Captain America: Brave New World sees Sam Wilson pick up the famous shield for his first outing as the title character. Photo: Marvel Studios.
Off the back of extended criticism from fans and critics about most of its recent offerings, Marvel Studios decided to delay a number of its projects for 12 months and, for the first time since 2009, only had one theatrical release in a calendar year.
It was hoped that the studio would go back to the drawing board and give their crew a chance to re-group and re-capture the magic that resulted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe being the highest-grossing franchise of all time.
The first cab off the rank following its extended break was Captain America: Brave New World.
I already know people are going to dislike me for this, but if this is the quality Marvel is going to dish out in 2025, they are in for a rough time.
The latest Captain America is easily the worst of the four films and not because of Anthony Mackie/Sam Wilson picking up the mantle but because the way this movie was put together is akin to Frankenstein’s monster.
The official synopsis reads: “Sam finds himself in the middle of an international incident after meeting with President Thaddeus Ross. He must soon discover the reason behind a nefarious global plot before the true mastermind has the entire world seeing red.”
For the most part, the plot is actually quite clever. An espionage film was definitely the way to go as the previous films in the franchise thrived off that kind of tone, but the reason this movie falls apart is because of the behind-the-scenes troubles rearing their head into the final product.
This movie’s script was rewritten a lot, including during filming. This caused all departments of the film to be half-baked with the worst offenders being the CGI/green screen and the screenwriting.
You can tell which scenes were reshot as the characters on screen have a bright border around them. It looks like a cheap Snapchat filter. The actors didn’t film scenes together and were clearly added after the fact because the dialogue doesn’t match up and they clearly aren’t looking at each other.
Really heavy exposition is delivered multiple times due to the same scenes being re-filmed, but because the editors had to stitch something together, they reused takes. Characters were also clearly written late on in production to fill in gaps as they came and went out of nowhere.
Despite all these points, the worst offender of this film is its primary villain.
Oh boy, he is awful!
I can’t give it away as it deters from one of the biggest mysteries of the film. What I will say is that he is a callback to a previous Marvel film that wasn’t great, either.
It was a very strange choice.
Why bring back plot threads from a movie people clearly didn’t like? I’m not sure if that was a boardroom decision or a creative decision, but either way, don’t expect someone who meets the heights of Thanos or the complexity of The Winter Soldier.
There are some positives to be had here, however. When this movie serves as a continuation of the Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV show from Disney+, it really shines.
Isaiah Bradley and Joaquin Torres are welcome returns whose chemistry is undeniable, and Anthony Mackie proved he can back up Chris Evans’s tenure as the title hero.
Unfortunately, poor CGI and green screen effects, along with rewrites and reshoots, completely devastate what, on paper, should have been a slam dunk.
My recommendation is to save your money and wait for this to hit steaming in a few months.
Captain America: Brave New World is now showing at cinemas across the country.
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