Once more, SPOILER-ALERT. If you haven't seen this movie and don't want to be spoiled, please look elsewhere.
All right, here we go.
Truth be told, there's very little to spoil about Captain America: Brave New World, that hasn't already been spoiled in the trailers, the foremost of which being Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross' transformation into the Red Hulk, which is all over the film's promotional materials. That said, an in-depth discussion of the plot and its implications on the Marvel Cinematic Universe moving forward is only possible by wading into what few spoilers remain.
MUTANT DAWN
For me, the most prominent plot point worth noting here is easily the most obvious, namely the introduction of the metal adamantium, which was left out of the trailers, probably more out of a desire to cut a more brisk trailer than to avoid spoilers. While the introduction of the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe has always been a question of "when" and not "if, there was the lingering question of how long it would take Kevin Feige to make his move towards making that happen. While the mention of mutants in the little-seen Ms. Marvel and the more widely seen Black Panther: Wakanda Forever felt like soft steps in this direction, the introduction of adamantium in this film is a much more emphatic gesture.
WOULD-BE ARCH VILLAINS INTRODUCED
There are other things worth noting, too, though. I, for one was grateful to see the MCU finally pay off the teaser involving Tim Blake Nelson's Samuel Sterns, aka Mr. Blue at the end of The Incredible Hulk, in which his gamma-irradiated head began to swell to hint at what was to come. Such was the anticipation to see the Leader, one of the Hulk's most prominent villains, that people even got excited at the thought of him showing up in the She-Hulk TV series a couple of years ago.
Was the payoff what Hulk fans would have hoped for? In a word, no. The Leader is one of Hulk's most significant bad guys, but he's extremely watered-down here, despite Nelson's best efforts and some nicely creepy makeup. That said, I did like that they finally paid him off, and left room for a better creative team to use him down the line. That's the advantage of not killing one's bad guys. The same can be said for Giancarlo Esposito's Sidewinder. However poorly handled these characters are, at least they're on the table
ALL-HULKED OUT
While this movie has provided a couple of promising villains a rather muted entry into the MCU, it's also provided a bit of an exit for a longtime MCU character in Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, who only turned into a red Hulk because he was taking meds to keep him alive; meds that, unbeknownst to him, had been supercharged with gamma radiation. Without the gamma meds, Ross is surely not much longer for this world, and the fact that Marvel cast an 82-year-old Harrison Ford to replace the late William Hurt and not a younger actor suggests to me that they don't see themselves getting that much more mileage out of this character. I wouldn't be surprised if Ross' next appearance is in a funeral or memorial scene.
BULLET DODGED FOR BUCKY
The movie looks poised to end its theatrical run with more or less a half-billion dollars in global grosses, which is less than half of what its immediate predecessor, Captain America: Civil War made almost nine years ago, back when Marvel movies were unassailable at the box office. That said, it never really was going to scale those heights, especially considering that Sam's arc of embracing his identity as Captain Ameria, a much more compelling story than what was on offer here, was already played out in his TV series, and considering that rather than set off in a new, exciting direction, the film borrowed heavily from the best Captain America film ever, The Winter Soldier. One section of fandom goes on about how Bucky should have been Cap after Steve Rogers retired, but the truth is he would not have done a whole lot better in this movie than Sam did, so essentially Marvel saved him for what could genuinely be a better film in the upcoming Thunderbolts*.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on this film, but I will be back to share my thoughts on the next Marvel Film coming up: Thunderbolts*!