Captain America: Brave New World (2025) – Review

Grade – C

When it was announced that Julius Onah (watch Luce – it’s wonderful) was hired to direct Captain America: New World Order (original title) I was filled with hope because he’s a solid director and I wanted to see him work with Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford. Also, after Deadpool & Wolverine, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, and The Marvels, I was excited to watch a more grounded superhero film like Captain America: Winter Soldier or Ant-Man, that don’t feature world-killing mayhem. However, after multiple reshoots and rewrites by the five credited writers, Captain America: Brave New World is a bit of a jumbled mess with a comical amount of actors delivering rewritten dialogue in front of green screens. This is possibly because of the 2023 writer’s strike which forced the folks at Marvel to shoot what they could, and then reshoot the movie when the writer’s strike ended. However, their plan to stitch the movie together during multiple shoots didn’t work and the end result lacks cohesion. This is a shame because Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford and Isaiah Bradley are excellent, and deserve something better than a cobbled together MCU film.

The film kicks off with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) in full Captain America mode, retrieving a mysterious canister from a group of well-armed mercenaries led by Seth Voelker (Giancarlo Esposito). After some fun fisticuffs that showcase Cap’s new vibranium technology and the fighting skills he learned from Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly – returning from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Sam and Joaquin “New Falcon” Torres (Danny Ramirez) return the canister to Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford), the newly elected president of the United States. The contents of the canister turns out to be adamantium metal pulled from the dead celestial located in the Indian Ocean (from The Eternals). During a summit to create a worldwide peace treaty that will equally distribute the adamantium metal around the world (with no country getting it all), several Secret Service agents and Bradley are mysteriously activated (like Bucky in Civil War) and they attempt to assassinate Ross. The assassination attempt is thwarted by Sam and Joaquin, but the violent attack results in Bradley being put back in prison with the threat of a death sentence looming over his head. This forces Sam to go rogue so he can clear Isaiah’s name by finding out who activated the assailants. What begins as a refreshingly simple story soon gets muddled as we’re introduced to a former Black Widow named Sabra (Shira Haas), several secret prisons, a Red Hulk, angry mercenaries, and world leaders from France, Japan and India. Also, the movie pretty much requires a rewatch of The Incredible Hulk (2008), Captain America: Civil War (2016), The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021), and The Eternals (2021), so you understand why multiple countries want control of a dead celestial and why Tim Blake Nelson is so pissed at President Ross. 

There are some fun bits that feature Harrison Ford on a Peloton, and the final 10 minutes feature solid jokes and comradery between Mackie, Ramirez and Lumbly. However, it never feels like the well-produced MCU products of the first few phases. It’s obvious to say, but the best MCU films work when the script is tight and doesn’t need reshoots to put it together like an ill-fitting jigsaw puzzle. This is why the James Gunn scripted Guardians of the Galaxy movies look amazing and feel cohesive. The GOtG films go into production with a completed script which allows for plenty of coverage (which editors love) and time for the visual effects artists to make everything look great. With Captain America: Brave New World, the MCU higher ups rushed the production and the end product suffered because of all the changes made during production. I hope this film makes a lot of money so Anthony Mackie can have another crack at playing Captain America because Brave New World is at its best when Mackie flexes his acting chops during intimate moments with Carl Lumbly (they are great together), in which he wonders if he can be a successful Captain America without the aid of the super serum that made Steve Rogers a world-saving powerhouse. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (the pandemic shut down several of its shooting locations) and Captain America: Brave New World (writer’s strike forced an odd production) had less-than-ideal productions, so it would be cool to see a Mackie-led Captain America movie that doesn’t go through wholesale changes. 

Final thoughts – Watch it for Mackie, but don’t expect a top-tier MCU experience.