Much will be made of Captain America: Brave New World and its status as yet another critical misfire for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Coming after a year-long hiatus from theatrical releases (unless you count Deadpool & Wolverine, which operates on the outskirts of the MCU canon), this film arrives at a pivotal moment for the franchise. The results? A universally panned entry that has not only earned the MCU’s lowest Rotten Tomatoes score but also its worst CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences.
I’ll try to highlight a few positives in this Captain America: Brave New World review, but I share much of the frustration that’s already been voiced across the internet. It’s simply not a good movie. The entire project feels like it was hacked to bits in post-production—supposedly after Julius Onah was effectively sidelined from the director’s chair—and the result is a disjointed, clumsily edited mess. The film’s pacing is off, its dialogue is overloaded with exposition, and there’s a clear lack of a unified vision.
The plot itself suggests potential that is ultimately squandered. Newly minted Captain America Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) meets with U.S. President Thaddeus Ross (now played by Harrison Ford following William Hurt’s passing) and soon finds himself entangled in an international crisis. As he works to uncover a sinister global conspiracy, the true mastermind begins to emerge, setting the world on a collision course with disaster.
One of the biggest issues is Captain America: Brave New World‘s villain problem. The film was marketed heavily around Thaddeus Ross’ transformation into Red Hulk, yet the actual reveal comes in the final 20 minutes. The wait is tedious, and it reeks of the same bait-and-switch tactics used in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, where Jonathan Majors‘ Kang took far too long to become a real presence. Meanwhile, Giancarlo Esposito’s Sidewinder and Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Stearns are underdeveloped and never feel like organic parts of the story. The film’s chaotic reshoots seem to have thrown in multiple villains without properly integrating them, leaving the narrative feeling overstuffed and incoherent.
Another problem is the way Captain America: Brave New World tries to tie up loose threads from multiple other MCU projects. Rather than feeling like a Captain America sequel, the movie functions more as a direct follow-up to The Incredible Hulk while also pulling in elements from Eternals and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Unless you’re deeply invested in the MCU’s deep cuts, large portions of the film will feel disjointed and confusing. It’s an overwhelming amount of baggage for a movie that should be telling its own story.
That said, Anthony Mackie does a solid job in the lead role. The best moments come when Sam grapples with the immense pressure of becoming Captain America. His dynamic with new Falcon Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) is fun, offering glimpses of chemistry that the movie could have built around if it weren’t so bogged down in convoluted world-building.
The opening 20 minutes also had promise. For a brief moment, I thought the critical consensus might have been too harsh—perhaps this was just another overstuffed, CGI-heavy MCU entry that still had decent action. But as the story unraveled and more characters were shoehorned in, the film’s seams became glaringly visible.
And that’s before even mentioning the visuals. Captain America: Brave New World isn’t just narratively bloated—it’s one of the worst-edited, most technically inept MCU films to date. When Red Hulk finally appears, his character design and action sequences resemble something out of a Mortal Kombat cutscene rather than a major entry in cinema’s most financially successful franchise. Given how much money Marvel has made off these films, it’s baffling that they’re failing at even making them look good.
The MCU has had missteps before, but they were rarely this sloppy. With The Marvels also suffering from poor execution, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Marvel Studios is stretching itself too thin, churning out rushed, compromised projects that dilute the franchise’s once-dominant hold on pop culture. Captain America: Brave New World isn’t just another disappointing MCU entry—it’s a glaring warning sign that the franchise is losing its grip.
Rating: 4/10
Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
- Cast: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Tim Blake Nelson, Carl Lumbly, Giancarlo Esposito, Liv Tyler
- Director: Julius Onah
- Genre: Action, Science Fiction, Superhero, Thriller
- Runtime: 119 minutes
- Rated: PG-13
- Release Date: February 14, 2025
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