‘Captain America: Brave New World’ is a disappointing, disjointed MCU entry
Anthony Mackie deserved better. PLUS: Lots of Lorne Michaels chatter, a trailer for the live-action ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ remake, and the Oscar campaign for Tim Robinson in ‘Friendship’ begins now.
Happy Valentine’s Day and welcome to the Friday edition of Popculturology. Chocolates are great, but I’d love a world where Elon Musk and his buddies aren’t set on destroying Wikipedia — one of the greatest achievements of humanity’s online era.
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Captain America: Brave New World has little to say
This year was supposed to be the year that the MCU found its footing again. After going light in 2024 with only Deadpool & Wolverine hitting theaters, the MCU was going to storm back in 2025, unleashing Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Captain America: Brave New World is not a good foundation for that plan.
I caught Brave New World — which is the fourth Captain America movie and 35th entry in the MCU — on Thursday night. I went into the theater hoping to see a film that showed that Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios had gotten things back on track. I left wondering why the studio had released a sequel to 2008’s The Incredible Hulk with Anthony Mackie’s Captain America squished into it seventeen years after that film had premiered.
