Title – Captain America: Brave New World (2025) 

Director – Julius Onah (Luce) 

Cast – Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly, Tim Blake Nelson

Plot – Sam Wilson/Captain America (Mackie) must learn to work with newly minted American president Thaddeus Ross (Ford) if they are both to bring peace to their nation and the wider world but the dastardly plans of Samuel Sterns (Nelson) threaten to stop them in their tracks.   

“You may be Captain America, but you’re not Steve Rogers”

Review by Eddie on 14/02/2025

Despite what its title is telling us, there’s really nothing brave or new about this latest Captain America event film, one that starts out the supposed new era of the Marvel cinematic universe with a whimper not a bang. 

The first big screen venture for the Captain without Steve Rogers holding the shield, with Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson now the sole titleholder of the position, World attempts to recreate similar vibes and scenarios to 2014’s Winter Solider by mixing the Marvel stereotypes with the political thriller sub-genre but director Julius Onah and his creative team have failed to come up with an exciting or engaging narrative this time around, making World a paint by numbers experience if there ever was one. 

Unable to find its mojo in its character beats, action set-ups (that are painfully dull) or story that gave up its biggest ace by showcasing Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus Ross’s big red hulk in all its promotions, World struggles to bring any type of enthusiasm or much imagination to the table here as Kevin Feige and his Marvel suits continue on a recent and worrying struggle to keep their heads above water after so many years of critical and commercial success stories.

Long gone are the days where a new Marvel tentpole picture debuted to rave reviews and audience reactions that lead to long-stays at the box office with word of mouth for this newest outing likely to be muted at best, leading to a no doubt incredibly front-loaded box office journey that is sure to cause Feige and the Disney bean-counters more cause for concern as they desperately try to reengage all the old players from the heydays to draw audiences in once more. 

What’s most notable about World outside of its pedestrian A to B storytelling, unimaginative direction and weak script work is the fact it lacks that charm offensive that often came with Marvel films on point casting. 

Whether it was Downey Jr’s well documented comeback in Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth’s star-making rise to fame in Thor or Chris Evan’s pitch-perfect casting as Steve Rogers, Marvel blockbusters were often synonymous with gifting audiences a fantastic chance to witness talented performers have the time of their lives but there’s none of that here in World despite some talented participants being on the call sheet. 

While you wouldn’t say anyone is ‘bad’ in the true sense of the word here, no one stands out.

From Mackie’s po-faced Wilson, Ford’s scowling Ross or Danny Ramirez’s stereotypical wise-talking sidekick Joaquin Torres/Falcon, everyone seems only slightly interested or involved from a performance point of view and you get a suspicion that many involved in this big-budgeted outing weren’t buying what was being sold to them, a sense of resignation to the fact they are a part of a cog in a giant machine that has long been overdue for an oil change and refit. 

Unable to bring anything to the Marvel banquet that is likely to be savoured or thought about after initial digestion, World is the exact type of experience that has caused many cinemagoers to think twice about trips to the cinema if they are to give up their hard earned money for lifeless affairs like this. 

Final Say – 

One of Marvel’s most dull big screen events for an A-list character we’ve yet seen, Captain America: Brave New World is a worryingly average new blockbuster event that makes the task of getting the world excited about the new Marvel era an even tougher proposition than it might have originally been. 

2 treaty’s out of 5