As one of the last movies in Marvel’s Phase Five, “Captain America: Brave New World” was released in theaters Feb. 14, earning mixed reviews from audiences across the Marvel fandom.
The story picks up two years after the events of the Marvel series “Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” following the first 100 days of President Thaddeus Ross’ (Harrison Ford) term. When Ross is suddenly attacked at the White House, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), with the help of Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), must uncover who is behind it and why — before an international war breaks out.
Since the release of “Avengers: Endgame,” many fans have noticed the steady decline in quality of both Marvel shows and movies. Recently released projects such as “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “Thor: Love and Thunder” have been complete disasters in writing and storytelling. “Captain America: Brave New World,” like many other Marvel movies released in the last six years, falls into a middle category between very good and absolutely horrible. It suffers from an incredibly underwhelming plot but maintains fun characters and political intrigue, keeping it consistent with previous “Captain America” movies.
One of the best parts about this movie was its characters — particularly the heroes. Sam Wilson is a great Captain America, filling the shoes left by Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) while also forging his own path and finding out what kind of hero he wants to be. He is pulled in all sorts of different directions — whether he should follow President Ross or do what is right for the world. Sam has already been a great character that fans have loved for the past decade, but with his own movie, he has more space to show himself and grow into the role of Captain America.
The film also introduces the new Falcon, Joaquin Torres. Like many of Marvel’s newer, younger heroes that have been introduced in the franchise, Joaquin serves as the movie’s comedic relief and is undeniably the best character. He brings so much energy and fun to the movie, quickly earning the title of fan favorite. Joaquin desperately wants to learn from Sam and essentially become him, mirroring his mentor in how he tries to fit into the shoes of the person he will succeed. The two match energies so well, and their scenes together are among the movie’s few enjoyable moments.
The movie managed to balance its comedy with political commentary and intrigue as well. While President Ross isn’t the true villain, he makes decisions for the United States without any regard for the international conflicts they might incite. His character plays an intriguingly morally gray role, which is incredibly characteristic of a “Captain America” film.
The film also confronts questions of race head-on — particularly in a scene where Isaiah, a Black man and super soldier, is wrongfully arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. These elements blend effectively into the movie, reflecting common real-world issues
Despite its strengths, the movie nevertheless fell short in many places. The plot was underwhelming, feeling incredibly slow and brief. The runtime, under two hours, is uncharacteristically short for a Marvel film. A lot more story could have been introduced to add some much-needed depth and complexity. It also appeared as though the creators tried to pull elements from both “Captain America: Civil War” and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” Many aspects — such as villain motivations and Sam unsure of who to trust — feel overly familiar, making it hard to watch “Brave New World” without noticing the similarities.
The villain, Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) from “The Incredible Hulk,” is perhaps the most disappointing aspect. He doesn’t have enough screen time for the audience to truly get to know him, and his villain origin is baseline and generic, resembling that of the villain from “Captain America: Civil War.” The film was also often ambiguous about who the real villain was, alternating between three different people throughout the movie.
Does anyone remember the celestial being that first popped up in the Indian Ocean during “Eternals”? After four years of not having a minute of screen time since its initial introduction, it finally makes a return in this movie. While the celestial being holds some major significance in this movie, taking this long to circle back to something introduced nearly seven movies ago is inevitably awkward — especially for Marvel. It just goes to show that Marvel is releasing too much content without paying enough attention to the writing and concept of each story, making for disappointing movies and TV shows.
Overall, “Brave New World” isn’t anything special. It has good moments, with interesting and funny characters and strong relationship dynamics, and it finally focuses on one story instead of setting up another set of movies in the saga. However, its plot is slow and underwhelming, which is something that is seen in a lot of different Marvel movies in the Multiverse Saga lately. With two more Marvel movies set to come out this year, fans hope they won’t be as much of a disappointment as “Brave New World.”
Jocelyn Cosgrove is an Arts & Entertainment Intern for the winter 2025 quarter. She can be reached at jmcosgro@uci.edu.
Edited by Alaina Retodo and Xinyu Zhang