Captain America: Brave New World is the latest film added to Marvel Studio’s list of mildly entertaining cinematic experiences in a still over-saturated superhero market. It is a little better than I had heard but not by much.

There are five credited screenwriters for this, including the director, Julius Ornah. The other collaborators are Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Mussan, and Peter Glanz.

Anthony Mackie has succeeded Chris Evans as the new Captain America. His superhero moniker in the previous MCU films was the Falcon. Now, he is the new Captain America since the previous one, Steve Rogers, went back in time to be with his lost love and bequeathed his shield to Sam Wilson. Anyway, other cast members include Harrison Ford as now-President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Tim Blake Nelson, and Giancarlo Esposito.

Nelson reprises his role from The Incredible Hulk film of 2008, which was Dr. Samuel Sterns, a super-intelligent villain who was grievously wronged by Ross for many years.

An old friend of Wilson’s is brainwashed into attempting to assassinate the president. A treaty with Japan falls into peril as they negotiate the handling of a new element known as adamantium. Ross had invited Wilson to a summit at the White House, wanting to discuss the chances of rebuilding the Avengers. The assassination attempt sparks an investigation that leads Captain America to an enemy who was kept in secret. Ross also has to fight off a frightening transformation triggered by his ingestion of gamma radiation. The new Captain America will have quite a fight on his hands to protect his country and the world from enemies within his own government.

Mackie is actually a talented actor and does his best with this role, but I didn’t find his character to be all that interesting. His angst about replacing the previous Captain America is somewhat predictable. He performs his fight scenes quite well. He seems to have trained quite hard to make some of those moves seem so effortless. My lack of enthusiasm for this portrayal has more to do with the writing than Mackie’s casting.

Harrison Ford predictably does a solid job as Thaddeus Ross, a role he took over from the late William Hurt. The previously mentioned frightening transformation is in the trailer, so I am not spoiling much by saying that he becomes the Red Hulk, which is pretty well realized with the assistance of CGI and whatever other special effects gizmos are involved.

I guess I was also distracted by the realization that it took five screenwriters to cobble this thing together. Parts of it did feel a little tacked together.

The film manages to avoid being completely terrible. There are some interesting moments peppered throughout.

Sterns was kind of an interesting adversary with a legitimate beef. Of course, the problem is that he was willing to tolerate a lot of collateral damage for his understandable desire for revenge. Nelson was quite effectively creepy at times. It was nice to see some previously dangling threads from The Incredible Hulk get tied off.

The fight scenes were well done, but Marvel films tend to be consistently effective in that arena.

Overall, the film has some good points such as casting and a semi-interesting plot, but the editing, some of the dialogue, and a rather underwhelming cameo are a little too clumsy for me to forgive.