The big screen debut of Sam Wilson’s (Anthony Mackie) Captain America is finally at hand. After a substantial amount of rewrites and reshoots, director Julius Onah’s delayed “Captain America: Brave New World” is now hitting theaters just in time for Valentine’s Day. Thanks to its troubled production, the movie could potentially be one of Marvel’s bigger box office gambles. At the end of the day, though, the question that may make or break the film is as simple as they come — is “Captain America: Brave New World” actually any good?
Early reactions to the film are now making their way online, and from the looks of it, many folks think that “Brave New World” has plenty of things going for it. ComicBook.com’s Editorial Director Ben Kendrick was among those who had the opportunity to see the movie in advance, and he pointed out several good things about it on X (previously known as Twitter):
#CaptainAmericaBraveNewWorld is a lot of things: some good, some okay. It’s exciting, offers a worthwhile message in a divisive time, is a return to form for the mainline MCU after a string of disappointments, and is one of the first to progress the MCU story itself post-‘Endgame.’
Elsewhere, movie critic Sean Chandler admitted that he expected little from the film. However, he ended up being pleasantly surprised, even though he was somewhat underwhelmed by the movie’s villain game:
#CaptainAmericaBraveNewWorld both met & exceeded my low expectations. You can feel the reshoots throughout the film & the main villain was a big miss. But this is the most cohesive the MCU has felt since 2019. Sam has good chemistry w/ his partners & it can deliver the feels.
Others, like Nerdist Editor-in-Chief Rotem Rusak, That Hashtag Show’s Junior Felix, and Beyond The Trailer’s Grace Randolph also praised the film. As such, it seems that it’s heading in theaters with plenty of goodwill.Â
Many early reactions think Brave New World is ‘fine’ yet missing something
Several early viewers have pointed out that “Captain America: Brave New World” seems to play things fairly safe. Critic and YouTuber Cris Parker recognized the movie’s quality moments, but found its overall quality to be lacking:
#CaptainAmericaBraveNewWorld is an enjoyable watch with decent action sequences & some standout moments. However, it didn’t quite hit the emotional or narrative highs I was hoping for. Loved Mackie as Cap & I appreciated the more serious tone but it did feel slightly empty.
Jeff Nelson of Guy at the Movies walked out of the theater with a similar impression. However, he was considerably harsher in his critique:
A flat political thriller with scattershot emotional stakes, recycled plot points, & a disengaging path forward. Another forgettable villain.
One word that was repeated time and time again was “fine,” in the sense that the movie is decent but fairly middling. People ranging from Bleeding Cool’s Editor-in-Chief Kaitlyn Booth and critic Brandon Norwood to The Jam Report’s Doug Jamieson all used variations on this theme in their tweets about the film, which they deemed solid but not quite stellar. As a nigh-universal positive, however, is the fact that even the harsher critics of the movie — like Germain Lussier of Gizmodo and io9, who felt “Brave New World” was needlessly complex and scattered — enjoyed Anthony Mackie’s work as our new Captain America.Â
As such, even though “Captain America: Brave New World” may not win title of the best Marvel Cinematic Universe movie ever, fans can (apparently) trust it to deliver its most important payload: a great new MCU Cap we’ll get to enjoy for many movies to come. Â
“Captain America: Brave New World” opens in theaters on February 14, 2025.