“Captain America: Brave New World” is expected to revive the superhero brand of Captain America after many years of absence. Unfortunately, the blockbuster was criticized for its outdated script and outdated storytelling.

Captain America: Brave New World is the blockbuster that kicks off the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) this year, with many details that promise to change the landscape of the superhero world and open a new era for the MCU.

The project is awaited because it marks the return of the Captain America brand after nine years since Captain America: Civil War (2016). At the same time, this is also the first time the series is absent from Chris Evans – who has been associated with the image of Captain America for many years – making the audience even more curious.

When Chris Evans is no longer Captain America

The film follows the events that took place in the series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021), revolving around the main character Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie).

After Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) gave up his superhero shield, Sam Wilson officially became Captain America with the mission of protecting justice, constantly facing new challenges.

Lieutenant Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) became Falcon – accompanying and supporting Captain America in challenging missions.

Meanwhile, America is also going through many upheavals when General Ross (Harrison Ford) was elected president, bringing tough policies and ambitions to cooperate with Captain America to maintain order and power.

However, a plot to assassinate the president is being secretly carried out, forcing Sam Wilson to try to prevent it and face dangerous enemies.

The film has a simple script, interwoven with many conspiracies, political conflicts with tense action scenes to lead the journey of the new Captain America.

The director is Julius Onah – who worked on The Cloverfield Paradox (2018). The filmmaker is under a lot of pressure because the previous parts of Captain America were all highly appreciated, especially the two most recent parts that helped affirm the names of the duo Anthony Russo and Joe Russo.

The production budget of up to 180 million USD was mainly invested heavily in the visual aspect. The crew continues to bring viewers eye-catching action scenes, especially the dramatic aerial battles of Captain America.

The highlight of the film is the tense confrontation between the main character and Red Hulk – the main villain introduced before, famous for his destructive power and rage many times higher than the “green giant” Hulk.

It must be said that Marvel has tried very hard to make Anthony Mackie’s Captain America image different from Chris Evans. Instead of being a muscular hero, the character is built in a more approachable and realistic direction.

But because he is a mortal, Sam Wilson also has many limitations compared to superheroes with natural powers. That partly makes the fighting scenes in the film lack explosiveness, sometimes even out of breath.

Many limitations so it is criticized

Like other films in the MCU, Captain America 4 also gathers a large cast of stars with good acting ability, making the film more attractive. Moreover, the actors are already familiar with their characters through many projects, so they do not have difficulty acting in the film.

However, Anthony Mackie has not brought many surprises when continuing to play the role of Sam Wilson. His performance is still a bit inferior to his colleague Chris Evans, partly making the image of the new Captain America lack the strength and emotional depth as expected.

Besides Anthony Mackie, the other stars all play their roles well. The most impressive must be actor Harrison Ford as General Ross, or Red Hulk.

The veteran actor brings a powerful, tough and resourceful image of Thaddeus Ross. When transforming into Red Hulk, Harrison Ford also shocked with the fierceness and brutality of the character, creating a formidable opponent for Captain America.

Unfortunately, when Captain America 4 was released, it was not warmly received by critics. The film was rated “Rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes with 52% positive votes from experts.

This achievement makes the project a shame for Marvel, in the top 3 lowest rated films in the MCU, following Eternals (2021) and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023).

Most people rated the work poorly because of the disjointed script, lack of breakthroughs, superficial character development, and lack of depth. In addition, the action scenes overused special effects, making the film lack authenticity and reduce emotions.

The villain is also not built up well. Initially, he was introduced as dangerous and behind the scenes pulling the strings of many secret plots, but later on he became more and more obscure and lacked weight, his motives were also unclear.

Moreover, this is the 35th film of the MCU, so viewers need to grasp a lot of information and previous developments to understand the plot, otherwise they will feel confused and difficult to grasp.

Overall, Captain America 4 has not created many breakthroughs compared to previous films, and has borrowed ideas from many projects in the MCU, a little bit of each.

The work continues to show that the superhero film genre has not been able to escape the “quagmire” with uncreative scripts and abusing familiar formulas.