REVIEW: Captain America: Brave New World [2025]

Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 118 minutes
Release Date: February 14th, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Marvel Studios / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Director(s): Julius Onah
Writer(s): Rob Edwards and Malcolm Spellman & Dalan Musson and Julius Onah & Peter Glanz / Rob Edwards and Malcolm Spellman & Dalan Musson (story) / Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (Captain America character)

We’ll show the world a better way forward.

Man, it’ll be great if Marvel ever decides to plan an arc again rather than just tying things together slapdash because they need content to sell subscriptions and tickets. Because you can say the whole Jonathan Majors assault fallout threw a wrench in their plans all you want, but there wasn’t really a “plan” to destroy. Sure, Kang was being set-up to be the next big bad via “Loki” and Quantumania, but neither of those properties truly delivered something worthwhile to the bigger picture than that villain. “Loki” for all intents and purposes was a two-part, self-contained miniseries (beyond its multiverse infrastructure) and everyone—Kevin Feige included—seems to want to believe Quantumania never happened.

The post-Endgame doldrums didn’t start there, though. No, it began with the desire to give every superhero in the world a property so they’d be in the arsenal for later. Shang-Chi. Ms. Marvel. Kate Bishop. Moon Knight. She-Hulk. Daredevil and The Punisher back from the dead. Black Widow resurrected for a prequel as if a feature film was Scarlett Johansson’s consolation prize for a decade of being the sidekick (and to introduce Yelena Belova). Feige was simply restocking the cabinets after rightfully letting a handful of original heroes die. But what was there to show for it beyond a rudderless trajectory towards an as yet unknown Thunderbolts* led by the enigmatic Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus filling Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury’s shoes—despite him not being one of those dead heroes)?

They spread themselves too thin. They made their new releases expendable, disposable, and, inevitably, inconsequential. The only exciting thing to happen during this time was the potential of bringing X-Men and Fantastic Four into the fold after Disney bought Fox. (I’d argue Eternals was an exciting change of pace too while most of the world would argue it was No Way Home—we’ll have to agree to disagree.) If anything, the deletion of Kang from the “plan” might have woken Feige to the reality that something had to change. Unfortunately, that wake-up call necessitates a phase of “bridge” episodes to get things back on-track and move forward. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 said goodbye to James Gunn. Deadpool & Wolverine said goodnight to Fox. And Captain America: Brave New World says hello to the new destination.

It’s no surprise then that the latter has five credited screenwriters. Or that the latest controversial pivot away from letting Israeli Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas) fully reveal herself as Sabra while the character’s (and actor’s) country continues their genocide of the Palestinian people made her inclusion in the film seem wholly unnecessary. (Why is a foreign national leading US security if she’s just a human without a larger purpose?) I feel bad for Julius Onah (director of the fantastic Luce) because there was no real path to success here as a result. I think he did the best he could to deliver an entertaining actioner, but I’d still love to see what he can do with a script that allows him to also deliver a great story.

Built as a sequel to “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” as far as Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) taking up the mantle of Captain America, Brave New World is also a nexus point for connective tissue back to The Incredible Hulk (see Harrison Ford, replacing William Hurt, as Thaddeus Ross and Tim Blake Nelson reprising his role as Samuel Sterns) and Eternals (see Celestial Island) as well as forward towards whatever Earth-616 iteration of the X-Men arises. On a small scale it’s about Sam shaking his imposter syndrome to become his own Captain America (again) and Ross shedding his tempestuous, fascist past to reform his legacy as President of the United States. On a large scale it’s about revealing adamantium and planting the seed for a new team of Avengers to protect the world from what’s coming.

Old characters return in Carl Lumbly’s Isaiah Bradley and Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres—albeit as pawns to be used, sidelined, and remembered again only when it’s time for goodbyes. New characters are born in Haas’ Ruth and Giancarlo Esposito’s Sidewinder—albeit as one-dimensional friends and foes respectively to also serve a purpose and little more. Thankfully, Tim Blake Nelson is as good as he is so we’re able to pretend he isn’t also just a cog in the machine who’s always being relegated to the shadows as a catalyst instead of a fighter. Sure, he pops up only to progress a plot that all but excludes him, but he’s so much fun that we applaud every single appearance.

I’ll give Ford credit for providing Ross more pathos than the page probably deserved, but even he’s just one arm of many meant to push and pull Sam in as many directions as possible. The film wants Wilson to teach him, stop Sterns, protect Torres, exonerate Bradley, and somehow accept the complexities of his position as the Black savior of a nation that might never see him as anything but inferior to the white one he replaced. So, it’s pretty much the same plot lines as “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”, but tweaked for variety (and never truly mined deep enough). This is his personal gauntlet to become the leader he must and the MCU’s reminder that bona fide human heroes still exist despite most other properties showcasing unadulterated power (the Eternals, Captain Marvel, Adam Warlock) or flawed, villain-adjacent antiheroes (the Thunderbolts* collective) instead.

Is it a chapter I’d be excited to return to removed from the bigger picture like The Winter Soldier, Guardians Vol.1, or Black Panther? No. But it was refreshing to not be forced into starting fresh with someone new (like so many of the television shows now being orphaned courtesy of Marvel’s latest mandate to separate mediums as far as film characters appearing on the small screen moving forward). Brave New World might just be bridging the gap with disposable entertainment, but it at least feels moored to this world. It holds onto the history of what came before it and the promise of what might be if Secret Wars lives up to the (perhaps unearned) hype. The MCU still isn’t must-see appointment viewing for me anymore, but it’s finally starting to seem like it could get there again.