I hate it when the best part of a film experience is watching the trailer.

Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World provided just that. This film is a staggering misfire — a soulless, confused attempt to push the MCU forward that instead lands with the emotional impact of a limp handshake. Somewhere beneath the CGI sludge, vague political posturing, and recycled tropes was a chance to let Sam Wilson shine as the new Captain America. But instead of lifting him up, this movie buries him under a script that feels like it was AI-generated in a boardroom.

Let's get one good thing out of the way: Liv Tyler still exists in this universe.

Her return as Betty Ross is one of the only sparks of continuity and sincerity in a film that otherwise feels like it’s ashamed of its own legacy. Her screen time is brief, but it’s a reminder of a Marvel era when characters were allowed to have emotions, arcs, and relevance.

Unfortunately, Brave New World offers none of that. Sam Wilson, who deserved a thoughtful exploration of what it means to step into Steve Rogers’ boots, is left with shallow one-liners and an underwhelming moral dilemma that fizzles before it even ignites. His transformation into Captain America should have been a compelling story of identity and leadership - instead, it’s more like checking off a corporate box.

Supporting characters are even worse. Harrison Ford’s Thunderbolt Ross is somehow both loud and lifeless, an NPC in a suit barking dialogue that sounds like it was lifted from an old Call of Duty script.

The villains? Forgettable. The stakes? Murky. The pacing? A mess. You could cut 40 minutes from the middle and no one would notice - or care.

The film tries desperately to blend political commentary with superhero action, but ends up doing neither well. Its “message” feels about as deep as a Twitter thread. It lacks the nuance of The Winter Soldier, the charm of Civil War, and even the spectacle of the Avengers ensemble films. What we’re left with is an awkward, overproduced mess that doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be - other than a placeholder in Marvel’s increasingly bloated content machine.

And let’s not forget the action: shaky, over-edited, and somehow both hyperactive and dull. You’ll see wings, shields, explosions - but none of it will matter, because none of it feels earned.

Marvel used to build characters we cared about. Brave New World builds noise.

And it's not brave. It's just tired.

Captain America: Brave New World gets a Buttery Rating of 1 - and the 1 is mostly for Betty Ross still being in the game.