It has been no secret that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been in a confusing state lately. Ever since the introduction of the Disney+ streaming service, Marvel Studios has produced an excessive amount of content, with four movies and five T.V. shows produced in 2021 alone. For comparison, before 2021, Marvel only released an average of two movies annually, with no T.V. shows in the mix. Because of this new focus on quantity, the influx of entertainment has suffered from a lack of coherent storytelling and overall quality.
“It’s been a rough time,” Co-President of Marvel Studios Louis D’Esposito told Empire in 2024. “Maybe when you do too much, you dilute yourself a little bit.”
Though movies like 2024’s “Deadpool and Wolverine” and 2023’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” found success, others such as 2023’s “The Marvels” and 2021’s “Eternals” came up short at the box office in recent years. With the release of “Captain America: Brave New World,” however, Marvel is finally taking a small step towards success. At the conclusion of 2019’s “Avengers Endgame,” Steve Rogers (formerly Captain America) gave his shield to Sam Wilson (formerly Falcon), establishing Wilson as the new Captain America. Now, the studio is aiming for audiences to accept his new position with the release of this movie.
“That shield has been passed, and it feels like the audience knows it was passed to the right person,” President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige told GamesRadar+. “I think this movie will solidify that more.”
Since this is Sam’s debut as Captain America, the film does incorporate several themes of an origin story. One prominent theme is the struggle that it takes to prove oneself worthy of a significant title. Throughout the film, Sam faces challenges that test his ability to take on the mantle of Captain America. Eventually, his heroic triumph over these obstacles secure his place as the new Captain America. Even for those who haven’t seen the previous films, this theme will still resonate with many deeply, making it a worthy watch for those who haven’t seen it yet.
“It stayed true to what the main conflict has been,” history teacher Patrick Castro said. “How is the world gonna react to Sam Wilson now being Captain America? How is Sam Wilson dealing weight of being Captain America? So I thought they did a good job on touching on all of that.”
Alongside this though, Anthony Mackie’s portrayal of Wilson added much-needed depth to the character too.
“I thought Anthony Mackie had a good mix of that empathetic character that’s trying to connect with people because he’s been in those traumatic situations before,” Castro said. “I thought he had his humor going on too. Overall, I thought he did a good job of Sam Wilson and making the character likeable.”
Additionally, the movie provides a compelling explanation of the difference between Sam and Steve Rogers.
“There was a really good quote [from the movie],” Castro said. “They said, ‘Steve Rogers gave people someone to look up to. Whereas you, Sam, you are giving people something to aspire to.’ I think that’s [a line] that kind of drives the difference home between the two characters for sure.”
However, this is not to say that the film is without its imperfections. One recurring issue is the inclusion of too many subplots, like the Serpent Society, which ended up playing a smaller role than fans had anticipated.
“I think the [Serpent Society] is fine,” freshman Marc Wang said. “I think they didn’t give [them] as much time as [they] should have been given in terms of plot though.”
Another issue the movie faced was the noticeable reshoots made in June 2024, which lasted for 22 days. Though these reshoots aimed to adjust key events in the story, it also led to some poorly edited scenes.
“‘Brave New World’ had an infamously tumultuous reshoot process in which massive swaths of the film were reworked and patched together,” critic Caroline Siede told Girl Culture in 2025. “And you can definitely feel that in the choppy editing.”
Currently, “Captain America: Brave New World” has received mixed reviews online, with a 48% critic approval rating and an 80% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, it does outperform many recent MCU films like “The Marvels” and 2023’s “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantamania,” both of which have IMDb ratings below 6/10, while Brave New World scores above 6/10. While not a huge leap in quality for Marvel, the film does represent a small step in the right direction.
