Anthony Mackie in “Captain America: Brave New World” (2025)

Out of the multiverse and into your strange fantasy is “Captain America: Brave New World.”It’s a fresh release from Marvel and the bad reviews might just reflect a Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) bias or a general super hero cinematic exhaustion. While I won’t waste your time calling the MCU “woke,” I will give credit where it’s due — in a place where innovation disappeared years before “the snap.”

Marvel has had its fair share of misses since “Multiverse of Madness,” the only movie truly connected to the Avengers and Thanos that anyone actually remembers. There have been countless releases from feature films series on Disney Plus that you’ve probably never heard of. Marvel’s mistake is likely the unasked for coverage of heroes and villains that many viewers are not familiar with. Features like “Eternals” “Morbius” and recently “Kraven the Hunter.” And while I doubt too many Avengers fans had the Falcon on the top of their Marvel favorite heroes list, at least after all the build up with “End Game” and the bizarre “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” series on Disney Plus we know who The Falcon (played by Anthony Mackie) is. We know the Falcon is meant to be Captain America.

“Brave New World” plays out like an afro-surrealist thriller. The tone of the film immediately takes on this unfamiliar discomfort. In an interview, fittingly for Marvel.com, director of “Brave New World” Julius Onah explained that he was influenced by films such as “The Day of the Jackal” and “Point Blank.”

“[the inspiration] allowed us to tell our own version of a paranoid thriller within the MCU.” said Onah.

This was achieved by utilizing an original score akin to those you hear in everyday horror movies. Rather than exciting orchestral arrangements, we’re met with minor chords and unsteady tempos. There were also shots that were unconventional for a superhero film like upside down camera motions and a stylized use of negative space. Together, It was unsettling and confusing, but simultaneously not bad, and definitely different. What are we here to watch? Why are things getting scary?

Alongside this stylization, the story takes on an oddly similar reality to our own with political shifts and uncertainty. The primary focus of the film’s plot was on the President, Thaddeuos Ross (played by Harrison Ford), and Captain America’s relationship to him and his duty to the American public.

What may leave some less enthusiastic fans confused is the heavy handed callbacks to the 2008 “Incredible Hulk,” which might leave later adopters of the MCU unsure of the films’ entire catalyst. Crafted around the forgotten narrative of Thaddeous Ross (played by William Hurt) and Abomination (Tim Roth), an incredible mystery is created as the new Captain America (Mackie) and the new Falcon (played by Danny Ramirez) attempt to find their place in the midst of the chaos of an impending world war. And yes, that red hulk in the movie posters isn’t just Bruce Banner but red and no we’re not still in the multiverse.

While I don’t think utilizing the Hulk storyline was a mistake —Abomination does make for a good tension-building villain — I do think the audience’s expectations may have been unbalanced as the red “Hulk” that is Ross only takes up a small latter portion of the film. This misleading marketing is likely a result of  the endless reshoots that “Brave New World” withstood, pushing its release out for an entire year from its planned May 3, 2024. There was even an entire superhero cut from the film. Diamondback was a pink haired fighter with Captain America played by Rosa Salazar who even had her own McDonald’s toy.

The reality is that the movie was cut to bits. Reshoots are evident, even to the viewer at some points, specifically in scenes with Abomination. But it still holds up and is well covered by the “paranoid thriller” theme. One of the top characteristics of “Brave New World” was the extended action scenes. Moments of fight choreography were allowed to play out — gone are the MCU’s classic fast abrupt cuts between every punch or shot blurring the action.

I hoped to ditch the dramatics, but frankly, with optimism, “Brave New World” feels revolutionary for the MCU. “Brave New World” leaves us with a foretelling that the Avengers will return and it feels like the kick in the pants needed to not only revive the Avengers — but audiences too.

The trailers surrounding “Brave New World” did leave me grimacing. The definition of comedy doesn’t hinge on Ryan Reynolds but after “Deadpool and Wolverine” (and every other Reynolds Deadpool beforehand), a high bar for Marvel hero humour has been set. A bar that, judging from the trailer, the May 2, 2025 release “The Thunderbolts” won’t reach. But who knows? And who called for a“Fantastic Four” reboot?

Here’s to hoping MCU fans get to enjoy the flavor of living in the present and the new Avengers don’t become a hodgepodge of time hopping heroes from different groups, cities, worlds, dimensions etc. In the real world, the future is… well… clouded and grey but it really is becoming a brave new world for the MCU.