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?

  • tacosanonymous@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    1 hour ago

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

  • shoulderoforion@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    29 minutes 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.

  • tankplanker@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    50 minutes ago

    Mackie has never struck me as charismatic enough of an actor to lead a franchise as big as Captain America, hes just so boring to watch, its like he isn’t even there.

    Couple that with what seems to be another bland script from the goofs that brought us Falcon and the Winter Soldier and I am not surprised it sucks.

    The problem is always that Disney is trying to cut costs on the directors, writers and actors by picking TV level people. Its pretty obvious this hasn’t worked so far and that they have had to press the panic button to get as many of the OGs back as possible.

  • li10
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    23
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 hours 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.

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      29 minutes ago

      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.

      • zod000@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        11 minutes ago

        Congrats, you’re already a much better screen writer than anyone at Marvel.

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      26 minutes 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.

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝OPMA
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    3 hours 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.

    • ours@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      3 hours ago

      And now set to release in “fuck you, it’s February”. When stinkers get thrown out to die.

    • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝OPMA
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      2 hours 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.

      • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        11 minutes ago

        I mean, Anthony Mackie is not Chris Evans. But they should have leaned into that. Play with the insecurity. Sam isn’t Steve, and pretending that Sam can learn to throw the shield in an afternoon, or stand against the might of Thanos, it’s internally inconsistent. But Sam can lead, and he can inspire others. The show did a piss poor job of riding the fence on whether the terrorists were sympathetic characters. From the sound of it, the studio wants to have their cake, eat it, and sell it all at the same time. Is Sam “as good” as Steve? Does a black man wearing the flag condone the nation’s challenging historical (and current) crimes of racial violence and oppression? Will Americans accept a new person carrying the shield? Will the world governments allow a moral leader to operate autonomously the way Steve did? The show raised all of those questions, and then just kinda shruged.

      • Pistcow@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        2 hours ago

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