Movie Review: Marvel treads water with 'Captain America: Brave New World'

Celebrate Valentine's Day this year with “Captain America: Brave New World,” a highly processed, empty calorie, regret-later candy of a movie.

We're nearing the end of Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with predictable and underwhelming returns. “Captain America: Brave New World” feels like it's just treading water, wasting Anthony Mackie in his first cinematic outing as his “Hamlet”-like Captain America.

The story by Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson gathers familiar Marvel characters and blends them into a White House conspiracy-meets-international violent face-off in the Indian Ocean. Only Marvel in Phase Five could make that boring.

It lifts from “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Top Gun” and even pointlessly steals its title from Aldous Huxley. It cannibalizes from other Marvel movies, like the addition of a substance called Adamantium, much like Vibranium from Wakanda. There is a Kendrick Lamar song heard at the climactic end, but it’s not new; it’s from 2014.

We start with Harrison Ford as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross — taking the role over from from the late William Hurt — in his first days as U.S. president. He insists he's changed from the days when he hunted down Hulk and was an all-around evil dude.

He approaches Sam Wilson, the new Captain America, and proposes a strategic union between the government and Captain America. “Work with me, Sam. We’ll show the world a better way forward.”

This is a dangerous idea — superheroes working for the government — and Cap is warned but still agrees. “Trust me. My eyes are wide open,” he reassures Danny Ramirez as his sidekick and fledgling new Falcon. (Cap's eyes may be open but yours may be slowly closing).

There is a trio of bad guys, each more powerful and overacting as the last — a delicious Giancarlo Esposito as the villain Sidewinder, Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns (a hyper-intelligent megalomaniac with his brain literally bursting out of his skull) and Red Hulk, a massive slab of angry man-meat who makes the regular Hulk look like Timothée Chalamet.

There are also some tangential characters, like Isaiah Bradley, a Korean War veteran who was a Super Soldier but spent years in prison, and the weirdly cast Shira Haas as Ruth Bat-Seraph, a slippery national security agent with a murky agenda.

Director Julius Onah does well with the action but fumbles the quieter moments and supervises editing that's the opposite of crisp, not helped by script writers who ape military language — “Negative, the package is the priority” — and grandiose sentiment — “The country is lost.”

For extra credit, spot all the product placements in the movie: Cap drives a GMC truck and uses Dell computers. The president of the United States uses a Peloton. What a wasted opportunity for Cap’n Crunch.

There does emerge a theme that unites Cap and Ross, which is that both feel the need to prove themselves. Mackie's Captain America throughout the previous 2021 TV series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” was ambivalent about taking on the mantle of Steve Rogers, the original Sentinel of Liberty. “You wonder if you’ll ever be enough,” he says.

Ross says he wants to secure peace across the world but really wants to reconnect with his estranged daughter — Liv Tyler — and prove he's changed. He wants to take a walk with her to see the cherry blossoms. We would like him to ask serious questions of his agent.

Mackie, who joined the MCU more than a decade ago in 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” has been a good servant to Marvel and deserves better. One of our great actors, he can be steely and vulnerable. But he can't outrace stilted lines like “If we can’t see the good in each other, we’ve already lost the fight.” Marvel has lost more than the fight; they've lost the thread.

“Captain America: Brave New World,” a Walt Disney Pictures release that opens in theaters on Friday, is rated PG-13 for “intense sequences of violence, action and some strong language.” Running time: 118 minutes. One star out of four.

Danny Ramirez poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Captain America: A Brave New World' on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in London. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Harrison Ford is interviewed at the photo call for the film 'Captain America: A Brave New World' on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in London. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Danny Ramirez, left, and Anthony Mackie pose for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Captain America: A Brave New World' on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in London. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Anthony Mackie, left, and Harrison Ford pose for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Captain America: A Brave New World' on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in London. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal agents carrying out immigration arrests in Minnesota's Twin Cities region already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman rammed the door of one home Sunday and pushed their way inside, part of what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest enforcement operation ever.

In a dramatic scene similar to those playing out across Minneapolis, agents captured a man in the home just minutes after pepper spraying protesters outside who had confronted the heavily armed federal agents. Along the residential street, protesters honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt the operation.

Video of the clash taken by The Associated Press showed some agents pushing back protesters while a distraught woman later emerged from the house with a document that federal agents presented to arrest the man. Signed by an immigration officer, the document — unlike a warrant signed by a judge — does not authorize forced entry into a private residence. A warrant signed by an immigration officer only authorizes arrest in a public area.

Immigrant advocacy groups have conducted extensive “know-your-rights” campaigns urging people not to open their doors unless agents have a court order signed by a judge.

But within minutes of ramming the door in a neighborhood filled with single-family homes, the handcuffed man was led away.

More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began at the beginning of December, said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News on Sunday that the administration would send additional federal agents to Minnesota to protect immigration officers and continue enforcement.

The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — is bracing for what is next after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer on Wednesday.

“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”

Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.

People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners Sunday in the neighborhood where Good was killed, watching for any signs of federal agents.

More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .

“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.

The protests have been largely peaceful, but residents remained anxious. On Monday, Minneapolis public schools will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.

Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.

While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said that the investigation into Good's shooting death should not be overseen solely by the federal government.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.

“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened," Smith said on ABC’s "This Week."

The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.

Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”

"That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.

Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn't be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”

The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests in cities across the country over the weekend, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Oakland, California.

Contributing were Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis; Thomas Strong in Washington; Bill Barrow in Atlanta; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio.

A woman gets into an altercation with a federal immigration officer as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A federal immigration officer deploys pepper spray as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A family member, center, reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Bystanders are treated after being pepper sprayed as federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A family member reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Federal agents look on after detaining a person during a patrol in Minneapolis, Minn., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

Bystanders react after a man was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)

People stand near a memorial at the site where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

A man looks out of a car window after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Border Patrol agents detain a man, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

People shout toward Border Patrol agents making an arrest, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey holds a news conference on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

Protesters react as they visit a makeshift memorial during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)