Captain America: Brave New World Review

The discovery of Adamantium within the Celestial Island - a colossal sculptural artifact first introduced in Eternals - ignites a global arms race. US President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) spearheads a treaty to regulate its control. However, when a stolen fragment of Adamantium surfaces in the US, followed by an assassination attempt on world leaders at the treaty conference, Ross finds himself at the centre of suspicion, and the fragile alliance teeters on the brink of collapse. Captain America (Anthony Mackie) arrives at the scene with a new Falcon, Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), to uncover the mastermind behind the attacks.

Part-political detective part-superhero Sam Wilson as the new Captain finds himself chasing down Mexican arms dealers (led by Giancarlo Esposita who plays a version of Breaking Bad's Gus Fring), doing some good old-fashioned cell phone-tracking to nab the culprit - a shadowy figure who harbours a vendetta against the President. But beyond his duty, the Captain also has a personal stake in the assignment - to secure the release of his friend, the veteran super soldier and his mentor Isiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) wrongly convicted of the assassination attempt.

Anthony Mackie, who inherited the shield from Chris Evans, finally gets his moment in the spotlight. But whether he fully lives up to the expectations of Marvel's most charismatic superhero is a question the writing never lets him answer. Instead, he is trapped in a perpetual state of self-doubt, endlessly pondering whether he deserves the mantle - especially when so many others "never got a seat at the table". At other times, he seeks validation, burdened by the weight of the role. "It's too much pressure," he laments, almost as if Mackie himself were asking for forgiveness for daring to be a Black man playing Captain America. A misguided attempt to show the new Captain America's humanity, instead has the wearing effect of an overextended pity party.

So it comes as a great relief when Captain and Falcon finally take to the air, somersaulting, dodging and redirecting missiles to head off nuclear war, rather than sit around reflecting on the state of DEI in Hollywood.

Refreshingly unburdened by his legacy, an over-eager Falcon-trainee makes for a good sidekick. Although most memorable of the President's help squad is the White House's Security Advisor, a diminutive but ferocious woman Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), a former Black Widow.

Harrison Ford is an inspired choice for President Ross. Not least because of the Hulking rage he unleashes in the film's most epic fight sequence. Yet Ford, portraying an aging, ruthlessly ambitious but repentant president, often comes across more like a petulant child throwing a tantrum than a seasoned leader.

Brave New World coldly checks off all the boxes of a signature Marvel film. A new villain steps out of the shadows; an old hero drops in for a surprise cameo; a crisis with world-ending consequences is averted; and all the while the edges of the Marvel Universe are redrawn to accommodate its ever-increasing complexity. You are at a loss to understand what is so brave about this world, or, for that matter, what is new.