Captain America: Brave New World ★★★

THE fourth instalment in the Captain America film series is the weakest.

Captain America: Brave New World isn’t a bad film by any means; it’s pretty entertaining throughout and has some decent action.

It also features a good performance from Harrison Ford whose on-screen gravitas suggests he ignored the memo that he was just in a comic book adventure.

Overall, however, it’s just not up to the high standard of action sequences set by its predecessors and doesn’t sufficiently advance the story arc and characters within the overall Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Again, that’s not a huge criticism of this film, because the last half-dozen MCU films have achieved this either.

Yes, the film does try to merge a few different past stories. But ultimately it doesn’t advance them.

I guess if a five-person writing team can’t progress things then at least this spinning of wheels is entertaining enough.

In case you are unaware, 2016’s Captain America: Civil War ended Chris Evans’ run as Steve Rogers, replaced by Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson in the television series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Ford plays US President Thaddeus Ross who was previously one of the bad guys in the last Captain America film as well as way back in the second ever Marvel film The Incredible Hulk in 2008.

In that regard, Brave New World acts as a form of sequel to the 2008 film, even though the green Hulk doesn’t appear in this one.

Confused? Don’t worry. Just sit back and enjoy what you can. By the way, there is a Hulk in this film, but he’s a red one.

As I said earlier, Ford is very good and Mackie does a decent job as the new Captain America trying to be a super hero without actually having any super powers.

Giancarlo Esposito is excellent as Sidewinder, the leader of a rogue special-ops team, but Danny Ramirez is a fail as Joaquin Torres, aka The Falcon.

Watched at the cinema.