It’s been six years since Steve Rodgers handed over Captain America reigns to Sam Wilson, Aka The Falcon, in “Avengers: Endgame.” Wilson (Anthony Mackie) will be the lead of Julius Onah’s “Captain America: Brave New World.” A trailer was released in the summer.
Two different cuts of the film test screened last week, and plot details for one of the cuts have leaked online. The person who attended didn’t seem to like the movie all that much.
Based on the folks I’ve spoken to, those who attended were either given a red or green bracelet and were split up into two different theaters. The reactions I’ve heard have not been very kind to this movie, which is being described as “inessential” and “flat.”
…
Reshoots on ‘Brave New World’ happened in August. This could explain why two different cuts were shown. Last year, after receiving negative test scores in another screening, and Marvel themselves underwhelmed by an early cut they saw of the film, ‘Brave New World’ was delayed to February 2025. Extensive reshoots were called, with “three major action sequences” having been filmed, between May and August 2024 in Atlanta.
‘Brave New World’ had originally wrapped filming in June 2023, and was set for a July 2024 release date, but it’s now turned into this monstrous mess for Marvel. You just don’t push a movie this big out of your calendar, and then decide to dump it in February, unless major trouble is brewing.
Last December, Matthew Orton was hired by Marvel to pen “additional scenes and material”. Orton’s work was shot during this summer’s reshoots. They’ve also added new characters to the story. Will audiences even show up to a Captain America movie that doesn’t star Chris Evans?
“inessential” and “flat.”
That’s one way to describe nearly everything Disney made for a number of years now
That description just makes me think reality caught up to the MCU. I could describe almost every Marvel movie since 2010 this way.
Reality is often disappointing.
Sorry I couldn’t help myself. I saw every MCU movie from Shang Chi to Iron Man. I stopped afterwards.
I can’t describe why? I think I have such a fond memory of Endgame and beforehand that when I hear these movies do poorly I don’t want to soil my memory of it.
We can all agree End Game was peak MCU.
Spider-Man No Way Home is the only MCU movie that I really enjoyed watching in phrase 4-5.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was the last MCU I cared enough to watch in the theatre.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was good? but I can hardly recall what happened in that movie.
Most of the mini-series on Disney+ are forgettable. Loki season 2 was chef kiss and I want to see more of Moon Knight.
The recent Deadpool & Wolverine was dumb but it was lots of fun to watch.
I feel like those pre End Game characters are doing all the heavy lifting in current MCU. I don’t find myself caring for most of the new characters that they are bringing in to set-up for the next big stage.
Shang Chi was great.
I’ve had essentially 0 interest in the MCU since Endgame. They wrapped up that story quite nicely, but even by that point I was starting to get fatigued by the whole thing.
Watched the recent Deadpool movie last week and enjoyed it, but it offers something different to every other superhero movie.
Falcon and the Winter Soldier was a decent series, carried by Anthony Mackie and the chemistry between the leads.
The problem is that Falcon is already a great character. No super serum Cap’n America is already boring.
“why can’t they just make it good”
well, as it turns out, good, truly good and griping, is hard.
when you have the stars who can carry just about anything, quality can slip a bit, but when you don’t, and it’s been proven the stars you’re using, aren’t compelling personalities, for whatever reason, and don’t have the draw themselves, good becomes paramount. and because the mcu is built around intertwined narratives which are almost completely dependent on characters, when the characters themselves aren’t working (mackie, larson, et all) and the narrative itself is far past being played out, you’re sorta up a creek.
Yeah, I think it’s telling that even the Disney+ series that setup Mackie taking over as Capt. America didn’t even really “star” his character, it was Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Falcon has never been that big of a character on his own in the Marvel universe, he’s just some guy that flies, even Baron Zermo and John Walker were more interesting than anything else in that series. Mackie seems like a nice, funny guy, but I don’t know that he has a big enough personality to play a leading role. I could see a “buddy film” with Winter Soldier, since they seem to have good screen chemistry with Sebastian Stan, but that would just be a repeat of the D+ series.
Still, you have to blame the writing for all of that, not the actors or the source material. Because what’s on screen can vary wildly from the comics if you want it to.
Yeah, I think the actors try to do as good a job as they can do with the material they’re given, unfortunately, Disney has just been churning out mediocre production after mediocre production. Either they’re just hiring sub-par writers/directors, not giving them enough time to develop the material, or a combination of both. I think if given a good enough script, Mackie could probably handle it on his own, but unfortunately the people running the company are probably not up to snuff and just end up giving us sub-par drivel like they’re trying to deal with with Brave New World. Star Wars has basically gone to shit now, but in the hands of somebody competent, like what we got with Andor, they could still deliver some awesome material. Unfortunately, we just can’t really depend on them to do that.
One thing I was trying to keep in mind with this movie is I’m pretty sure that it’s the last MCU production to start filming before Kevin Fiege’s shift to “making good stories” or whatever. I think the turnover shows too, as this movie started filming in March of 2023 and is getting released a mere month or two before Thunderbolts*, which started filming in February of 2024. But it seems like the reshoots couldn’t fix this movie’s problems.
First time I hear about it. I need to have a look at the current phase, the whole thing looks messy
They’ve been hammering out the trailer in cinemas for a few weeks now. It’s not filling me with enthusiasm.
“You may be Captain America, but you are not Steve Rogers.”
That may come back to haunt them.
“You may be Captain America, but you are not Steve Rogers…boy.”
Racist presidents before a racist Cap? Please.
Yeah I saw this trailer in IMAX when I went to see Joker 2 and I almost bood because I was hoping to see the Thunderbolts* trailer instead. Although I do like the Cap 4 trailer.
Imagine shooting this movie twice just for it to do this badly.
It was the one thing I figured would be better after reshoots, but I guess it’s still bad!
This also explains why they marketed Thunderbolts* far heavier than Captain America: Brave New World last month.
Mackie has never struck me as charismatic enough of an actor to lead a franchise as big as Captain America, hes just so boring to watch, its like he isn’t even there.
Couple that with what seems to be another bland script from the goofs that brought us Falcon and the Winter Soldier and I am not surprised it sucks.
The problem is always that Disney is trying to cut costs on the directors, writers and actors by picking TV level people. Its pretty obvious this hasn’t worked so far and that they have had to press the panic button to get as many of the OGs back as possible.
I actually liked Falcon/Winter Soldier for the most part. Enjoyed the cast, it explored issues I care about from wealth inequality to racism and immigration.
Wonder how much of it is just bad writing for him? Altered Carbon season 2 was really meh that he led. Then I imagine the original actor in his place and realise I just didn’t like the plot that much compared to season 1.
I can’t think of anything he’s been in though where he’s nailed the role outside of Falcon/Winter Soldier, where I’ll admit there was lots of supporting roles. Man’s either cursed with D-list writers, or, as you mentioned, lacks the charisma to carry it.
Is he good in Twisted Metal? That show looks like a lot of fun.
Every superhero movie I’ve seen recently sucks open ass.
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 was good
Shang Chi and Blue Beetle weren’t bad either
They’re trying to do the impossible with this character. He is critical of the actions of the in-world corrupt establishment but also unquestioningly loyal to it. The climax of his last story was asking a bunch of senators who canonically caused a human rights emergency to try harder. He literally just asked them to try harder. That was the resolution. Also the people who were fighting for the victims of the human rights emergency that the MCU American senate canonically caused were all killed because boot-licking is framed as the “correct” way to address systemic issues. More than any other IP, I think this one is the US military’s favorite for recruiting purposes.
It’s pretty hard to pitch the Flag Smashers as victims or the “good guys”.
The real problem with the aftermath of The Snap is that it basically became an in-universe analogue for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but there’s still no easy answer in the MCU counterpart so it’s just frustrating because it can’t be resolved without hurting someone.
Yeah, like most MCU villains they started committing random acts of violence as their leader “goes bad.” The in-universe MCU Senate canonically already went bad. The solution proposed by the story was to kill the flag smashers and ask the people who (I keep repeating this) are canonically responsible for the problem due to their negligence, are asked to “do better.”
like most MCU villains they started committing random acts of violence as their leader “goes bad.”
IDK I got the idea that a lot of people in the Flag Smasher’s inner circle were beginning to question their leaders’ violent decisions, I feel like the show was definitely portraying the leader as worse that the members, even though they were all in the wrong here
ask the people who (I keep repeating this) are canonically responsible for the problem due to their negligence
lol the only person canonically responsible is Thanos
I failed to see what the point of this (and the TV series that set it up) was and it seems like their isn’t one.
With the development hell and such bad word of mouth this far out, it is lining up to be their biggest box office bomb so far.
I liked the series, but mostly because of Bucky and more backstory for Zemos.
Captain A is a hard character to play or write because he is so one dimensional - he is good, no what ifs or buts. Chrias Evan did a great job, but you also need a good villain that carries the story. And without great writers, its hard to make something fun and entertaining.
I liked the series, but mostly because of Bucky and more backstory for Zemos.
More Zemo, please - he was the best thing in it and it’s criminal t here’s a Thunderbolts film without him in it.
I hope he’s in it as a surprise character
Me too.
I’m hoping that The Sentry is the main threat and that the Black-ops Avengers realise they are massively outclassed (as really on Hulk or Thor could go toe-to-to with him) and they have to get sneaky to bring him down. Now that would require some kind of mastermind and I wonder where they could find one…?
The Sentry probably will be the main threat, it’s likely that they go with the backstory of him having DID based on the choice of Where Is My Mind? for the trailer music, and picking that as the theme sort of insinuates that Sentry will play a MAJOR role in the plot, at least.
The point really is “it’s another movie”. Same point of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Thor: The Dark World. Having these types of movies makes sense. “Good guy fights bad guy!” isn’t a bad comic book movie premise, and I think sometimes people assume superhero films have to be bigger than that to be good.
I remember watching the passing the torch moment and just thinking “really? why? Just say captain America is retired”
It is literally an irreplaceable character… especially doesn’t help that the replacement was previously “just some guy” in the other movies.
The “why” is because that’s what happened in the comics, and it was a huge deal. Black Captain America was as divisive on the page as it was on the screen, but not giving Wilson the shield would have been a major deviation from the source material, one that looks a lot like caving to pressure from racists.
In my opinion, they shouldn’t have tried to do a pure standalone Captain America movie. It should have been worked into the Secret Wars event, and filled with additional Marvel characters, similar to the Captain America: Civil War treatment. In the comics, Sam Wilson deals with major insecurity and imposter syndrome. Shit, that would have been a great subtitle for a Secret Wars story. Captain America: Imposter Syndrome. Following the events of FatWS, Sam is struggling with the weight of the shield, and then Fury and Talos come to him for help with the Skrulls. They can’t trust any other Avemgers, not Rhoady, not Thunderbolt, not anyone at SWORD. And then Wilson, with no superpowers, has to duke it out and prove himself against the Super Skrull with all the powers of the Avengers.
And he can’t, because he’s just one guy, but he keeps getting back up. And that’s when he remembers that Steve’s superpower wasn’t strength or speed or intelligence, or even the shield. Captain America was resilience, defiance, and inspiration personified. That’s what the world needs against an unseen, invasive threat. People need hope, courage, and leadership. And that’s when people rally to help Sam defeat the Super Skrull, regular soldiers and coexisting Skrulls, maybe hint that Eli Bradley inherited some super from his Grampa. And Nick Fury can have his final blaze of glory before officially definitely for the last time no cap retiring.
Congrats, you’re already a much better screen writer than anyone at Marvel.
This would’ve been so much better than Secret Invasion. That’s the show that made me cancel my D+ subscription because I was so mad at how goddamn stupid it was. Skrulls in general have just been bungled by the MCU since their introduction in Capt. Marvel. I looked forward to them, but now I just really can’t stand anything about them.
I’m a completionist to an extent so I’m watching everything Marvel, but even I wish I could unwatch Secret Invasion.
I had been a completionist up until about that point, but just thinking about how poorly written it was just started making me angry, it reminded me of the decline of Game of Thrones. It’s like this writing style of “Things Just Happen”. There’s no point to any one scene, other than to setup some other scene or contrived conflict. It’s as if each character’s history is completely ignored, all logic just goes completely out the window, and nothing in the show really matters. It started feeling insulting to watch it, like, “Who the fuck thought this was a good idea?”
I think Secret Invasion could’ve been amazing had it been the culmination of something that had been brewing for awhile, not the beginning/middle/end in one show and not for some stupid contrived plot about earth-bound Nick Fury failing to find the skrulls a planet (Capt. Marvel can apparently do no wrong). It needn’t have been quite ‘Infinity War level’, but maybe had they shown different characters being taken over one at a time in different movies/shows and create this genuine atmosphere of paranoia where you’re like, “Who the fuck is a skrull?”, it could’ve all come to a head in Secret Invasion and been a bit more impactful. IMO the problem started with Capt. Marvel, they completely botched it by making the Skrulls into good guys, just to “subvert expectations”. They needed to keep the skrulls as villains for longer than half a movie and not waste our time with a bunch of jokey throwaway scenes in random movies/shows of Ben Mendelsohn being a funny quirky alien, it was such a waste of his talents. The MCU’s biggest problem has always been the villains, they’re just so underdeveloped and underutilized, when it’s the villains that can sometimes the most interesting thing about these movies/shows. Other than a handful of standout villains, MCU villains usually just end up being “Some guy/gal” and them dying at the end means absolutely nothing.
I think it could have worked as a slow-burn suspense/mystery spy thriller if only had been building up to something worthwhile. I try to keep in mind that the whole show basically got reshot because they deemed the series’ plot as too similar to the Ukraine vs. Russia conflict (pretty ironic considering the plot of Falcon & The Winter Soldier but okay), I suspect the original version of this show was FAR better than what we got. That crazy scene of the people shooting each other in public (kept vague for the sake of spoilers but it’s in the finale) felts like we got a peek into what this show was supposed to be.
