You know the saying. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. But fool me three times? Maybe I must’ve been the real fool the entire time.

In a “post-Endgame” filmgoing culture still recovering from superhero fatigue, it’s become routine to hate on anything Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) releases these days. However, having a well-performing 2024 with “Deadpool & Wolverine” grossing $1.3 billion at the worldwide box office, the MCU has been showing more promise for the future. 

Their latest release, “Captain America: Brave New World,” is one long-awaited by fans, myself included. Following up on the 2021 T.V. show “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” the film endured delays from the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes and countless reshoots after negative reception from test audiences. Making matters worse, McDonald’s was obligated to release a promotional Happy Meal set for the film in 2024, leaking key plot elements.

I remained hopeful for this release because of its potential to revive the Marvel hype of 10 years ago that dominated filmgoing culture. Is the MCU experiencing a cultural renaissance? Or did they just get lucky with their recent releases? I’m starting to think it was the latter.

“Captain America: Brave New World” follows the new Captain America, Sam Wilson, as he attempts to live up to the legacy of Steve Rogers. Working closely with the U.S. government, Wilson attempts to resolve an international conflict involving a new adamantium metal from the Celestial Island previously introduced in 2021’s “Eternals.” Matters are only made worse when the controversial past of President Thaddeus Ross, now played by Harrison Ford, threatens both his legacy and the international affairs of the United States.

Or at least that’s what I think it’s about. Despite viewing this movie twice, I still struggled to understand what the heck was going on. Which, unless you’re an avant-garde, surrealist arthouse film, should not be something you want for your movie. You only get so many reshoots to clean up negative feedback a film receives from test screenings. As beneficial as they were for the final cut, reshoots cannot completely rework a fundamentally flawed narrative.

The alleged initial storyline for “Captain America: Brave New World” greatly differs from the one we see in theaters. The most notable change is a complete rework of the Serpent Society’s role in the film. The villains had initially featured stars like WWE wrestler Seth Rollins and Rosa Salazar, but these roles have since been removed in the reshooting process. Salazar would’ve otherwise played Diamondback, an essential character who was even featured in the early McDonald’s Happy Meal set.

In an interview Variety conducted with director Julius Onah, he explained that the reworked elements of the film aimed for a more “grounded aesthetic and tone” compared to the “heightened” and “cartoonish” style originally presented with these characters.

The result is a disgusting, mutated chimera of entirely separate stories. One is a tense, stylish political thriller, but the other is stale, “heroic” rubbish reminiscent of the corny, fake superhero movies of Amazon’s “The Boys.” Having these incongruent personalities interwoven presents a product as awkward as the trope of the three kids in a trench coat pretending to be an adult. “Captain America: Brave New World” likes to think it’s a deep, thought-provoking thriller, but it is just the same lifeless, corporate junk from Disney we’ve been tired of for the past couple years.

This isn’t to say the film is entirely terrible. The reshaped plot elements are easily the best parts of “Captain America: Brave New World,” which admittedly isn’t an impressive feat. The late addition of Giancarlo Esposito as the Sidewinder presents the film with a new, menacing foe that somewhat makes up for its boring main villain. Unfortunately, the fact he is not the main villain wasted his potential. Furthermore, the more politically focused narrative at least adds a layer of tension I’ve long desired from Marvel’s filmography, considering much of their recent catalog consists of light-hearted pseudo-comedies.

I usually don’t care that much about the acting in a superhero movie. However, the performances in this movie are so distractingly dull and lifeless it kills the tension. I don’t think it’s largely the fault of the actors, but rather the soulless scriptwriting and dialogue that fails to make the characters consistently interesting.

Apart from some stylish moments in the filmmaking (largely from the presumably reshot moments), the screenplay completely lacks personality. The subtext is near nonexistent. The dialogue only attempts to be funny or drive the narrative with exhausting exposition dumps. Meaningful character arcs are treated like a forgotten afterthought, which are quickly moved on from like they don’t matter.

Anthony Mackie may be the most charismatic actor involved in the MCU. So while I appreciate the increased involvement of his character, he is unfortunately given some of the emptiest dialogue I’ve seen from a movie in years. It is an absolute waste of his talent as an actor. Seriously, with five writing credits on this film, was no one able to produce a convincingly human character? 

In a franchise spanning nearly 20 years, I found it bizarre how Harrison Ford–despite terribly written dialogue and limited screen time–delivered one of the best performances I have seen in the MCU. He fully embodies Ross with a viscerally intense performance, presenting nuance in an otherwise monotonous script.

As much as there is to dislike about “Captain America: Brave New World,” there are still aspects worth appreciating. Maybe if you turn your brain off, ignore your self-respect, and pay for an overpriced ticket, you could leave this movie happy and content. 

Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s worth sitting through 118 minutes of monotonous, corporate trash to cherry-pick the movie for moments of what could’ve been. I was a fool to expect anything good from this exhausted franchise. Considering how much money Disney threw away to make this movie, it would have been better if they’d just scrapped the film entirely.

2/5