'Captain America: Brave New World' Review Thread

I will continue to update this post as reviews come in.

Rotten Tomatoes: Rotten

Critics Consensus: N/A

Metacritic: 42 (43 Reviews)

Sample Reviews:

Owen Gleiberman, Variety - It’s superhero meatloaf and potatoes served with just enough competence and dash not to feel like reheated leftovers.

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter - Unfortunately, Captain America: Brave New World proves a lackluster Marvel entry that feels as if its complicated storyline has been painstakingly worked out without a shred of inspiration.

William Bibbiani, TheWrap - There’s nothing brave about this movie. There’s nothing new either. And sure, it technically takes place in the world, but one out of three is bad.

Mark Kennedy, Associated Press - Director Julius Onah does well with the action but fumbles the quieter moments and supervises editing that’s the opposite of crisp, not helped by script writers who ape military language and grandiose sentiment. 1/4

Brandon Yu, New York Times - With its cheap action and garish visuals, it’s then that we enter yet another genre altogether: action-figure commercial.

Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post - The fight sequences are meditative, the grave-whisper acting belongs in a coming-attraction trailer from 1996 and, yet again, the viewer needs to have watched a TV series and at least two movies to fully grasp what’s happening. 1/4

Rafer Guzman, Newsday - Compared to some of the studio's recent misfires, this new entry is at least passable. 2/4

Ty Burr, Washington Post - The movie’s more interested in fan service and protecting corporate IP then in telling that story, or any story. 1.5/4

G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle - What distinguishes “Captain America: Brave New World,” blissfully under two hours, is that action is kept to a relative minimum, and the actors are actually allowed to find and deepen their cardboard characters, including Danny Ramirez as Falcon.

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times - The pleasures offered in “Captain America: Brave New World” are neither grand nor groundbreaking, but they’re consistent and earned. 3/4

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune - The movie wouldn’t feel human at all, really, if not for the convincing emotion bond established between Mackie and Carl Lumbly as Isaiah. 2/4

Odie Henderson, Boston Globe - Making matters far worse is the film’s blatant plan to be as inoffensive and apolitical as possible. As a result, it’s a raging bore on top of being nearly incomprehensible. 1.5/4

Adam Graham, Detroit News - For his part, Mackie is charismatic and has star power, though he still feels somewhat timid in the role, and he lacks the character moments to truly shine. B-

Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle - It’s been a long time since a Marvel movie felt like a building block with its own structural integrity. Even for its flaws, Captain America: Brave New World feels like the series may be finding its soul again. 3/5

Dominic Baez, Seattle Times - In the end, “Captain America: Brave New World” is enjoyable enough for what it is: a proper introduction of Sam as Captain America. 2.5/4

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic - The Captain America movies usually seems like vehicles to advance the MCU... “Captain America: Brave New World,” in contrast, seems less like a bold step forward and more like a small step sideways. But I guess we’ll find out. 3/5

Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail - With the politically incoherent, creatively inert and just plain insulting sequel Captain America: Brave New World, the MCU brain trust led by uber-producer Kevin Feige has truly flatlined.

Peter Bradshaw, Guardian - The action is moderate and it’s lacking in the steam-heat, humour and the surreal energy of superhero movies past. 2/5

Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph (UK) - It’s hard to imagine Brave New World rallying the Marvel fanbase, not least because it gives them so little to rally behind. It feels less like a film than something you make when you can’t think of one, but your deadline is looming regardless. 2/5

Kevin Maher, Times (UK) - The MCU has eaten itself into a bloated, constipated stupor. The possibility for clear and uncomplicated storytelling has been neutralised by the kind of relentless exposition that 34 previous movies and 11 MCU TV shows now, unfortunately, require. 1/5

Adam White, Independent (UK) - Brave New World is stuffed with callbacks to movies everyone seemed to agree were misfires upon release... It leaves the film not so much a reshuffling of the deck as a journey to nowhere, like switching rooms on the Titanic. 2/5

Jake Wilson, Sydney Morning Herald - As the kind of action-fantasy spectacular expected from Marvel, Brave New World is a non-starter. Often it feels closer to a TV procedural... 2.5/5

Jordan Hoffman, Times of Israel - The story is clunky, the action is rote, the characters are bland and the special effects look cheap.

Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly - We hope it’s merely the beginning of that aspect of Sam’s story. Because Brave New World’s legacy will always belong to Harrison Ford. B

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair - Brave New World is a bunch of characters wandering around in search of meaning, the Marvel machine creaking loudly as it tries to whip up some grand mythos around these B-tier figures.

David Fear, Rolling Stone - While Brave New World is nowhere near as bad as the various MCU low points of the past few years, this attempt at both reestablishing the iconic character and resetting the board is still weak tea.

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture - Brave New World, alas, is not a movie anybody would aspire to make, at least in its current condition.

Helen O'Hara, Empire Magazine - Pacy and punchy, this is a promising first official outing for the new Captain America, even if some awkward and inconsistent moments hold it back from greatness. 3/5

Tim Grierson, Screen International - Brave New World benefits from Anthony Mackie’s gritty presence, but otherwise this lacklustre sequel makes one wistful for a seemingly bygone era in which Marvel’s blockbusters felt far more vital.

David Ehrlich, indieWire - The listless and deeply unengaging “Brave New World” is far too preoccupied with its own past to deliver any real excitement in the present -- let alone have any real hope of stoking enthusiasm for the future. C-

Nick Schager, The Daily Beast - [Ford’s] presence—along with a winning turn from Anthony Mackie as the patriotic title character—makes this adventure a sturdy return to franchise form.

Jake Cole, Slant Magazine - As the film explodes into numerous subplots that rapidly move far apart from one another, it necessitates constant leaps between characters and locations that only further disrupt the narrative flow of the proceedings. 2/4

Dylan Roth, Observer - Though it ties together threads from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole, 'Brave New World' is neither particularly good or bad. It's just another Marvel movie. 1.5/4

Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence - Finally, Marvel has taken a firm stand on an issue of national — maybe even international — importance: Hulks should not be President. B

A.A. Dowd, Digital Trends - No blockbuster that cost this much should look this shoddy. 1.5/5

Alonso Duralde, The Film Verdict - If Falcon and the Winter Soldier was a streaming series that occasionally approached the cinematic, Brave New World too often feels like TV on the big screen.

Matt Singer, ScreenCrush - Why is a Captain America movie so obsessed with a Hulk film that nobody likes that came out 15 years ago? 5/10

Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com - It not only turns its hero into a Magical Negro. In an effort to soothe white America’s anger and hurt, it also asks its hero to grin and figuratively tap dance off screen. 1/4

Linda Marric, HeyUGuys - A much needed strong and compelling entry into the MCU. This is an exciting and thought-provoking chapter which fans of the MCU's grounded, espionage-driven stories, as well as those interested in character-driven narratives, will find much to enjoy. 4/5

Kristen Lopez, The Film Maven (Substack) - Though Marvel’s typical pratfalls end up undermining the third act, the majority of Brave New World hits more often than it misses. B-

Caroline Siede, Girl Culture (Substack) - Instead of feeling like the big, splashy debut of a new era for the MCU, Brave New World feels like the subpar sequel to a better movie that doesn’t actually exist. C

SYNOPSIS:

Anthony Mackie returns as the high-flying hero Sam Wilson, who’s officially taken up the mantle of Captain America. After meeting with newly elected U.S. President Thaddeus Ross, Sam finds himself in the middle of an international incident. He must discover the reason behind a nefarious global plot before the true mastermind has the entire world seeing red.

CAST:

• Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson / Captain America
• Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres / Falcon
• Shira Haas as Ruth Bat-Seraph
• Carl Lumbly as Isaiah Bradley
• Xosha Roquemore as Leila Taylor
• Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson as Copperhead
• Giancarlo Esposito as Seth Voelker / Sidewinder
• Liv Tyler as Betty Ross
• Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns / Leader
• Harrison Ford as President Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross / Red Hulk

DIRECTED BY: Julius Onah

SCREENPLAY BY: Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musso, Julius Onah, Peter Glanz

STORY BY: Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson

PRODUCED BY: Kevin Feige, Nate Moore

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Louis D’Esposito, Anthony Mackie, Charles Newirth

CO-PRODUCERS: Mitch Bell, Kyana F. Davidson

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Kramer Morgenthau

PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Ramsey Avery

EDITED BY: Matthew Schmidt, Madeleine Gavin

COSTUME DESIGNER: Gersha Phillips

VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR: Alessandro Ongaro

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT SUPERVISOR: Ian Joyner

MUSIC BY: Laura Karpman

MUSIC SUPERVISOR: Dave Jordan

CASTING BY: Sarah Halley Finn

RUNTIME: 118 Minutes

RELEASE DATE: February 14, 2025