Captain America: Brave New World brings a new urgency to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s been a while since three features have been released in a year, and it’s no coincidence that cameras are just starting to roll on the epic Avengers-packed conclusion to the Multiverse Saga: Doomsday (2026) and Secret Wars (2027). The mega-franchise seems stuck between moving onto the green grass of its next chapter and clawing back former glories as soon as possible. It seems like just yesterday that Earth’s Mightiest Heroes were battling that purple meanie Thanos and his shiny glove, and in many ways, it is. 

The discovery of the new super-element Adamantium on Celestial Island (see: Eternals, 2021) threatens a world war as America, India, Japan and France swarm into the Indian Ocean. The newly elected President of the United States, Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross (Harrison Ford inheriting the role from William Hurt), faces a Brave New World but is also a changed man. His attempts to heal his country and his relationship with his estranged daughter Betty (Liv Tyler) are derailed after an assassination attempt in the White House. It seems that former ‘Hulk Hunter’ Ross’s past is catching up with him, but what are the secrets he’s been hiding for decades, and who is pulling the strings behind the scenes? Fledgling Captain America Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) must uncover the plot, confront the rage and stop World War III while living up to the title of Captain America.

The fourth Captain America film is rooted in the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019), when half of the universe’s population was restored five years after Infinity War’s blip. While that left  America open to electing persistent failure ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross, it also saw Steve Rogers pass his mantle and shield to best friend Sam ‘Falcon’ Wilson. That Brave New World arrives almost six years later is a testament to the stuttering advance of Marvel’s Multiverse Saga, but it gets more awkward. It’s also a sequel to two other very different films.

There’s The Incredible Hulk (2008), the MCU’s only solo Hulk outing and the little talked-about second film of the franchise’s first phase. Then there’s the MCU’s finest hour, Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014. That last solo-headlined Captain America film remains the taut and twisty thriller to beat for all comic book movies. Building on the best (11-year-old) and forgotten (18-year-old) films of the franchise is an odd place for Brave New World to find itself, and it shows. 

Marvel’s latest can’t sustain the pressure it needs to be the successful and high-octane international conspiracy thriller it wants to be. Its problems are primarily structural as a host of characters, old, new, or originating in Disney Plus series, meet some stark pacing and editing issues. But it also struggles to make imminent world war feel compelling, especially in a super-powered multiverse where a celestial glove rises from the ocean. It’s hard to point fingers at first-time Marvel director Julius Onah, the latest indie talent caught in the headlights of the mega-franchise juggernaut. Undoubtedly, he’s helming the weakest concept of any Captain America film. 

While the long reveal of the main green-eyed and shadow antagonist is lost in choppy scenes, the strain is acutely apparent in the handling of the popcorn antagonist, Red Hulk. What should have been a compelling metaphor – a weapon of massive destruction lodged in the White House – is thrown away.

Geek nostalgia time-out: I remember when the character of Red Hulk arrived with a blast in the 2008 relaunch of the Hulk comic by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness. It was an industry-rocking newsstand mystery: what was the true identity of this new crimson gamma terror? Bafflingly, that’s not something Marvel was interested in carrying over to its cinematic universe. 

Red Hulk’s identity won’t surprise many who step into a movie theatre thanks to the revealing trailers, perhaps a sign that the studio wasn’t wholly confident in its second Captain. But it’s a trade-off that turns a compelling who-is-it? into a plodding when-will-he? 

As such, Brave New World won’t satisfy many fans of conspiracy thrillers or high-stakes action, as it stalls Captain America’s track record. While Onah is one of five screenwriters who’ve struggled to pull this story together, it’s telling that Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the writers of the previous three Captain America films, aren’t among them.

With an unengrossing central conspiracy, Brave New World only gets going in its second half, when it lobs the Falcons (Sam and Joaquín Torres’s Danny Ramirez, channelling his inner Goose after his turn in Top Gun: Maverick) against mind-controlled US pilots. It’s a thrilling sequence against the eerie backdrop of Celestial Island, but it also shows how much tension has been dropped in the run-up. 

Forget the Red Hulk. Here, red herrings are swapped for cameos of characters from Marvel lore. One such character is Sidewinder (a typically charismatic turn from Giancarlo Esposito), an assassin who at least brings some of the concussive street-level action we expect from the series. In comparison, the climactic clash between Captain America and Red Hulk is underwhelming. Once the White House has been battered, the cherry blossoms that line the final stand-off draw a painful comparison with the claustrophobic blue skies that dominated the Washington D.C. of The Winter Soldier.

Brave New World tries to leverage some emotion between its conspiracy and action. Harrison Ford is a saving grace. As President Ross, his keen-eyed, quivering jaw performance adds a touch of silver screen magic, even though his links to the Red Hulk are badly fumbled.  But he can’t save the show, and neither can Marvel veteran Anthony Mackie, who gamefully headlines his first MCU film, holding it together as best as he can. 

Continuing strands from earlier movies, Mackie’s Wilson is joined by a mentor figure in Lost Super Soldier, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) and a protegee in comic relief, Torres. But perhaps the weakest element is handing the new Cap a hard-to-believe crisis of faith. His late-in-the-day conflict over whether he can live up to his mantle is undercut by his swooping, stomping and slicing entrance at the top of the film and the constant crowing of his number one fan, Torres. Even an awkward cameo that allows Bucky ‘Winter Soldier’ Barnes to pat him on the shoulder comes too late. It’s a shame that when emerging from a field of muddled and gamma-irradiated troubles, Sam Wilson doesn’t find a Brave New World of his own.