Captain America: Brave New World Review: Is Good Not Enough?

Leo Josse ’28 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Images Ahead.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe—aka The MCU—is the largest-grossing franchise of all time, and up until Avengers: Endgame (Russo & Russo, 2019), the films were mostly regarded as high quality. But after Endgame wrapped up a decade’s worth of stories, Marvel promised a new era of films following their successful formula. But long story short, these new films have not been as consistent in quality as The MCU was known for. The only movies that have proven successful, like Marvel was used to, are Spider-Man: No Way Home (Watts, 2021), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (Gunn, 2023) and Deadpool & Wolverine (Levy, 2024). These would be great, but Spider-Man and Deadpool relied heavily on building hype with nostalgic characters, while Guardians was James Gunn’s last hurrah with Marvel before he kickstarted his upcoming DCU. On the flip side, Marvel received their first rotten tomato with the movie Eternals (Zhao, 2021) and their second with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Reed, 2023). Movies like Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (Raimi, 2022) and Thor: Love and Thunder (Waititi, 2022) received heavy fan criticism—the latter at the bottom of many fans’ MCU ranked lists.

Going into this movie, I was nervous. The initial online reception for Captain America: Brave New World has not been extremely positive, and early reactions tend to be more forgiving than general audiences. Brave New World earned The MCU its third rotten tomato and first out of the gate—both Eternals and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania initially had a fresh rating before more reviews came out, descending them into the rotten territory. But on a more personal note, I am a huge fan of the Captain America character and was looking forward to this movie. I love Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) as characters, and Mackie seemed so excited to deliver this movie to fans. So, with that in mind, I didn’t want the film to disappoint me. But I still went in with low expectations, given the early reactions.

After seeing the movie a few times, it is more apparent than ever that Marvel is in trouble. But it’s not because the movie is bad; it’s because the movie is good.

Marvel critics and fans are fed up, and the response to this movie strongly indicates that. Let’s compare the rotten tomatoes critic score between this and Black Widow (Shortland, 2021). The Rotten Tomatoes score for Captain America: Brave New World (Onah, 2025) currently sits at 49% with 318 critic reviews, while Black Widow’s is at 79% with 460 reviews. A Rotten Tomatoes critic score is not an extremely accurate representation of a film’s quality; instead, it represents how many critics liked it versus how many didn’t. Databases like IMDb and Letterboxd give more accurate scores based on more developed and wide-ranging opinions. If we compare the CinemaScore between the two movies—determined by a random survey of audience members taken as they leave the theater on the movie’s opening weekend—Black Widow sports a modest A-, while Brave New World sports the MCU’s first B-. For context, films of this size should not receive a score of B or lower, which generally indicates low audience interest going forward, leading to lesser box-office returns. All of this seems to imply that this movie is considerably worse than a movie like Black Widow. But having seen the film myself and having received responses from peers and trusted sources of my own, many seem to put this movie on the same tier as a movie like Black Widow, if not higher. I think this movie is much superior to Black Widow, and I know of a few that share that sentiment. 

Having seen this response, I knew something here had to have ticked off so many people. Was I just being contrarian, as I’ve been with some of these films? I am the guy who continues to defend Eternals, kind of enjoyed Thor: Love and Thunder, and I think Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Coogler, 2022) is slightly better than its predecessor. Was I just being blinded by my love for the character of Captain America and my undying devotion to this franchise? But then it hit me. This is bigger than the movie. Like many other poorly received movies, this movie was failed tremendously by its misleading and spoiler-y marketing campaign. Don’t worry, I won’t get into spoilers—yet.

Captain America: Brave New World was pitched as a grounded political thriller in the vein of the wildly popular and my favorite MCU project—Captain America: The Winter Soldier. That movie is phenomenal for so many reasons, but what’s relevant to this is how politically involved it is. It brings up conversations about government surveillance, influence, and power, all while containing extremely engaging action sequences directed brilliantly by Joe and Anthony Russo. But instead of what was pitched, Captain America: Brave New World refrains from making any political statement, focusing instead on a conspiracy surrounding certain characters. Audience members going in expecting a strong political statement akin to The Winter Soldier were in for a surprise. The mystery at the film’s core has nothing to do with politics, therefore rendering it not a political thriller but a conspiracy thriller. The conspiracy isn’t bad, but this leads me to my next point. 

Captain America: Brave New World suffers from some of the worst trailers for an MCU movie I’ve ever seen. But what makes these so bad? The main job of a trailer is to sell a film to audiences, giving them a glimpse of just enough to get them to go to the theater and get excited. Where the Brave New World trailers fail is that they practically spoil the entire plot of the movie. If audience members have seen most of the trailers going into the film, there are not many surprises left for them to experience in the theater. This makes their theatrical experience feel boring or like a waste of time, which it otherwise likely wouldn’t have if they had gone in with less information. If you’ve already seen the trailers, I encourage you to go in and focus on enjoying the ride as if you’re rewatching the movie. If you haven’t seen the trailers or know little to nothing about the story here, you will likely have more fun unpacking the film’s mystery.

I liked this movie and still recommend it to anyone, regardless of what you know going in. There’s plenty here to enjoy, including exciting action sequences, interesting characters portrayed brilliantly by their respective actors—Harrison Ford, Carl Lumbly, and Anthony Mackie are my standouts—and MCU tie-ins.

Many online were criticizing a few other things. First, people said the CGI was awful. The CGI is not perfect, as there were a few noticeably rough shots at the very end, but people saying it was awful are taking it many steps too far, as the effects were very convincing for most of the film. Second, many said this movie had poorly choreographed hand-to-hand combat scenes and that I also can’t get behind. So many of the stunts here had me whooping and cheering in my seat, and I found them to be a thrilling and inventive use of Sam Wilson’s unique toolbox as Captain America, including such things as slicing objects with his wings and using his vibranium suit to repel energy like the suit worn by the Black Panther. 

I’ve also heard a lot of people saying that this feels more like a sequel to The Incredible Hulk (Leterrier, 2008) than it does a Captain America movie. I partially agree with this, as the central conflict of the film directly spins out of The Incredible Hulk, but I do think this is still a competent Captain America movie. Brave New World focuses on Sam’s counseling history, as there are multiple great moments where he has to step up as Captain America to help others with their struggles. There’s a great line here delivered in a wonderful scene where Sam is questioning his responsibility over the Captain America title, and he’s told, “Steve [Rogers] gave people something to believe in, but you, you give them something to aspire to.” It’s a reminder that Captain America represents the good of what people strive to be, and that has always been what he is about to me.

Brave New World was rumored to have undergone multiple rounds of reshoots. Julius Onah, the film’s director, and people at Marvel have discredited this, saying they only had one round of reshoots, which is typical for a movie of this size. However, there are numerous credible reports of full characters being cut from the film, with some being replaced and others fully left out. I don’t know the full extent of the reshoots on this movie, but either way, Onah and the team at Marvel still put together something thematically cohesive and exciting. Onah directs the film really well, and you can tell he constantly thought about what each scene meant in the context of the story. The movie is also shot really well. I love the coloring and framing of each shot, especially the ones with the political imagery. It all feels grounded but not grey, a common complaint of past MCU movies. Onah also comes up with some pretty awesome action-flight scenes, making the most out of Sam Wilson’s wings and flight gear. The sequence in the Indian Ocean? More of that, please!!

Spoilers Ahead.

Before getting into what I liked and thought could be better about the movie—because I will admit it has flaws—I want to point out that it was such a mistake to reveal Red Hulk in the trailers of this movie. The entire film is based on what Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) wants to do to Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford), and that was already revealed in the trailers. A choice like this signals to audiences that Marvel didn’t have faith in this movie to sell itself enough without revealing its surprise factor. I don’t know if that’s indicative of Marvel trying to combat the reports of superhero fatigue in audiences or something else, but it’s truly a shame that this interesting mystery was already spoiled to most fans going into the theater. I still had fun with the mystery because the trailers don’t reveal why Sterns targets Ross, and I had fun unpacking the reasons behind that. But based on the online response, that’s not enough for most audiences. 

Moving on from the disaster that was the Brave New World marketing campaign, Carl Lumbly, Harrison Ford, and Anthony Mackie each deliver stand-out performances in this film. The rest of the cast was solid around the board, but these three were the ones that stuck with me. 

Starting with Lumbly, of the three, he’s in the movie the least. But man, he makes the most of his screen time. The plot kicks into motion after his character, Isaiah Bradley, is framed for the assassination attempt on President Ross, and Lumbly’s face when he realizes he has to go back to jail is heartbreaking. If you watched The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021), you would know that Bradley has been through a lot; Brave New World provides this context in a quick monologue delivered by Lumbly at the beginning of the film. He was given the super soldier serum and then locked away for many years by the US Government to be experimented on just because he was a Black man. It’s a heartbreaking backstory. Then his monologue he delivers to Sam when he’s locked up? It’s a tour de force. The sheer power of his voice, mixed with the broken nature of his words, all come together to paint a deeply depressing picture and sets Sam up with a strong emotional reason to involve himself in this conspiracy. 

I find Ford’s performance particularly interesting. First of all, he’s fantastic. He said he wanted to do a Marvel movie because he had seen other actors having fun with characters and wanted in on that. Well, he clearly had a lot of fun with Thaddeus Ross/Red Hulk. Putting aside the—albeit brief—Hulk scene, his portrayal of Ross as a human is so layered and emotional. He makes you like Ross, a character who has not been particularly likable in the past—this has less to do with William Hurts’ portrayal of Ross and more with how he was written. This is especially important since the central emotional conflict revolves around him as the movie moves into its third act. I find all of this interesting because, in this role, Ford was cast against his typical rebellious typecast he was so famous for in roles like Rick Deckard, Han Solo, and Indiana Jones. He’s obviously not in his 40s anymore, but as he has returned to all three of those roles in the past decade, it’s great to see him play a character that takes advantage of his older age, allowing him to show a different side of his acting to a mainstream audience. Not only does President Ross represent the status quo, but the story here has him go through some pretty intense emotional moments. Scenes like his phone call to Betty in the Oval Office, his internal fight against the Hulk from raging through on the ship, and that final scene at The Raft show his range as an actor in ways those other roles never did.

Finishing with our lead actor, Anthony Mackie truly levels up as a performer in this movie. He takes the character of Sam Wilson and his version of Captain America to the next level. Mackie’s character had been relegated to the comedic sidekick role in the past, and he performed that role very well. His instant likability as an actor seeped into his character’s DNA. But as he levels up to that leading man in Brave New World, the challenges of carrying a movie come with that. Mackie clearly understood this and brought nuances and deep emotions to the film, as he did so well in the Disney+ show from 2021. He still has that charm he always had, but it now comes with a deeper insight into who Sam Wilson is as a character, which becomes very clear to the audience. Scenes like his reaction to Isaiah Bradley’s arrest, his grappling with the Captain America mantle, and his speech to Joaquin Torres at the end of the film were extremely powerful. Those moments could have quickly fallen flat without Mackie’s acting expertise. He is a Juilliard alumnus, after all! I genuinely wish him only the best in the future of his career and would love to see more movies headlined by him, whether they’re Captain America films or not. It’s clear no matter the project, Mackie will always bring his A-game. 

While all the pieces come together in the end, this is where my most significant criticism of the narrative arises. The story’s inciting incident is Bradley’s arrest after he—unbeknownst to anyone—attempted to assassinate President Ross in the White House. This incident sets Sam up to participate in this conflict, taking us through the story’s conspiracy. This compelling inciting incident provides a strong emotional hook for our lead character. Brave New World could have been a top-tier MCU movie if it centered the conspiracy around these two characters, their histories, and their current relationship. 

Where the film falters is, as it moves into its second and third acts and the layers of the conspiracy are slowly pulled back to us, it’s revealed that the conspiracy has nothing to do with Bradley or Sam. Instead, it’s entirely centered around the relationship between Samuel Sterns and Thaddeus Ross. This conspiracy would have been perfect if the main character of this film was Ross, but as it is a Captain America movie, many have said it feels like Captain America is being sidelined from his own film. I don’t entirely agree with the sentiment that the movie sidelines Wilson, but I agree that the second half is weaker. I think at some point in production, the team behind Brave New World realized this issue because, towards the back half of the film, a new—and albeit not as compelling as the prisoner in distress—emotional throughline is established for Sam Wilson: the grappling of his Captain America title. The film could have allowed for more coherence if it had chosen to center the conspiracy around Bradley’s arrest or found a way for that to be a late second-act reveal to up the stakes. The way the story plays out in the movie we ended up with, it would be like if The Winter Soldier had Bucky alive and working for Hydra revealed at the beginning of the film and then sidelined that storyline towards the film’s second act to mainly focus on Nick Fury’s relationship with Alexander Pierce. It’s just not as compelling. 

Brave New World is still an enjoyable Marvel film that I would have no issue revisiting in the future. But this brings me back to the main point of this article. If this film had come out before Avengers: Endgame or even right after, it would have likely received reviews anywhere from the range of Doctor Strange (Derrickson, 2016) to Black Widow. While not perfect, both movies were well-regarded by critics and fans alike. But with Brave New World receiving some of the worst critical & audience reviews a Marvel film has ever gotten, simply making a good film won’t cut it for Marvel anymore. The trust that they had built up for so many years seems to have finally been expended. For films like Thunderbolts* (Schreier, 2025), The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Shakman, 2025), and everything beyond, Marvel needs to make sure the films are of the highest quality. As an optimist, I remain excited for the upcoming slate of Marvel films, but I will acknowledge that they face an uphill battle with critics and general audiences alike. 

Just a quick P.S. to Marvel: I may have defended you this time, but I won’t be as forgiving when it comes to the X-Men. You better get that right.