The shield still soars, but ‘Brave New World’ sputters

Anthony Mackie’s Captain America deserves a better movie.

By James Verniere/Boston Movie News

Just what the world needs: another under-whelming Marvel superhero film. “Captain America: Brave New World” (apologies to Aldous Huxley and all that) is not weak because Captain America is played by the charismatic Anthony Mackie instead of the equally fine Chris Evans, although Evans has the benefit of having starred in “Captain America: The First Avenger” (2011), one of the best Marvel films ever. “Brave New World” is weak because its plot is both dense and meaningless, and its screenplay by five credited writers moves chess pieces we don’t care about in a dull, formulaic manner despite the fine cast, explosive fight scenes, featuring an almost sentient shield and impressive pyrotechnics. The action scenes are the film’s saving grace, especially ones that make this look like “Marvel: Top Gun.”

The fourth installment in the “Captain America” film series, “Brave New World,” is a continuation of the television mini-series “Captain America and the Winter Soldier,” so if you haven’t watched that (as Disney and Marvel insist you must), good luck. Harrison Ford, a terrific asset despite the bland storytelling, is on board as the newly elected, vaguely Trump-like U.S. President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, a former general who wisely shaved off his Hitlerian mustache.

The plot mixes vibranium, which comes from Wakanda and which the countries of the world share, a newly discovered source of adamantium, cherry blossoms, incarcerated former Super Soldier Isaiah Bradley (a scene-stealing Carl Lumbly), and that mini-Top Gun: Maverick sequence involving battleships, F-18 fighter jets, Captain America and Falcon in their wings, and a looming war with Japan.

Among the bad guys are mercenary Sidewinder (a fun Giancarlo Esposito), mind control master Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson, a spooky plus). The good guys also include the diminutive Shira Haas as Ruth Bat-Seraph, an Israeli former Black Widow on Ross’s personal security detail, the President’s personal guard Leila Taylor (statuesque Xosha Roquemore), and the amiable “Top Gun: Maverick” veteran Danny Ramirez as new Falcon. In cameo appearances, we get Oscar-nominated Sebastian Stan (“The Apprentice”) as Bucky Barnes and former “Lord of the Rings” elf Liv Tyler as Betty Ross from the Louis Leterrier-directed “The Incredible Hulk” (2008), which also featured the late William Hurt as “Thunderbolt” Ross and Nelson as Sterns. O, what tangled webs Marvel has woven after 35 films. In “Brave New World” Sterns has created a method of taking over people’s minds using the Fleetwoods’ 1959 hit pop song “Mr. Blue” as the hypnotic cue. Somebody has been spiking the President’s heart pills. Are you up for a trip to Celestial Island? Can we take the Love Boat? Falcon, whose motto is a jaunty “No dying,” experiences an Icarus moment. Sterns urges Ross to “unleash” his “anger.” Ford played a U.S. President before in “Air Force One” (1997). Mackie’s bruised Sam Wilson reminds himself that Steve Rogers aborted two alien invasions for crying out loud.

If you’ve been waiting since “Independence Day” (1996) to see the White House burst into flames, you may want to catch this. The Red Hulk goes all King Kong on a couple of helicopters. All the balderdash about a treaty is just that. Yes, there is a clip at the end of the credits.

Screenwriters Rob Edwards (“The Princess and the Frog”), Malcolm Spellman (“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”), Dalan Musson (“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”), Julius Onah, who also directed, and Peter Glanz (“The Longest Week”) are nothing if not mind-controlled by Marvel pooh-bah Kevin Feige. Their plot has no supervillain, only sub-villains and rare metals. I can’t wait to see Robert Downey Jr., the former Iron Man, the most popular superhero in the MCU, chew the scenery as the Phantom of the Opera-like, armor-encased Victor Von Doom, aka Doctor Doom in “Avengers: Doomsday” (2026). “It’s coming,” we are told at the end of “Brave New World,” almost as a reminder that this “Captain America” is not “it.” “Doomsday” may be. Bow down before him.

‘Captain America: Brave New World’

Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, action, and some strong language.

Cast: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas

Director: Julius Onah

Writers: Onah, Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson

Running time: 118 minutes

Where to Watch: In theaters.

Grade: C+