Brave New World

Directed by Julius Onah, Brave New World follows Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson as he works alongside (and occasionally against) Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus Ross to solve a wide-ranging conspiracy. Filmmaker Onah, armed with his and Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, Peter Glanz’s screenplay, delivers a typically erratic entry within the expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe body of work, and yet it’s clear, ultimately, that Brave New World fares slightly better than the majority of its padded-out and mostly interminable brethren – with the relatively concise, easy-to follow narrative augmented with exciting action sequences and a seriously engaging performance from Ford. (Mackie is good here, to be sure, but it’s apparent that he doesn’t quite possess the leading-man charisma of, for example, a Chris Evans.) And while the picture does boast a small selection of needless, overly CGI-friendly action sequences, including (and especially) a headache-inducing stretch set around the Indian Ocean, Brave New World, which climaxes with an unexpectedly thrilling battle between Captain America and a red Hulk, generally comes off as a watchable-enough comic-book movie that fares better than one might’ve anticipated (or had any right to expect).

**1/2 out of ****