On Friday, Feb. 14, 2024, “Captain America: Brave New World,” directed by Julius Onah, premiered in theaters. With 49 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has been criticized as “mediocre” and “underwhelming.” Bryce Morishige, a freshman at Berkeley High School, saw the film, and it did not meet his expectations. “They tried fitting in way too many plot lines and it just didn’t make sense,” Morishige said. Expectations of this film were for Anthony Mackie, the new Captain America, to take up the shield of Chris Evans’ Captain America, but instead the movie primarily focused on the political standpoint of the United States.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), General Thaddeus Ross is known also as Red Hulk and features prominently in many comics. However, in the film, the Red Hulk, played by Harrison Ford, revealed his true colors for less than 15 minutes at the end of the film. Moreover, Harrison Ford also acts as the president of the United States, so him becoming the Red Hulk mainly served as a message about the current political state of America, deviating far from the agenda of a typical Marvel action movie. During the film, prominent U.S. politicians were portrayed as untrustworthy and potentially dangerous, making other countries hesitate to associate themselves with America. Depicting the American government in a critical way is a rare occurrence for the MCU, especially for the Captain America enterprise, which typically promotes the U.S. military and government.
The film did not live up to its action-packed expectations, as the majority of the two hours was filled with lackluster conversations about fighting, without the actual fighting. This was one of the biggest disappointments, as people expected “Captain America: Brave New World” to be like the other critically acclaimed movies in the MCU. “The amount of action kind of just fell off,” Morishige said.
Throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there have been many triumphs. The two Marvel films that have been the highest grossing worldwide are “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) and “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018). The similarities between the two movies include that they are directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, brothers that also directed “Captain America: Winter Soldier” (2014) and “Captain America: Civil War” (2016). “Captain America: Brave New World” was the first time Onah ever directed a film from the MCU.
“Spider-Man: Homecoming,” along with “Far From Home” and “No Way Home,” starring Tom Holland and Zendaya, are Marvel films that many have grown to love. Anabel Orozco, a BHS sophomore, thinks “Spider- Man: Homecoming” was the MCU’s best work.
“When the first Spider- Man movie with Tom Holland came out, everyone was going crazy about that. I feel that was before the multiverse of the MCU got really complicated,” said Orozco.
In the last six years since “Avengers: Endgame,” there has been a surge in TV show series focusing on who some might call the “background characters.” A couple examples are been Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, and Moon Knight. Some of these series are centered on familiar characters, while others, like Moon Knight, are based on brand new ones. Some have said that the reason for such a decline in the overall quality of the MCU is because they don’t have the same, iconic main characters anymore. Ivo Lindner, a BHS freshman, believes “they’re deviating from the main plot and they’re focusing on a lot of smaller characters.”
“Avengers: Endgame,” along with Infinity War, are popularly deemed the peak of the MCU, since each brought so many stories and plotlines together. But by the end of the film, they had killed off three fan favorite heroes, Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). Because of this, the MCU had to come up with different storylines that didn’t have the original cast in them.
From the perspective of Orozco, the plotlines of these new films and TV series have not met the standards of the MCU in the past. “They’re just adding random plot twists that are unnecessary, just because they want to carry on the movies,” said Orozco, “Everything’s just becoming too complicated, and I think they’re dragging on stories that could have been ended.” Fans are left to question how the MCU will progress from here; will they continue on this downward trend, or will they somehow find a way to bounce back to the glory days of Marvel movies?