public outrage fell short and left a poor impression after finishing the movie. It was a baffling decision to keep Sabra in the film.

A major reveal towards the end of the film is that its main antagonist is Samuel, a villain from one of the first Marvel movies ever made: “The Incredible Hulk.” Given the minor antagonist of the film is Thaddeus, a character who originated in the same film, these character choices ground “Captain America: Brave New World” in the larger MCU. It was a nice callback that addressed some loose ends from earlier on in the timeline. With the way that Marvel has been building up Sam’s character to make him the future of superheroic patriotism and give him his own protégé in Joaquin, “Captain America: Brave New World” makes sense. Marvel relies on its previous glory to make the film exciting without taking any bold strides in the present. It is clear how Marvel got to this point in the timeline, but it is hard to guess where the studio will go from here. 

Regrettably, “Captain America: Brave New World” just makes it clearer that the MCU does not know where it is going. At the end of the movie, Sam tells Joaquin he wants to start rebuilding the Avengers. However, with the tease of adamantium—and by proxy the X-Men, the upcoming Fantastic Four film and Disney+ shows “Ironheart” plus “Agatha All Along” starting up the Young Avengers—it is unclear where the old guard will fit in. Early MCU movies worked because, at the end of the day, everything was going to lead to Infinity War. In the years since the close of phase three with “Avengers Endgame,” Marvel lacks direction. It is difficult to make an audience stay invested in a larger picture when it does not seem like the studio has one.

I did not have high hopes walking into this movie. While it was expected that Mackie and Ford would give their performances their all, everything else was working against the plot. For all intents and purposes, this is a perfect action movie. The cast clearly cares, it is beautifully shot and there is enough happening to keep the audience engaged. It still isn’t enough. “Captain America: Brave New World” would have been an amazing movie about 10 years ago; however, given the state of the MCU now, I do not see how it fits into the greater canon. While I cannot recommend seeing this movie in theaters, be sure to catch it on streaming—you will at least be entertained.