Brave New World Somehow Manages To Rehash Every Previous Captain America Movie

This article contains spoilers for "Captain America: Brave New World."

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is in trouble. The past couple of years have seen a string of commercial and critical failures that have put the future of this cinematic experiment in peril. Worse yet, it seems every new Marvel project is met with apathy and disinterest. With the Multiverse Saga heading toward its conclusion, every movie counts, and sadly, "Captain America: Brave New World" is not the clear-cut solution to Marvel's problems. This is a safe, forgettable, entirely unpolitical movie with nothing to say and little to offer that "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" didn't already cover. We may never know how much damage the reshoots did to the movie or whether previous drafts were any better, but it's hard to imagine things being worse than what is hitting theaters.

In "Brave New World," Captain America, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), is now working for President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford). After an assassination attempt on the President, Sam goes rogue and takes it upon himself to exonerate his friend, Isaiah Bradley, who was involved in the shooting, slowly unraveling a vast conspiracy that threatens to unleash war on the world in the process. The story is nothing to write home about, the villain's plot is vague, and other than Harrison Ford being a damn movie star and Red Hulk being pretty cool, there is little in the new "Captain America" that we haven't seen before.

The worst sin this movie commits is that it is mostly a rehash of the previous "Captain America" movies. For a movie that is about Sam Wilson coming on his own as the new Captain America and stepping out of the shadow of Steve Rogers, "Brave New World" does seem quite eager to make you think of the Steve Rogers movies.

Ever since "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," every movie starring Captain America has toyed with the tone of a political thriller, being more about intrigue than pure fantasy and action. "Brave New World" isn't any different, but the way it approaches it is not new, as the movie constantly nods at "The Winter Soldier" and "Civil War."

Take Sam Wilson's role in the movie, for example. He goes rogue after his friend Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) is imprisoned for his role in an assassination attempt on the President and immediately becomes the target of a manhunt — echoing Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) risking everything to find and exonerate his buddy Bucky (Sebastian Stan). Like in "The Winter Soldier," this Captain America is accompanied by a former Black Widow member (Ruth Bat-Seraph played by Shira Haas) and uncovers a plot wherein government agents are being taken over and even brainwashed by a villain.

Wilson's ideological clashes with President Ross over the role of superheroes and the government echo the clashes between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in "Civil War" but without the emotional layers of those contentions nor the exploration of their ramifications. Even Samuel Stern (Tim Blake Nelson) and his nefarious plan and backstory feel like an inferior rehash of the anti-Avengers revenge plot Zemo (Daniel Brühl) enacts in "Civil War" due to his life being ruined by those in power.

Even in the action, this movie is a pale imitation of what came before. There are entire action scenes that feel completely lifted from "The Winter Soldier" but without its intensity or kineticism — particularly Sidewinder's (Giancarlo Esposito) attack on Sam's pickup truck, which is quite reminiscent of when Bucky (Sebastian Stan) attacks the highway that movie. This in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, that is widely considered to be one of the best movies in the entire MCU. The problem is that "Brave New World" stops at the nodding, and does nothing interesting with them.

Take "Cobra Kai," for instance. That is a show that is full of nods and references to the "Karate Kid" movies, including outright lifting entire scenes. What makes that show different is that every time there is a big nod to those movies, it's there to comment on the present. When Xolo Maridueña's Miguel wins the All-Valley Karate Championship for Cobra Kai in season one by exploiting an injury in his opponent, in a scene echoing the "sweep the leg" moment from the original film, it has meaning. The scene shows the audience how the past echoes in the present, and how Johnny bringing back Cobra Kai exactly as he learned it means continuing the toxicity he grew up in. "Brave New World" could nod to the previous "Captain America" movies, but to do so without offering anything new — no commentary, no acknowledgment of how things are different (or the same) now — is to simply take the lazy route and make people think of a vastly better movie than the one they're watching now.