The latest Captain America can be considered a “Brave New World” in the same way the singular weekend under Ultron’s reign could be considered an “Age.” Director Julius Onah serves up one of the limpest Marvel offerings in recent memory, hot off the heels of last year’s corpse-defiling Deadpool & Wolverine. The film oddly enough serves as a direct sequel to everyone’s favorite MCU entries – The Incredible Hulk and Eternals – rather than putting any stock in trying to be a standout Captain America outing, the first of which is helmed by Anthony Mackie‘s Sam Wilson, after being handed the mantle from Steve Rogers himself.

The two hour gauntlet gives its most half-hearted attempt at delivering a political thriller. But Winter Soldier, this is not. The purportedly $180 million budget that was disclosed surely does not account for the several reshoots, an eleventh-hour villain addition, role minimizations, and even a title change (previously “New World Order.”) Giancarlo Esposito is utterly wasted as Sidewinder, a miniboss meant to bring about an inciting incident with any amount of pulse, and is instead a very small chess piece in a larger, far less interesting mouse hunt. This is all without mentioning the existing moral panic around the presence of Shira Haas‘ Ruth Bat-Seraph, who in the comics is Sabra, effectively an Israeli counterpart of The Cap himself (all of this is power-sanded down to the role of a plug-and-play ex-Black Widow, mind you).

Any and all political commentary is stumbled into both ineptly and happenstantially, as the film makes an ironclad effort to be the most palatable, sanded-down, uncontroversial version of itself in the name of an international release. In doing so, it consciously offers zero meaningful insight into America, international relations, and the wider use of governmental power except as clumsy coincidence. That Ruth’s entire character is retooled to be an Israeli ex-Black Widow security consultant for the President, affecting and influencing his decisionmaking is enough to make one roll their eyes, and this is before Haas ever opens her mouth (genuinely one of the most baffling acting performances I’ve seen from the MCU in a long while). That the symbol of America ends up coming into direct conflict with a tomato-colored President that exists in his current form as an embodiment of rage and violence (literally nearly destroying The White House in the process) could not have been planned, given this film was in production well before Trump nabbed the election, and all the same, it’s hard to not draw that real-world comparison. All actual orchestrated efforts around storytelling and theming come from a half-baked (frankly, even 25% baked would be generous) revenge plot from a character the audience likely has no recollection of from close to two decades ago now.

Mackie’s first centerstage Cap film is mired in many things, all which make it harder to appreciate the spotlight being on Sam. It bears frustratingly similar sensibilities to its Disney+ predecessor, Falcon & The Winter Soldier, in that it is constantly having characters state their motivations and explain their actions unsubtly every two minutes for an audience that is perceived as inattentive. Its action follows suit with aggressively edited quick cut fight scenes that minimize the impact of every hit without fail, making combat feel entirely weightless, and not the least bit informed by personal character fighting styles. Winter Soldier‘s opening action sequence eats the entire runtime of Brave New World’s lunch. The only breath of fresh air in the entire film is Danny Ramirez as the new Falcon, who injects the smallest bit of humor and personality into all of his scenes.

Character arcs and development are truly an afterthought on the whole. Sam’s entire involvement in the narrative serves to underline the difficulties he must face after having chosen to refuse taking the Super Soldier Serum, but the film at no point uses this internal/external conflict in any way that progresses or even characterizes him meaningfully, especially when realizing that he undergoes the same exact beats as those present in his previous D+ show. If the MCU is going to insist on Sam being the therapist, talk-it-out type, we simply need better writers at the helm, as the primary physical conflict is resolved suddenly and underwhelmingly with Wilson touting similar stilted “You’ve gotta do better, Senator” energy that we were graced with during the finale of his ill-fated six episode series. Worse still is that Sam ends the film espousing some lamebrained both-sides-ism when speaking on the necessity of being able to work with alarmingly unreasonable people on the opposite side of the aisle whose acts continually worsen the nation’s standing, and the very security of the American people. Harrison Ford does his darnedest to elevate the lackluster material he’s given, as he’s one of the only committed performances in the entirety of the film. However. The narrative that unfolds (intentional or otherwise) reads as Trump apologia – a hot-headed, militant, ill-fitting president is really just trying to do right by his daughter, despite sparking international conflicts and literally hulking out; in the end, he is easily swayed by a limp speech & a single cherry blossom petal, ultimately deciding to turn himself in and step down from the presidency. As if. The post-credits scene does not fare any better, as it merely pays lip service to the upcoming threat of the multiverse, just in case the audience hasn’t been following along for the last half-decade.

The upcoming Thunderbolts is a bit of a grace period for Marvel to underperform again without the whole cinematic universe collapsing in on itself, but after the decidedly misleading “Brave” New World, it is achingly clear that Fantastic Four: First Steps has a lot riding on its shoulders. For situating itself in a genre that is built upon exciting action and political intrigue, Captain America is asleep at the wheel. A fangless, apolitical, pulse-starved time at the movies with nothing worth saying, that rewards you with absolute bupkis for engaging with it in good faith. Instead of taking your Valentine to see this, you could both just as easily get a lobotomy together. Similar experience.