Captain America: Brave New World

I came into this expecting a dumpster fire, for a few reasons. One, many of the reviews I'd seen or read for this were not kind. Two, the quality of the MCU post-Endgame has been, to put it mildly, middling at best. And three, I have been burnt out on the MCU for a while. The flood of content, and the fact that it FELT like content and not the thrice-yearly special events that made Phases 1-3 so awesome, left me tired of it all. Too many characters, too many plot threads, too many shows, too many global apocalypse events, too much multiverse ... it was past over-saturation for me. I was pleasantly surprised then to find that I enjoyed this way more than seemingly most people. I didn't love it. I'm not gonna push my non-existent glasses up my nose and WeLl AcKsHuAlLy all over the place. It still isn't Phase 1-3 amazing. It has flaws. In fact, let's discuss them now. The biggest one is the movie's total lack of identity due to borrowing so pieces from other movies, every A in the title could be the recycling symbol. Dig this checklist. Super-smart villain with a convoluted plot that requires way too many pieces and events to unfold in a specific and unpredictable order? Captain America: Civil War. Mostly useless secondary villain that is after a sample of a rare element and written out of the movie long before the climax? Black Panther. Sleeper agents activated with aural triggers? Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Triggering a gamma-radiated person into a rage so they transform and destroy stuff? The Avengers. An ex-Widow agent being personal security to a high profile person? Iron Man 2. Innocent person framed for an attack on a politician? Civil War again. Hero full of self-doubt and feeling like he's living in the shadow of another hero? Spider-Man: Homecoming. I could go on and on, but my point is made. The movie -- both at the script and editing level -- is cobbled together. And that's not including how Cap 4 intentionally references several other movies as necessary plot points, including The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow, and The Eternals, two movies off most MCU fans' radars. I could list other flaws -- the cluttered script, Danny Ramirez's acting verging on Jake Lloyd-levels of "WOOHOO! THIS IS PODRACING!" corniness, the CGI being as good as Phase 1, how unnecessary it was to introduce another ex-Widow, the growing habit of Anthony Mackie's Cap communicating his values and ideals via stump speeches instead of demonstrating them through action -- but everything really goes back to that list. Cap 4 is built on being a sampler platter of other movies instead of forging its own, which is kind of ironic considering Sam Wilson's struggle to live up to Steve Rogers is a part of this movie. And yet ... I still enjoyed this. Was it Mackie's genuine charisma? Getting to see Harrison Ford in a fun role that didn't ask him to just be old and cranky? The movie keeping the stakes low, never needing an alien invasion, dimension-hopping psychopath, globe-eradicating superweapon, or a mysterious MacGuffin? Or was it that I went in with severely lowered expectations? I don't know. All I know is that I was entertained enough to be satisfied. It's not excellent, but it's also not trying to be. It reminds me of the glut of political thrillers in the 90's, like Murder At 1600, albeit with more action. The stakes are serious, but never catastrophic. There's a mystery, and while it's too convoluted to be real, it's just this side of the line of acceptable for a movie. I don't know that I've effectively explained why I enjoyed it. I'm not sure I can, to be honest. Sometimes, it's just a feeling thing. Sometimes, it's the right mood and the right movie at the right time. I can't say I'll revisit this movie, but I think I've revisited all of one post-Endgame movie, so that's not saying much. I certainly won't say this rights the course of the MCU. It's still rudderless, in search of purpose, with too many disparate story threads that don't seem like they're drawing together anytime soon. But all this is trying to be is a taut action thriller, an introduction to Sam Wilson as Cap, and in that regard, I think it did a good enough job. Good enough that I'm interested in the next time.