#review: Is Captain America's Brave New World worth exploring?

David Ho braves the crowds to view Captain America: Brave New World

With rumours of ill-received test screenings, long rounds of reshoots, and last minute character additions, expectations were mixed for Captain America: Brave New World.

Brave New World marks the first Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) offering of 2025, which originally held the more bombastic subtitle of New World Order. The film is the first without Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) on duty as the titular superhero. Instead, Sam Wilson aka Falcon (Anthony Mackie) now holds the mantle of Captain America after he was handed the shield by Rogers in Avengers: Endgame and the events in the television miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier solidified his role as the new Captain.

In Brave New World, we find Wilson working with Hulk villain Thaddeus Ross, who is now the President of the United States, to inspire hope in a world devastated by a catastrophe that saw half the population wiped out and a global  race to mine the newly discovered adamantium.

After busting a shady arms deal and witnessing a shocking assassination attempt by his friend on the president, something is clearly afoot that threatens the plan President Ross has for world peace. So Captain America is determined to get to the bottom of things with the new Falcon and a former Black Widow.

(Mild spoilers ahead)

The film gives us three villains, with the biggest (literally and metaphorically) being the Red Hulk. It would have been nicer if the trailer didn’t give this away so fast, but it’s inevitable as they have action figures to market and sell. But the film does at least try for some semblance of a mystery with one of its other key villains.

MCU films have always been a mixed bag and Brave New World is no different. It’s dutiful enough, with genuinely exciting action sequences, a fast pace, and a rolodex of characters to bring in. The film also sprinkles in enough laughs without going too far into comedy territory like Deadpool & Wolverine or Thor: Love and Thunder.

But it’s a challenge without some of the familiar and more established faces to hold up the film. Though Anthony Mackie does his best as the lead, his screen presence falls a bit flat when there are so many new faces to be introduced to. At our particular screening, it was quite telling when Sebastian Stan made a cameo as Bucky Barnes and the theatre erupted into cheers, showing just how much the established stars are missed and what big shoes there is to fill for the newer faces.

Harrison Ford does a great job as the cantankerous Ross, and imbues the political tensions that float the proceedings with real gravitas. In a way, much of this film feels like a political thriller. Our only gripe with Ford is that the ending to his big fight is just a bit too tame and convenient for our liking.

Despite the stream of fanboy outrage the film is facing, Brave New World is actually a solid enough movie on its own and has set things up for the bigger picture as the MCU nears the end of Phase Five of its rollout. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s unlikely this film will be remembered as anything other than Mackie’s first big screen outing as Captain America.

Verdict: If you like Marvel films, this would be an enjoyable and inoffensive enough watch. 

Also see: #review: Bridget Jones is Mad About the Boy in her farewell film