I will confess to some disappointment in the opening scene of Captain America: Brave New World, which pitted the new Captain America, Sam Wilson, formerly the Falcon, against a group of highly organized terrorists who have stolen a "package" of some sort. So far as Marvel superhero action sequences go, I have no complaints. but Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), while quite effective as the Falcon in past movies, seems out of place wielding Captain America's shield. As President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) tells him in a later scene, "You're no Steve Rogers." And while the president meant it more as a slight, the fact of the matter is that Rogers (Chris Evans, not appearing in this film) had super strength and reflexes, and watching him wield the shield in combat seemed more believable. Wilson, with just a normal person's abilities, is harder to imagine pulling off the feats of strength and dexterity that Rogers performed on a regular basis.

Also, the fact that many of Wilson's "powers" are owed to a suit of Wakandan armor somehow makes it worse; Captain America is now a second-generation Iron Man, with wings. Accordingly, while Steve Rogers was always ready to go into action at the drop of a hat, whether or not he was suited up for adventure, Sam Wilson is hamstrung if something happens while he's not in his armor.

The movie continues as the United States' new president, Ross (now played by Ford after the death of William Hurt), attempts to forge a global treaty regarding the massive but quite dead Celestial emerging from the Indian Ocean, an aftereffect of the final battle in 2021's The Eternals. Among the many resources discovered in the giant, otherworldly corpse is adamantium, the only substance stronger than Wakanda's rare -- and tightly controlled -- vibranium.

Then a new player emerges to cause a stir and wreak a terrible revenge on Ross for past sins.

Sometimes we forget that, while 2003's The Hulk, starring Eric Bana as Bruce Banner, remains outside of the MCU canon, 2008's The Incredible Hulk -- despite having a different actor (Ed Norton) in the titular role than is present in all of Banner's other MCU appearances (Mark Ruffalo) -- is still considered part of the ongoing continuity. We were reminded of that when Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) and his alter ego, the Abomination, resurfaced in the Marvel/Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law. Now, another minor character from The Incredible Hulk reappears as the main villain here: Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), who transformed back in 2008 into The Leader, the brainiest of the gamma-irradiated monsters, but hasn't been seen since. Turns out Ross has been keeping him in a secret prison, using his intelligence for his own purposes. Unfortunately for Ross, one of those purposes was treating his incipient heart condition, and and Sterns' "cure" involved pumping Ross full of a variant on the gamma radiation that created the Hulk.

When the inevitable finally happens -- in the Rose Garden outside the White House, no less -- this new Hulk is red ... and, by the way, it happens fairly late in the movie, so don't believe the marketing campaign that makes Red Hulk seem like a major part of the film.

Can Captain Falcon -- I mean, America -- stop a rampaging Hulk before he destroys the White House? We'll see.

The movie also features Danny Ramirez as Wilson's protege Joaquin Torres (first appearing in 2021's The Falcon & the Winter Soldier) as a wanna-be Falcon replacement; Carl Lumbly as Isaiah Bradley, a prototypical super soldier who didn't get the same acclaim or treatment as Steve Rogers back in the day; and Shira Haas as Ruth Bat-Seraph, yet another entry in the growing field of former Black Widow operatives, none of whom will ever replace Scarlett Johansson, and who in this case seems largely superfluous. Other appearances of note include Giancarlo Esposito as Sidewinder, leader of the terrorists, and William Mark McCullough as Commander Dennis Dunphy, an important military ally of Wilson's. There are also brief but important cameos from Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier, and Liv Tyler as Betty Ross, the president's daughter (also making her first MCU appearance since The Incredible Hulk).

Anyway, how was the movie? It was ... good. I enjoyed it. Was it great? No. Was it disappointing? No. It was a middle-of-the-road Marvel movie, entertaining but not one I'll be in a hurry to watch again. And yes, I like Mackie's performance quite a lot, but I would be lying if I didn't say Chris Evans' absence looms large over the movie.

Also, although I have no complaints about Ford's performance as Ross, I have to say it would have been interesting if the role had gone instead to Sam Elliott, who played the part in The Hulk. Wouldn't that have been a twist? But let's be honest, either would be an improvement on ... well, you know who.