*Spoiler Warning: This article contains many spoilers for the film Captain America: Brave New World.*
This February, “Captain America: Brave New World” came to theatres, marking Marvel’s first release of 2025. The film is the fourth installation in the Captain America franchise, but the first starring Anthony Mackie in stars and stripes. Mackie, who had played Sam Wilson (Falcon) in previous Marvel movies, inherited the shield from the original Cap, played by Chris Evans, after “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019. Despite what the title suggests, there isn’t much that’s brave or new about this film.
The plot of the film begins with Wilson settling into the role of Captain America, just before Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford) is elected as President of the United States. Things take a turn when Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lubly), a US veteran injected with the super soldier serum and friend of Wilson, is brainwashed to conduct an assassination attempt on the President. It is later revealed that Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), also known as “The Leader,” orchestrated the attack to get revenge on President Ross for experimenting on him. President Ross is turned into the “Red Hulk” after Sterns’s attack, essentially ruining Ross’s legacy.
To me, the film is a weak imitation of the 2014 Marvel movie “Captain America: Winter Soldier.” Both films are political thrillers in which a hidden villain uses mind control and manipulation to force a sub-villain to do their bidding. However, where “Winter Soldier” succeeds, “Brave New World” ultimately comes up short.
A critical issue with this movie is the usage of mind control. In “Winter Soldier,” Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) was experimented on by Hydra for decades, and could be controlled when a series of trigger phrases were read. The film spends extensive amounts of time discussing this so that the viewer can understand this psychological process. However, in “Brave New World,” there is no explanation for how Sterns’s mind control technology works, other than one line in the film that briefly describes how he developed it in his prison, which is also somehow a lab. Sterns’s technology can mind control someone through flashing lights on their phone. This special technological power of Sterns raises a pivotal question: why didn’t Sterns’s mind control Captain America, or even President Ross? Both characters exchange phone calls with Sterns in the movie, so it would seem logical that Sterns would attempt to brainwash either of them at least once, and the fact that he doesn’t is a major plot hole.
Another shortcoming of the film is the dialogue. Sitting in the theater, I repeatedly thought about how many of the conversations felt unnatural and forced. Instead of having realistic conversations with each other, it often feels like the characters, particularly Sterns, are more focused on explaining things to the audience, which results in many awkward exchanges throughout the movie.
An article from Screen Rant claims that “‘Brave New World’ exists to be a Captain America Marvel movie, but it stripped the series and the characters of everything that makes them great.” While there is some bad writing and acting in this movie, I don’t entirely agree with this statement. If you forget Nelson’s performance as Samuel Sterns, there are actually a few decent performances in this film.
First, I do think that Anthony Mackie did a relatively good job playing Captain America. Even though the writers gave him a few corny lines throughout the movie, he played the character well enough that he was enjoyable to watch on screen.
Additionally, I would like to commend Harrison Ford on his role as President Ross. While it is unsurprising, considering that, in my opinion, Ford is one of the greatest actors of all time, I truly believe that Ford’s performance was the best thing about this movie. Ford stepped in for William Hurt, the actor who played Ross in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before his death in 2022 and is one of the few actors who I believe is able to successfully fill in for Hurt as Ross, as proven by his flawless performance on screen.
Another positive about the movie is that the action sequences were top-notch. Most of the hand-to-hand combat was very engaging, and the choreography between Mackie and his opponents was written very well. Mackie’s high-tech suit was another appealing part of his character, allowing for all of his flight sequences to be entertaining as well. The combination of a flight suit with Captain America’s shield and colors represents how Mackie’s character is embracing the new role of Captain America without forgetting his roots as Falcon.
The movie received a 51% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and I think that is very fitting for this film. “Brave New World” pales in comparison to all three other Captain America films, which all received 80% or higher scores on Rotten Tomatoes. Ultimately, poor script writing and large plot holes prevent this film from reaching the level of many older elite Marvel movies. “Captain America: Brave New World” is just one more of the recent Marvel films that have some fun action scenes, and are relatively entertaining to watch, but simply aren’t quality movies.