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.”

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?

  • Kwakigra@beehaw.org
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    1 month ago

    They’re trying to do the impossible with this character. He is critical of the actions of the in-world corrupt establishment but also unquestioningly loyal to it. The climax of his last story was asking a bunch of senators who canonically caused a human rights emergency to try harder. He literally just asked them to try harder. That was the resolution. Also the people who were fighting for the victims of the human rights emergency that the MCU American senate canonically caused were all killed because boot-licking is framed as the “correct” way to address systemic issues. More than any other IP, I think this one is the US military’s favorite for recruiting purposes.

    • realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.club
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      1 month ago

      It’s pretty hard to pitch the Flag Smashers as victims or the “good guys”.

      The real problem with the aftermath of The Snap is that it basically became an in-universe analogue for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but there’s still no easy answer in the MCU counterpart so it’s just frustrating because it can’t be resolved without hurting someone.

      • Kwakigra@beehaw.org
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        1 month ago

        Yeah, like most MCU villains they started committing random acts of violence as their leader “goes bad.” The in-universe MCU Senate canonically already went bad. The solution proposed by the story was to kill the flag smashers and ask the people who (I keep repeating this) are canonically responsible for the problem due to their negligence, are asked to “do better.”

        • realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.club
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          1 month ago

          like most MCU villains they started committing random acts of violence as their leader “goes bad.”

          IDK I got the idea that a lot of people in the Flag Smasher’s inner circle were beginning to question their leaders’ violent decisions, I feel like the show was definitely portraying the leader as worse that the members, even though they were all in the wrong here

          ask the people who (I keep repeating this) are canonically responsible for the problem due to their negligence

          lol the only person canonically responsible is Thanos

  • tacosanonymous@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    That description just makes me think reality caught up to the MCU. I could describe almost every Marvel movie since 2010 this way.

    • lobut@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      Reality is often disappointing.

      Sorry I couldn’t help myself. I saw every MCU movie from Shang Chi to Iron Man. I stopped afterwards.

      I can’t describe why? I think I have such a fond memory of Endgame and beforehand that when I hear these movies do poorly I don’t want to soil my memory of it.

    • DJDarren@thelemmy.club
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      1 month ago

      I’ve had essentially 0 interest in the MCU since Endgame. They wrapped up that story quite nicely, but even by that point I was starting to get fatigued by the whole thing.

      Watched the recent Deadpool movie last week and enjoyed it, but it offers something different to every other superhero movie.

      • Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee
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        30 days ago

        Falcon and the Winter Soldier was a decent series, carried by Anthony Mackie and the chemistry between the leads.

        The problem is that Falcon is already a great character. No super serum Cap’n America is already boring.

  • li10@feddit.uk
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    1 month ago

    I remember watching the passing the torch moment and just thinking “really? why? Just say captain America is retired”

    It is literally an irreplaceable character… especially doesn’t help that the replacement was previously “just some guy” in the other movies.

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      You need the passing of the torch, because the idea of Captain America can’t die. Expecting the current team at marvel to properly handle such a thing though, is the real problem.

  • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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    1 month ago

    “inessential” and “flat.”

    That’s one way to describe nearly everything Disney made for a number of years now

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukOPM
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    1 month ago

    I failed to see what the point of this (and the TV series that set it up) was and it seems like their isn’t one.

    With the development hell and such bad word of mouth this far out, it is lining up to be their biggest box office bomb so far.

    • jagermo@feddit.org
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      1 month ago

      I liked the series, but mostly because of Bucky and more backstory for Zemos.

      Captain A is a hard character to play or write because he is so one dimensional - he is good, no what ifs or buts. Chrias Evan did a great job, but you also need a good villain that carries the story. And without great writers, its hard to make something fun and entertaining.

      • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukOPM
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        1 month ago

        I liked the series, but mostly because of Bucky and more backstory for Zemos.

        More Zemo, please - he was the best thing in it and it’s criminal t here’s a Thunderbolts film without him in it.

          • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukOPM
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            1 month ago

            Me too.

            I’m hoping that The Sentry is the main threat and that the Black-ops Avengers realise they are massively outclassed (as really on Hulk or Thor could go toe-to-to with him) and they have to get sneaky to bring him down. Now that would require some kind of mastermind and I wonder where they could find one…?

            • realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.club
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              1 month ago

              The Sentry probably will be the main threat, it’s likely that they go with the backstory of him having DID based on the choice of Where Is My Mind? for the trailer music, and picking that as the theme sort of insinuates that Sentry will play a MAJOR role in the plot, at least.

    • DJDarren@thelemmy.club
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      1 month ago

      (and the TV series that set it up)

      And here’s my problem with everything Disney is splooging out these days; the interconnectedness has very rapidly gone from being a fun feature to an obnoxious ask on our time.

      The last season of The Mandalorian actively annoyed me when I realised that a bunch of the action between it and the previous season had taken place during the Boba Fett show. I didn’t bother with that because it looked dull, meaning I had to go away and find out what I’d missed.

      You watch any of the movies now and there’s some element of them that you’ll miss if you haven’t watched a selection of attached series and three previous movies.

      Mate, I’m not doing fucking homework just so I can give you ten more hours of my life.

    • realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.club
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      1 month ago

      The point really is “it’s another movie”. Same point of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Thor: The Dark World. Having these types of movies makes sense. “Good guy fights bad guy!” isn’t a bad comic book movie premise, and I think sometimes people assume superhero films have to be bigger than that to be good.

  • shoulderoforion@fedia.io
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    1 month ago

    “why can’t they just make it good”

    well, as it turns out, good, truly good and griping, is hard.

    when you have the stars who can carry just about anything, quality can slip a bit, but when you don’t, and it’s been proven the stars you’re using, aren’t compelling personalities, for whatever reason, and don’t have the draw themselves, good becomes paramount. and because the mcu is built around intertwined narratives which are almost completely dependent on characters, when the characters themselves aren’t working (mackie, larson, et all) and the narrative itself is far past being played out, you’re sorta up a creek.

    • OfficerBribe@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      No need to pretend Marvel movies stopped being money generators. Newest Deadpool & Wolverine generated worldwide 1.3B USD, ranking it 21st top grossing movie of all time. Domestic 633M USD, China 60M USD.

    • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukOPM
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      1 month ago

      They’ve been hammering out the trailer in cinemas for a few weeks now. It’s not filling me with enthusiasm.

      “You may be Captain America, but you are not Steve Rogers.”

      That may come back to haunt them.

      • Pistcow@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        “You may be Captain America, but you are not Steve Rogers…boy.”

      • realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.club
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        1 month ago

        Yeah I saw this trailer in IMAX when I went to see Joker 2 and I almost bood because I was hoping to see the Thunderbolts* trailer instead. Although I do like the Cap 4 trailer.

  • realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.club
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    1 month ago

    Imagine shooting this movie twice just for it to do this badly.

    It was the one thing I figured would be better after reshoots, but I guess it’s still bad!

    This also explains why they marketed Thunderbolts* far heavier than Captain America: Brave New World last month.