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.
Anthony Mackie’s first feature as Captain America earned a solid $12M domestically in the Thursday previews despite being panned by critics.
There’s always a great divide between critics and fan reviews when it comes to superhero movies and this is exactly the same.
Captain America: Brave New World currently has a 48% ‘rotten’ score on Rotten Tomatoes but has since risen to 51% based on over 200 reviews.
Fans scored the movie much higher with a 75% rating based on 1000 reviews.
As you all know, no one cares what the critics say anyway it’s why this site was set up because I shun myself away from all of that and enjoy movies as a fan and nothing more.
We all have our opinions and we have a right to express them and people like what they like and I feel we’ve had a small break from serious superhero movies for a while so I can understand fans being more favourable to this one.
In terms of my own opinion on the movie the film certainly took a while to make me feel at ease. So long have I seen Chris Evans as Captain America that I feel as though the shoes were always going to be too big to fill.
There are some great performances across the board but the film just felt like a step down from what has come before. Harrison Ford smashed his role as President Thaddeus Ross (replacing the late great William Hurt in his role) but it’s here where IMAX saves the day, again.
Whenever I’m not entirely feeling a movie or it’s going a little stale I always find that the imagery of an IMAX performance is almost influencing my review scores.
The images are stunning and seeing Red Hulk in IMAX format absolutely taking up an entire cinema screen is just as intimidating as if he was in the room with us!
You’re getting 26% more picture in IMAX than you are at standard screenings and this may not sound like a lot but when you’re taking it all in, in that fast-paced action-packed Marvel formulaic way, it’s a joy to behold.
For me, I do have a little bit of superhero fatigue over the years, I mentally checked out after Avengers: Infinity War as I felt aside from Guardians of the Galaxy it couldn’t get much better than this but, Captain America: Brave New World is okay… it’s just not quite what I wanted it to be.
The movie almost doesn’t seem to care about Sam Wilson as a character and it all feels very dialled in as the MCU has very clearly lost its way over recent years, I feel Anthony Mackie deserved better than this with already a mammoth task ahead of him before a single frame was shot.
It’s very much a copy and paste of things we’ve seen before, it doesn’t push any boundaries, it doesn’t endear me to Anthony Mackie playing Captain America, it’s just very meh in its delivery and won’t be hitting the box office heights anytime soon.
Deadpool & Wolverine smashed box office numbers last year when it earned $38.5M before it even opened back in July 2024. It was the only film released by Marvel in 2024 but it’s a comedy spoof movie and Deadpool will continue to rake it in at the box office.
For those superhero fans out there who want something a little bit more on the serious side then Captain America: Brave New World is the film for you.
Projections state that the film will earn $90 million over the four-day President’s Day weekend and 2025 does look to be more busy in terms of Marvel releases in this calendar year with Thunderbolts releasing in May followed by The Fantastic Four: First Steps in July.
The Fantastic Four movie will be a first for the MCU with the previous two film versions created by 20th Century Fox before the studio was acquired by Disney in 2017.
Our Rating
Summary
It takes some getting used to seeing Anthony Mackie playing Captain America given that we’re so used to seeing Chris Evans play this role so iconically and whilst you eventually get used to that the film sadly doesn’t offer up anything new to the MCU nor does it make me excited about anything that is coming thereafter. It’s very copy and paste but must be seeing in IMAX if superhero movies are your cup of tea!
