Captain America: Brave New World is the new MCU movie, directed by Julius Onah and stars Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Giancarlo Esposito, and Tim Blake Nelson. This movie shows Sam Wilson as Captain America trying to uncover a plot involving newly elected president Thaddeus Ross. Captain America: Brave New World is the first movie to have Sam Wilson take on the mantle of Captain America and the first of the 2025 MCU movies. Originally meant to come out in 2024, this movie had reshoots due to poor test screenings. These reshoots also took place when the MCU changed course. What is the final result of this movie?
Captain America: Brave New World is the definition of a mixed-bag MCU movie. It’s trying to bring back what fans enjoyed from pre-Avengers: Endgame MCU while still making the mistakes of post-Avengers: Endgame MCU. Is it the worst MCU movie? No, it’s better than some of the movies that came out in recent years and even a few early MCU movies like Thor: The Dark World. The potential this movie has is there, but the plot feels messy at times. There are good ideas and things I liked, from addressing the Celestial head that has been in the Indian Ocean since the events of The Eternals and addressing unanswered questions since the 2008 movie The Incredible Hulk. I enjoy the political thriller aspect it goes for. At the same time, it tries to be Captain America: The Winter Soldier 2.0 at times instead of its own thing. As mentioned before, the movie had reshoots, and certain scenes are easy to tell based on the green screen and camera work.
The acting and characters are fine. Anthony Mackie does well as Sam Wilson/Captain America. His character grows and stands out without having to be like Chris Evans as Steve Rogers. Harrison Ford takes over the role of Thaddeus Ross after William Hurt passed away a few years ago. Ford does well portraying Ross. It's nice to get more development from Ross and revisit the events of The Incredible Hulk. We learn more about him and how he wants to improve himself, along with fixing his relationship with his daughter Betty, played by Liv Tyler. The Red Hulk sequences are entertaining but don’t expect a lot of him. Carl Lumbly and Danny Ramirez return from Falcon and Winter Soldier as Isaiah Bradley and Joaquin Torres. Bradley’s arc is one of the stronger plot ones and while Torres’s starts a bit corny and annoying, his character does get better as the movie progresses.
Tim Blake Nelson returns from The Incredible Hulk as Samuel Sterns, who has gone through a dramatic change since his last appearance. Some characters in Captain America: Brave New World felt unnecessary. While it’s exciting to see Giancarlo Esposito in an MCU movie, his character, Sidewinder, was not in the film as much as the trailers would let you believe. It seems like he was added into the movie during reshoots. The character Ruth Bat-Seraph, played by Shira Haas, feels unnecessary to the plot and is there to fill in the void left by Natasha Romanoff in the previous Captain America movies. Perhaps she had a bigger role before reshoots did as some characters were rumored to be cut or had their roles lessened.
The action starts off slow but gets better in the movie. The dynamic and tension between Wilson and Ross is handled well. There aren’t bad MCU jokes in the movie and the few jokes that are there are fine. It’s nice to see some unanswered questions that have been around since 2008 finally get answered. Captain America: Brave New World has the potential to be a lot better than it was, but the messy plot held it back.
Overall, Captain America: Brave New World feels torn between being the classic MCU and being the current inconsistent MCU. The acting and action are solid. It’s nice to see some characters that haven’t been around in ages return and revisit unaddressed plot points. It’s still better than some of the recent MCU movies. If you are an MCU fan, it’s worth checking out, but if you’re a casual movie fan, you can wait for this one on Disney +. My final grade for Captain America: Brave New World is a C+. It is enjoyable despite being messy and hopefully, this is the last of the inconsistent era of the MCU. Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: The First Steps look good based on the trailers and next year is Avengers: Doomsday and Tom Holland’s fourth Spider-Man movie.
What are your thoughts on Captain America: Brave New World? Let us know in the comments below.
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