\n<\/p>\n
Picture this: a suspected killer running from the government; a gruff president staving off enemies on a plane; a brainwashed former soldier embroiled in a conspiracy. It\u2019s not the spiky political thrillers \u201cThe Fugitive\u201d or \u201cAir Force One\u201d or \u201cThe Manchurian Candidate,\u201d it\u2019s \u201cCaptain America: Brave New World.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then again, the film recruited Harrison Ford into a cinematic universe that single-handedly welded the modern movie wink \u2014 why not give us what we expect? In its early goings, \u201cBrave New World\u201d does indeed read partially as a paranoid \u201990s genre film trapped in a Marvel movie, struggling to break free from its franchise constraints: too much setup, too many villains, too much thinly scattered lore.<\/p>\n
After Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), a.k.a. the new Captain America, retrieves a valuable substance known as adamantium from the villain Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito as a hammy iteration of Gus Fring, his \u201cBreaking Bad\u201d character), he brings it back to a grateful President Ross (Harrison Ford). At a gathering meant to announce a global treaty around adamantium\u2019s usage, the president is nearly assassinated by Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly, a bright spot), a former soldier who goes rogue. Wilson, in turn, goes off to find the mystery villain who is controlling not only Bradley, but also what eventually becomes a hulking-mad Ross.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
It\u2019s all a lot to process and yet not nearly enough to hold your attention. For all of the movie\u2019s genre ambitions, the only wisps of tangible political intrigue to be found are in the ones unintended<\/a>, or via allusions to ones already explored (global class politics and the mixed messages about a Black Captain America in the film\u2019s TV precursor, \u201cThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier\u201d).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n What\u2019s left instead is a movie whose idea of tension is mostly to move at light speed with constant explication. The film, directed by Julius Onah, has the frayed tailoring of a movie marked by reshoots and changes<\/a>: The writing is stiff and the ensemble is mostly charmless, while the visuals are slapdash.<\/p>\n As the new Captain America, Mackie was perhaps doomed from the start. And yet, he lacks the megawatt magnetism to elevate, or even just obscure, the poor construction of a tentpole franchise on his own. He is a far better actor elsewhere, but here his stand-alone avenger and the bad blockbuster only show the loose seams.<\/p>\n What the film mostly relies on instead is Ford, not only as an actor, but as his alter ego. When the Red Hulk finally does appear, it\u2019s an add-on \u2014 a last-ditch effort to instead recapture the kind of fan-service glee of Marvels old. With its cheap action and garish visuals, it\u2019s then that we enter yet another genre altogether: action-figure commercial.<\/p>\n Captain America: Brave New World<\/strong>
Rated PG-13 for hulk smashes. Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes. In theaters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n