Captain America: A Brave New World, A Timid, Underwhelming Mistake.

Marvel’s hyped blockbuster hits theaters with promises for a reputation restoring plot, left in broken pieces after critics review bomb.

Movie Poster from Marvel Studios. “I feel like it was a pretty average Marvel movie, I felt like the president was the main character, and not Captain America as much. They could have focused on Captain America himself, which the movie’s supposed to be based on.” (James Wong, Senior.)

Coming hot off the financial success and critical hit, Deadpool & Wolverine, Disney returns to theaters with their next ambitious film, a fourth Captain America installment, directed by Julius Onah. Although expecting great success, fans and critics alike foresaw a dark cloud hovering above this film's production. As release came closer, more doubts began to arise. All over social media, reports of insiders claiming that the film failed to impress during test screenings plagued the internet, leading audiences to speculate that just like the years prior, Marvel had cooked up another critical flop for the cinemas. Unfortunately, with the release of this particular film on February 14th, 2025, it seems their fears weren't an over-exaggeration. They were real. 

Looking into Marvel’s track record since their most successful film, Avengers Endgame, the brand has not been able to capture that same, world-wide "hype" as they did during what was assumed by many to be, their final Avengers film. From their biggest failure, The Marvels, also being bashed by critics, along with Doctor Strange, Multiverse of Madness, and a few more, the ratings for these films are still frighteningly higher than the newest installment. Sadly for the new movie, it’s scored along with Marvel's most infamous projects, including The Eternals, and Antman and the Wasp, Quantumania. Apparently, even Thor the Dark World was given higher praise. A truly disastrous look for Disney. 

Cherry Blossom showdown. Source, Gamereactor.eu. “Overall a lot of fun yet pales in comparison to the other films in this franchise.” (Isaiah Mosley-Aviles, Senior.)

It comes as no surprise that Disney has managed to fumble another potential success, as of recently, they’ve been very efficient in that regard. From Star Wars: The Acolyte ripping apart the Star Wars fanbase, to multiple, lazy animated movies with little to no depth, and hollow live-action adaptations based off older classics, many wonder if Disney is trying to run all their main titles into the ground. Captain America: A Brave New World scored far less than the other films following the same hero, all of those settling above 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. Not even a strong cast which includes Anthony Mackie (Who now takes the role of Captain America), and Harrison Ford (Red Hulk) could salvage the mediocre mess this movie became. It's especially concerning for the company considering they are about to potentially see another critical flop in the coming months, as the controversial, Snow White remake ominously festers in the horizon. Another film among Disney's sea of Live-Action remakes with rocky productions. 

In the end, the fourth Captain America Brave New World opened to a Rotten Tomatoes score of 49%, an IMDB rating of 5.9/10 (moseyed up to 6.1), a metacritic review of 42%, and worst of all, a 5/10 from IGN. A review service known for their vanilla, overly-forgiving reviews. Not good numbers considering how much hype was centered around this movie. Although the trailers presented a fun, creative, and thrilling adventure, the movie turned out to be a boring, uninspired slog that seems far longer than its runtime. Hopefully, some other people find this movie enjoyable, but in the critics eyes, Captain America: A Brave New World, wasn’t brave enough. 

Author Note (Potential Spoiler Warning/Opinion)

After seeing this film myself, all I have to say is that this article is very accurate to how I felt watching the movie, although it was purely from a critical standpoint. If you enjoy Marvel even when it's a little sloppy, you’ll like it, but don’t go in there expecting anything more than some filler, basic superhero plot, paving the way for whatever comes next. It was better than most of the other newer projects, but not to the standard Captain America movies should be, especially when considering just how great the others were. The plot is basic and the characters are uninteresting, and given lines that seemed to be conjured by a child rather than a paid adult. All I can really say positively about the movie was that the third act was very entertaining, and took an unnatural turn from the rest of the film, that being, it was actually interesting. 

Tensions rising. Photo from Rotten Tomatoes. “It’s surprising that this film did not appease critics as much as it should have. Captain America movies are always fun, so it's expected that this should be the same case, but like most movies releasing after Endgame, it stunk.” (Joshua Hernandez, Sophomore).

There were some positives, like the graphics were very sleek and the movie looked good. I liked Anthony Mackie’s performance, yet he was extraordinarily underutilized to the point it was almost like they didn’t even want him in the movie, and had him there as a filler side protagonist. This is what he’s been for most of the movies, but Anthoney Mackie is so talented and has so much potential, it's a shame to see him given such boring character tropes, and the basic “I’m not ready” hero inner-conflicts. If I had a dime for everytime he said, “I’m not sure I’m cut out for this.” I don’t even know how many dimes I’d have, but it would be a lot. Harrison Ford does a fantastic job as usual, and his character on the other hand saw a decent Arc and some satisfying-ish development which led to an acceptable climax. 

It sounds like they did a decent job right? The answer to that is no, this movie isn’t Red Hulk Brave New World, it's Captain America for crying out loud. About Captain America, who throughout the film is just there to push along the plot so Red Hulk could show up. It wasn't all bad, no, it wasn’t one of those films that I would walk out of, or really regret buying a ticket for, but it wasn’t any good either. This film just proves to me that Disney is not afraid to stain the reputation of well-established franchises to churn out some pocket money, and that very fact alone is frightening from an entertainment enjoyers perspective. Hopefully, this movie was a stepping stone towards the high road, and not a preview of what future Marvel movies will look like going forward.