{"id":11158,"date":"2025-02-17T18:08:38","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T23:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11158"},"modified":"2025-03-22T19:16:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T23:16:37","slug":"captain-america-brave-new-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/02\/17\/captain-america-brave-new-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Captain America: Brave New World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Captain America: Brave New World<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marvel\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 118 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (intense sequences of action and violence, some strong language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Julius Onah\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, Julius Onah and Peter Glanz\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Laura Karpman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Kramer Morgenthau\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 14, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly, Tim Blake Nelson, Giancarlo Esposito, Xosha Roquemore, Liv Tyler, Johannes Haukur Johannesson, William Mark McCullough.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ve been hearing that the newest Marvel movie Captain America: Brave New World<\/strong> is a real stinker. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d call it that, but it\u2019s definitely lame. The plot makes no sense, the action falls flat, the visuals are dull and the villain sucks. Nobody seems to be having any fun. Indifference appears to be the prevailing attitude on both sides of the camera. It\u2019s certainly what I was feeling the whole time. The nicest thing I can say about the whole experience is that director Julius Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox) keeps it relatively short at just under two hours. Thank the movie gods for small blessings.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ve given it a lot of thought and decided I\u2019m only going to provide minimal plot description. Why? Two reasons stand at the forefront. One, it\u2019s too convoluted to sum up in a few sentences. Two, it doesn\u2019t matter because it ultimately amounts to nothing. That being said, here\u2019s what Captain America: Brave New World<\/strong> is about in a nutshell. The new Captain America, Sam Wilson (Mackie, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), is out to exonerate his friend Isaiah Bradley (Lumbly, Supergirl) after he makes an attempt on the life of President Thaddeus Ross (Ford, Star Wars). It turns out his mind was being controlled by the movie\u2019s villain Leader aka Samuel Sterns (Nelson, reprising his role from The Incredible Hulk) who has a personal vendetta against Ross. His plan of revenge involves derailing a treaty with other countries over the handling of adamantium and instigating a war. It\u2019s on Cap and the new Falcon (Ramirez, Top Gun: Maverick) to stop it. There\u2019s more to it, but this summary will suffice for the purposes of this review.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m sure a lot of you want to know how Red Hulk fits into Captain America: Brave New World<\/strong>. Okay, I\u2019ll tell you what I can. It\u2019s no secret that Ross transforms into this character. You have to wait a while before he shows. He\u2019s only in it for a few minutes in the climax. It\u2019s the only time the film comes close to something resembling life. It\u2019s a pretty good fight, but it also makes you realize how weak the movie is as a whole. It leaves a lot more to be desired.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There are those out there who complain about the newest MCU movies being \u201ctoo woke\u201d. That\u2019s not an issue in Captain America: Brave New World<\/strong>. It avoids obvious issues like race and equality. It never once touches on Cap being black or how America typically treats people of color. Quite the opposite, nobody seems to even care. I have mixed feelings about this. While I appreciate Onah trying to lighten the load so to speak, it feels like Sam Wilson should have conflicting feelings about defending a nation that tends to marginalize black people. Shouldn\u2019t something like this be addressed?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Am I the only one who notices how dull and drab Captain America: Brave New World<\/strong> is? I can\u2019t be. I thought comic books were supposed to be colorful and vibrant? I never got the sense I was looking at a filmed version of a comic book. While its heroes fly, the movie never soars. It simply idles for two hours, moving without actually going anywhere. The VFX are 100% standard issue. They\u2019re neither good nor bad; they\u2019re simply functional. The action scenes are serviceable, but only in the barest sense. They\u2019re not exciting at all. There\u2019s nothing imaginative here. It\u2019s a movie made by AI. It has all the right parts in all the right places, but no evidence of human involvement.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting is passable I suppose. The actors do their best with what little development the five (!) writers afford their characters. Ford, replacing the late William Hurt, does his cranky old man bit as the antagonistic Ross who spends a lot of time brooding over his estrangement from his daughter (Tyler, Armageddon). Mackie does okay as Sam\/Captain America, but he looks bored most of the time. Shira Haas (Unorthodox) brings nothing to the table as Ruth, Ross\u2019 security advisor and former Black Widow. She walks around looking like she has a permanent case of PMS. Nelson tries, but there\u2019s nothing he can do about the lameness of his villain. There\u2019s nothing cool or especially menacing about Leader. Honestly, none of the supporting characters are all that interesting.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Reportedly, Captain America: Brave New World <\/strong>underwent reshoots and rewrites before seeing the inside of multiplexes. It shows in the confused narrative. The story, a blend of superhero silliness and Tom Clancy seriousness, makes little to no sense. I gave up trying to piece it together early on. I just sat there waiting for it to end. There is no satisfying payoff, emotionally and otherwise. This includes the frustrating end credits scene which frankly, isn\u2019t even worth sticking around for. The big reveal is something we already know. If you want specifics, check the Wikipedia entry.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As bad as Captain America: Brave New World<\/strong> is, I\u2019m awarding it a two-star rating because I can\u2019t muster any strong feelings for it either way. It\u2019s neither good nor bad. It\u2019s not fun or entertaining. It\u2019s not exactly a slog either. It\u2019s just there and then only barely. It\u2019s a superhero movie on life support. If nothing else, it\u2019s a warning light indicating the genre needs a complete overhaul.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Captain America: Brave New World (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marvel\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 118 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (intense sequences of action and violence, some strong language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Julius Onah\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, Julius Onah and Peter Glanz\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Laura Karpman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Kramer Morgenthau\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 14, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Captain-America-Brave-New-World-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C930&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11158"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11303,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11158\/revisions\/11303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}