Oh, how the mighty (Avengers) have fallen. The MCU used to be essential appointment viewing, but it’s starting to feel like borderline AI slop. I went into Captain America: Brave New World (2025) expecting mediocrity, and it absolutely lived up to my expectations.
Having been handed the legendary shield by his mentor, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) has big shoes to fill as the new Captain America. He also has a major political challenge, serving under the newly elected firebrand president, Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford). Following an important mission, he and his protégé (and Falcon replacement) Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) are invited to a reception that goes spectacularly sideways with an assassination attempt on Ross. The dastardly plot turns out to be the brainchild of Dr. Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), who has laboriously sabotaged Ross’s presidency, threatening to destabilize international relations and disrupt the world order.
To say this franchise has run out of things to say would be giving it credit for having said anything in the first place. The post-Endgame MCU continues reheating its dead formula, and the results in Captain America: Brave New World are blander than bland. The story attempts to make a theme out of Sam Wilson’s struggle to fill Steve Rogers’ shoes, but the unfortunate truth is that for all his charms, Mackie doesn’t match Chris Evans, who took one of Marvel’s least interesting characters and made him funny and accessible. Mackie is merely capable, and the same is true for Ramirez, whose primary personality trait is laid-back cockiness. Neither of them are all that central to a story that more successfully centers Ross — which, why not, if you’ve got Harrison Ford at your disposal. Ford makes it all look effortless, as usual, but unfortunately, for all his flaws, Ross also falls short when compared to the threat of the actual U.S. president. Given the lead time for film productions, one can hardly accuse Kevin Feige of failing to read the room on this score, but the “dangers” of the Ross administration look tame compared to reality, lowering the stakes dramatically.
As “the Leader,” Nelson is pretty damn good: the right kind of cerebral menacing the role requires. I liked Carl Lumbly’s sympathetic portayal of Isaiah Bradley (reprised from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), and Shira Haas’s turn as a Ross’s former Mossad/Black Widow program security chief. But overall Captain America: Brave New World is uninspired product, yet another misfire in an increasingly disappointing franchise.
![Winter Soldier]](https://www.christopher-east.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Winter-Soldier-300x169.jpg "Film: Captain America: The Winter Soldier")
