Outside the loudest parts of the fan base, people seem to enjoy Captain America: Brave New World. It's not a perfect film at all, but it's not terrible either. It is viewed as a step in the right direction for the Marvel Cinematic Universe by many as being very middle ground. But, as stated, it's not perfect and, because of that, it's led to negative reviews. The MCU may have a tendency to be overcriticized post-Avengers: Endgame, but there are parts of Captain America: Brave New World that do warrant more negative reactions.
There are some more invalid reasons for the film's reception, but there are just as many valid ones that keep it from being better than the other three films in this franchise. If it does one thing, it shows that Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is Captain America in the best way, which makes it feel like Mackie deserved much better than the film he got.
10. Not Enough of The Leader
While reasons for this will be touched upon later, The Leader (Tim Blake Nelson) may be the main villain, but the plot is focused less on Samuel Sterns than it really should have been. While the decision to hide him in the shadows until he's revealed to Captain America was a great one (those green eyes were chilling), that doesn't mean he should be hidden from the plot itself. A character can lie in the back of the story and pull strings while still appearing often.
... The plot is focused less on Samuel Sterns than it really should have been.
The Leader's brains are his major superpower, and it didn't necessarily feel like they used said genius-intellect to the best of their ability. Thankfully, Tim Blake Nelson gave a wonderful performance. He just unfortunately suffered a similar fate that Christian Bale did in Thor: Love and Thunder.
9. A Small Step in the Right Direction
The common consensus on Captain America: Brave New World is that while it is plenty good and entertaining, it wasn't everything it could have been: incredible. After three films prior that were all pretty much phenomenal, Captain America: Brave New World had a heck of a lot to live up to, which was always going to be a challenge.
So while it may be good, getting a lot of 6–7/10's, it doesn't meet many people's bar for a Captain America movie. It is a step in the right direction for Marvel Studios, but a small one. A step that could have been a much larger one as the studio approaches the 2025 release of Thunderbolts.
8. An Earlier Release Date
If there's one thing that this movie does, it's introduce a lot of concepts, like adamantium, Red Hulk, and the reforming of the Avengers. However, it seems odd and almost rushed that these things are being introduced so close to the highly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday, which films in April and releases next year, in 2026.
The Celestial Island, as a whole, should've been addressed far before 2025. Each project to release made audiences and fans, especially, question why a gigantic creature hatching out of the Earth had yet to be so much as acknowledged. This would have easily been fixed had Marvel Studios brought it up sooner.
7. Too Many Subplots
A good subplot to a film can truly enhance it in so many ways and make the main story even better than it has been before, supporting its themes and characters. But there is such a thing as having too many subplots. Captain America: Brave New World, unfortunately, has this issue, with one too many subplots in action.
The movie jumps from President Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross' (Harrison Ford) relationship with his daughter, Betty (Liv Tyler) to global relations between the United States and other countries. Not to mention, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) is thrown in jail and potentially on death row, with a few more subplots thrown in for good measure. There was simply so much going on that they all managed to deteriorate each other and feel either incomplete or unnecessary.
6. A Plot Not Worthy of Sam Wilson
The biggest and most important thing about Captain America: Brave New World was that it picked up the character arc for Sam Wilson from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, where he finally took up the mantle of Captain America. This would be his first full project as Cap, and he would have the chance to show that he was worthy of the role. Now, Anthony Mackie and his character both more than proved themselves of this mantle.
The plot, however, doesn't support his efforts in doing so. There's been a weak, but somewhat valid complaint that this was simply a sequel to The Incredible Hulk and had less to do with Captain America himself. There is some truth to this, making it really not worthy of Sam Wilson himself, as he can feel out of place at times in a story aimed more for the Hulk.
5. A Ruined Twist
Red Hulk's inclusion is excellent. It's a character that people have been asking to have for quite some time. In the film, it plays as the big Act Three twist that leads to an incredibly cool final battle (one of the best in Phase 5). All of this is well and good except for the fact that the "twist" was the main point of the movie's marketing. Everything was promoting Sam vs. Red Hulk.
**With everyone knowing what was going to happen and seeing so much of the fight in the trailers, any impact the transformation was intended to have was ripped away. **
Everyone can agree that if this twist was not spoiled by the marketing and people went in blind, it would have been one of the best surprises in recent MCU years. It looks like it's meant to shock people, but marketing is still marketing. With everyone knowing what was going to happen and seeing so much of the fight in the trailers, any impact the transformation was intended to have was ripped away. The fight was still amazing, but it absolutely did not have the effect they wanted it to.
4. The Inconsistent Dialogue
Dialogue is notoriously hard to write. It's something that seems so natural to audiences, because almost everyone talks every day, but it's exactly because of that that makes it so difficult to write dialogue. If it doesn't sound completely natural, then subconsciously, it's pretty much impossible for viewers not to notice and most likely, get bothered by it.
This just unfortunately happens to be the case with some of the scenes in Captain America: Brave New World. This can most likely be attributed to the numerous reshoots that the film went through before release. Films go through reshoots all the time, but this flick went through just a little more than the average bear. This meant that the scripts for the new or redone scenes had way less time to be perfected.
3. The Death Rate of Sam Wilson
A huge plot point established all the way back in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is the fact that Sam Wilson refused to take the Super Soldier Serum and gain superhuman abilities. This is heavily talked about in the new film, as Sam not only fights differently, but has to approach fights and situations differently, too. It also led to him getting some new gear, specially made for him from Wakanda.
The stakes, however, get lessened a bit due to the fact that as much as it's talked about, the weakness that he has for being a mere human doesn't ever get truly put to the test, aside for some moments in the Red Hulk battle, where he almost has his head crushed. Outside of that, though, it isn't physically treated as seriously as it could have been, taking some stakes away.
2. Didn't Take Enough Risks
What made the earlier Marvel Studios entries fun is they took a lot of risks with the stories they told and the characters within them. A major complaint with their films as of late is that they're very bland and cookie-cutter because they're not taking risks, and, more so, sticking to a formula. Captain America: Brave New World is certainly better than most of the films that have the same issue, but it's not exempt from it.
A major complaint with their films as of late is that they're very bland and cookie-cutter because they're not taking risks...
Many believe that there's a lot that could have been done to raise this film from good to great with a couple of strays from the typical Marvel formula. There were plenty of opportunities to do so here, as well, with Sam's character being unique and quite different from Steve Rogers (Chris Evans).
1. The Social Message
To get it out of the way, it's clear that Marvel Studios made a big mistake by including Sabra, renamed Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas) to most likely stray from the more recognizable name in the film. With all the real-world social and political tension surrounding her home in both the movie and the comics, Ruth's inclusion quickly became extremely controversial, turning audiences off and even leading to some boycotting it entirely.
... Ruth's inclusion quickly became extremely controversial, turning audiences off and even leading to some boycotting it entirely.
Racism in general was yet another social issue that led to negative reviews. As unfortunate as it is, there are people who don't like Sam Wilson as Captain America for very hateful reasons. These voices have contributed to some of the negative press surrounding the film, and it's very sad to see. Once again, Anthony Mackie deserved way better.