There are a few baffling things about Captain America: Brave New World, but the one that’s keeping me up at night is how much the movie wants me to sympathize with Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford, taking over for the late William Hurt), and how badly the filmmakers make their case.

Let’s temporarily ignore the debate over whether Thunderbolt Ross might be a metaphor for anything in the real world. This is just about basic character writing. Leave aside Ross’ MCU history of being a thorn in the side of the Hulk and the Avengers, as well. This is just about the cold, hard facts that Brave New World reveals about him — the elements of the plot for which director Julius Onah and the screenwriters were fully responsible.

Looking at this movie on its own, you have a situation in which the balance of “out of pocket things this guy did” and “noble reasons he did it” are so far out of whack that asking us to see him as a tragic figure goes right past laughable and into confusing. Nevertheless, Captain America: Brave New World insists, “Don’t you feel bad for him?”

I gotta tell ya: I sure don’t!

[Ed. note: This piece contains end spoilers for Captain America: Brave New World.]

Brave New World stresses one sympathetic factor about Ross over and over: He’s estranged from his daughter, who refuses to speak to him. He wants to prove to her that he’s “changed” from the man he was when she last deigned to give him the time of day, and for them to........

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