Going into Captain America: Brave New World, we found ourselves revisiting the Captain America franchise and realized that the character by far had the best character arc in the MCU. Steve Rogers was not the only one that had an interesting character arc, we were introduced to Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes along his story. So after The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, we were pretty excited to see what Sam Wilson had in store for us as the new Captain America in Captain America: Brave New World. Unfortunately, the story and its noticeable reshoots give us a disjointed film that Anthony Mackie shines as the new Captain America but leaves us wanting more.

The story of Captain America: Brave New World has elements of Captain America The Winter Solider and The Falcon and the Winter Solider by focusing on politics and one becoming Captain America. Throughout the film Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie in a commending and likable performance) is faced with saving the world from an another war, president Thunderbolt Ross (Harrison Ford stepping in for the late William Hurt) wanted to work with him but also compared him to Steve Rogers and an oddly placed villain in Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito) who is tasked to kill Sam Wilson. We did leave out a few spoiler plot points that both help and hinder the film.

Marvel Studios, Disney

It’s been mentioned a few times already, but Mackie is now the MCU Cap. Some people will hate that, but it was time for a change and it is comic accurate. Mackie is in almost every minute of the 2 hour runtime and his charisma shines through especially while paired with his new sidekick Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez). Plus he has established himself as an action star with some great action scenes throughout the film. There is a certain aerial battle in the film that definitely had us on the edge of our seats.

The involvement of new and existing characters is a mixed bag. Joaquin Torres does feel like a character we can get used to but does take a backseat in this film for focus on other characters. Carl Lumbly continues to be a scene stealer as Isaiah Bradley… which if you are reading this, please check out the graphic novel, Captain America: The Truth- Red, White and Black to understand the importance of the character. Really hope we can get more of his character because his part of the film was the most interesting.

Marvel Comics, Kyle Baker and Robert Morales

President Ross and eventually Red Hulk (we’ll get to that soon) is cool to see and is well done, but feels like the trailer ruined the climax for the film. The whole movie you spend with the tease of Ross becoming the Red Hulk. Giancarlo Esposito as Sidewinder is great casting but feels like he should be in another film, it’s a cool character that does have a future in the MCU but his importance is overshadowed by Red Hulk and the return of another MCU villain. It will be interesting to see where the MCU goes with Sidewinder.

And finally the biggest issue we had with the film is the character of Ruth Bat-Seraph. This character does not need to exist in this film and stripping away the mutant history of the character is a disservice. Nothing against Shira Haas as an actor but she seems miscast in the role and not for a moment did we feel like she was the character that she was portraying. That is not even taking in consideration the Israeli background that the film skips over entirely. Outside of a few minutes, it feels like this movie was missing a strong female character. Which is intimately, a shame.

Yes, you can be critical of a movie and still enjoy it. This a perfect example of that. It’s entertaining with some great action sequences and despite who you feel like is your Captain America, Mackie proves to be a great option to carry the shield.