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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.”
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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?
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.
I understand the comic universe had Sam Wilson as a much more relevant character, but the MCU was meant to be a separate story and try its own interpretations. The MCU eagle-man was just a secondary character that did not matter to the audiences, he could not be the successor.
It’s Bucky who should inherit the shield, not Sam. Bucky had a deep connection with Steve, is widely popular and beloved with the audience, and could have had a solo film with a good story dealing with this alone (hell, the scene of Steve handling the shield to Bucky could have been a very deep moment by itself, after all they both experienced together). I know he had a dark past with Shield manipulating him, but he redeemed himself, and exactly because of these regrets and shaded past, a film showing him turning into a selfless heroe needing to prove to himself and others he can be a great captain america would be an apt transition for his character. Common people would love to see a more mature story with non black and white characters, that still progresses Steve’s legacy.
Barnes did take on the mantle of Captain America following Rogers’ apparent death in 2008, but Rogers eventually gets better and returns. For a while they were both Captain America, but eventually Bucky’s identity as the Winter Soldier becomes public and he’s put on trial. He is acquitted, but gives up the mantle because he thinks his checkered past taints the symbol.
A few years later, Steve grows old and retires, and specifically picks Sam as his replacement. Sam wonders why it wasn’t Bucky, and spends most of his time as Cap trying to prove himself.
Neat story, it is also good. But the MCU has showed tons of people with checkered pasts still giving their best and overcoming it, and audiences accepting it. Starting with Iron Man, the ex merchant of death, and going Bruce Banne with Hulk (to the in-universe people), Black widow, Loki (twice), Ant-man (ex thief), and probably others i dont remeber.