CAPTAIN AMERICA 4 Director On Negative Reviews: "Every One Of These Movies [Receives Criticism]"

Captain America: Brave New World director Julius Onah has responded to the (mostly) negative reviews the latest MCU movie has received, and he seems to be taking it all in his stride...

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By MarkCassidy - Feb 21, 2025 05:02 PM EST

Filed Under: Captain America: Brave New World

Deadpool and Wolverine proved to be a much-needed box office jolt for Marvel Studios, and also went over pretty well with fans and critics. Unfortunately, Captain America: Brave New World wasn't quite able to keep the franchise on an even keel.

Though the movie did have a better-than-expected opening weekend (it's already passed the $200 million mark worldwide), the critical reception was mixed-negative, and the fourth Captain America movie is currently sitting - and unlikely to budge - at 49% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Brave New World does have its defenders, but it's probably fair to say that the movie hasn't resonated with the Marvel faithful in a way those involved with bringing the film to the screen will have been hoping for.

Director Julius Onah was asked about the movie's critical response during an interview with Esquire.

"All I'll say is that we were working very hard and are very passionate about the movie we made. We told the story in a way that I feel very excited about and very satisfied with. Every single one of these movies [receives criticism]—and maybe because it was so out-there in terms of some of the conversation, people perceiving certain things, certainly—but I don't think that is the truth of the reality of it.… The really important thing for me is the experience the audience gets to have: enjoying the story."

We're not really sure if there's much point in asking any director about negative reviews, because they're obviously going to keep things as diplomatic as possible. Even so, it is worth noting that - for the time being - general audiences do seem to be getting more out of Brave New World than critics and hardcore fans.

3391 of you voted in our recent BNW poll, and 41% of you felt that the movie was "good" (3/5). Somewhat surprisingly, 20% of you went with "very good" (4/5), while 19% of you voted "disappointing" (2/5). 12% of you thought Brave New World was outright "awful" (1/5), and 8% went with "excellent" (5/5).

After meeting with newly elected U.S. President Thaddeus Ross, played by Harrison Ford in his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, Sam finds himself in the middle of an international incident. He must discover the reason behind a nefarious global plot before the true mastermind has the entire world seeing red.

Captain America: Brave New World also stars Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Xosha Roquemore, Carl Lumbly, with Giancarlo Esposito, Liv Tyler, Tim Blake Nelson, and Harrison Ford. The film is directed by Julius Onah and produced by Kevin Feige and Nate Moore. Louis D’Esposito and Charles Newirth serve as executive producers.

Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World opens is now in theaters.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD Director Shares Red Hulk's Alternate Fate And Teases The MCU's Vice President

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48 Comments

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bobevanz - 2/21/2025, 5:04 PM

It depends on the criticism. From a movie making standpoint there are so many issues behind the scenes. Nobody can deny that. It's the other clowns who bring in race or identity politics that's bullshit. There are also the people who think "you're toxic" if you don't like something as much as them. It's clear Feige has to deal with a bunch of shit from Disney. They need an avengers level failure to truly right the ship. These people could be faithful and passionate, but for all the wrong reasons. Now what about that 70% drop by Sunday

bobevanz - 2/21/2025, 5:06 PM

Also to counterpoint the director: this movie had no story. Just a few half baked ideas that ended in a cgi battle

MakeAmericaGrea - 2/21/2025, 6:32 PM

@bobevanz -

"Now what about that 70% drop by Sunday"

If there is a 40 to 69% drop during its second weekend, the movie at the end of its theatrical run will still be a failure.

You care about race and identity politics, don't be a hypocrite.

Batmangina - 2/21/2025, 7:25 PM

@MakeAmericaGrea - The real pisser is that it COULD have been good - even with Sam as Captain America.

The bones were there but the meat was [frick]ing rotten. It was to CA:TWS what SW:TFA was to Star Wars 77

They should have figured out a way for Sam to have the Super Soldier Serum. Full Stop.

They could have shoehorned a transfusion from Isaiah Bradley into it and had Sam be the new Captain African American to atone for Bradley's mistreatment or some shit.

IDGAF - but Reg'lar Sam vs ANY [frick]ING HULK - even the goddamn SHE-HULK and lasting more than 45 seconds is FULL RETARD.

Omario - 2/22/2025, 2:02 AM

@bobevanz - yeah. It's not bad, just kinda empty. Isaiah could've had a deeper story and the Sam isn't Steve could've played better. Stearns could've had a deeper story, and been behind the Sokovia Accords etc. The mind control thing was flimsy. And it's easy to see Sidewinder thrown in. Personally the theme of people not meeting expectations should've been explored more.

harryba11zack - 2/21/2025, 5:05 PM

but not every One Of These Movies are shit

da2213viking - 2/21/2025, 5:07 PM

@harryba11zack - That is rather subjective. Personally I dont watch a lot of Marvel stuff but some of there media is good.

Vigor - 2/21/2025, 6:46 PM

@da2213viking - he's one of an exhausting amount of trolls here who for some reason come here daily just to not engage in any meaningful discussion

da2213viking - 2/21/2025, 7:57 PM

@Vigor - I have been coming here for over 15 years. I am find woth trolls. They just wany attention

da2213viking - 2/21/2025, 5:06 PM

Lets keep the comments focused on the topic at hand. Lets not get political and lets make CBM a fun place again.

HashTagSwagg - 2/21/2025, 5:16 PM

Whomever this Director guy is, at leasty he has the balls to admit it was shit, big ups, mad respect.

McMurdo - 2/21/2025, 5:22 PM

Good ole fashioned copium.

Oberlin4Prez - 2/21/2025, 5:23 PM

This is what's frustrating about the whole thing. Feige hires these directors and then, when things go awry, leaves them to fend for themselves. If I were any kind of director in Hollywood, big or small, if I got the call from Fiege I'd tell him to pound sand.

McMurdo - 2/21/2025, 5:28 PM

@Oberlin4Prez - it'd be nice if Feige would just stop hiring mediocre talent to make mediocre movies and instead hire real creatives again who can tell coherent stories. It'd be nice to feel like these directors truly understand and give a shit about the characters they are adapting. I mean this dude could only direct what Malcom Spellman and his group of lackies wrote for him so it's certainly not all on him. He was damned from the get go.

Oberlin4Prez - 2/21/2025, 5:38 PM

@McMurdo - I mean. You're getting to the root cause. Lol

AllsNotGood - 2/21/2025, 5:56 PM

@McMurdo - hiring people based on physical characteristics you mean

McMurdo - 2/21/2025, 5:59 PM

@AllsNotGood - just hire people with track records and previous screenplays that have been well received. It's not rocket science.

MakeAmericaGrea - 2/21/2025, 6:35 PM

@McMurdo -

Bob Iger and Kevin Feige and their club don't want good movies.

They want bad movies to punish conservatives.

AllsNotGood - 2/21/2025, 6:46 PM

@McMurdo - thats too easy for Disney they need to fix what doesn't need to be fixed

TheVisionary25 - 2/21/2025, 5:26 PM

All the cast & crew can do is try their best to make the best movie possible and then let it go so others hopefully connect to it as you did if not moreso so there’s always a risk of certain amount of people not which happened here unfortunately…

I will say I did try to read or skim over as many of the critic reviews on RT as I could and some of the publications they have verified are really odd such as Christian review sites aswell as there just being critics who just seem to not be fans of the genre or superhero movies in general (perhaps even just fatigued by them).

Granted that’s not really an excuse and I’m not trying to make one but I feel it’s hard to give a movie a review fairly if one has their own biases towards it but oh well…

that’s not even mentioning some 3 stars review classified as rotten & such which shows its own problems with RT.

Anyway , i personally did like the film though it is flawed and hope the movie breaks even enough to craft future Sam Cap stories that more people can get behind!!.

Spike101 - 2/21/2025, 5:31 PM

‘ Every single one of these movies [receives criticism]’ Really??? I’ve not heard much criticism of say the first Ironman, or The Winter Solider or Infinity War to name but a few…

EskimoJ - 2/21/2025, 5:45 PM

@Spike101 - So you're saying those movies didn't receive any criticism?

SonOfAGif - 2/21/2025, 5:52 PM

@Spike101 - Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Thor the Dark World, Ant-Man and The Wasp, Spider-Man Homecoming, and many more didn't receive criticism??

NinnesMBC - 2/21/2025, 8:49 PM

@SonOfAGif - I thought Homecoming was near unanimously praised tbh. I had more criticism for all those you mentioned than Homecoming tbh.

SonOfAGif - 2/21/2025, 8:51 PM

@NinnesMBC - Homecoming was met with a lot of slander and complaints regarding Peter Parker not being on his own and dependent of Tony Stark.

S8R8M - 2/21/2025, 5:42 PM

I just saw this film and it was good.

MakeAmericaGrea - 2/21/2025, 6:20 PM

@S8R8M -

No you didn't and no it isn't.

S8R8M - 2/21/2025, 10:41 PM

@MakeAmericaGrea - I can make up own mind, Herman.

Forthas - 2/21/2025, 5:52 PM

This film is a victim of negative attacks that have nothing to do with the quality of the film fueled by the notion that because it had reshoots it is somehow a bad film. That kind of idiotic thing makes one lose faith in humanity and the comic book community. If Disney wants to do reshoots then more power to them. If the film was horrid then people would be asking why Disney did not fix it. Disney did well by this film and this franchise and the film turned out good enough for me.

Say YES to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ... say NO to Stupidity, Extremism, and Ignorance (SEI) and Childish Reactionary Tantrums (CRT)

MakeAmericaGrea - 2/21/2025, 6:22 PM

@Forthas -

The problem is after all the reshoots the movie is still bad.

Disney did not do right by the fans, the movie, or the MCU.

karlel - 2/21/2025, 7:12 PM

@Forthas - Just out of curiosity, what makes you like this movie so much? What does "Disney did well by this film.." mean? I'm not trying to argue or set you up, I'm genuinely curious. I feel the opposite. I don't think the movie is worth the money I spent to get in the theater.

SonOfAGif - 2/21/2025, 8:53 PM

@karlel - You watching and forming your own opinion is what it's about. The issue stems from people on this very site openly not wanting to watch this movie from the moment it was announced and hating it and constantly complaining about it on every article until it released to the continue their rants with links to reviews that they believe would justify their opinion of something they never intended to see.

Forthas - 2/22/2025, 4:24 AM

@karlel
@SonOfAGif
@MakeAmericaGrea

Thanks for asking! What I liked about the film is that it is a straight forward and simple story but at the same time quite ambitious. If you think about it, the movie attempted to do a lot of things including: 1) present a feature film that steered away from the confusing multi-verse; 2) tie up loose ends from three separate films/shows (Incredible Hulk, Eternals, and Falcon and the Winter Soldier); 3) introduce foundational concepts for the future X-Men; and 4) introduced new interesting characters like the Leader and Sidewinder that could factor into future Marvel films.

So what I meant by Marvel doing right by its fans is that it moved the overall shared universe forward in a way that ties a lot of things together whereas with previous other films after everyone saw them were always asking "How does this all tie together?” You have to appreciate that ambition which I think they largely pulled off. They may have sacrificed some of the quality of the film which made it feel disjointed and probably could have been the reason that led to the re-shoots but over all the film was entertaining, had great action scenes and a few good dramatic moments. Not every film needs to be Endgame!

Say YES to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ... say NO to Stupidity, Extremism, and Ignorance (SEI) and Childish Reactionary Tantrums (CRT)

AllsNotGood - 2/21/2025, 5:55 PM

These are all projects they make for themselves

MakeAmericaGrea - 2/21/2025, 6:19 PM

"I am waiting for Deadline and Variety to dig out The Marvels and Eternals out of the bottom of the trashcan when they are forced to compare Captain America numbers to show that it could have been "much much worse""

MakeAmericaGrea - 2/21/2025, 6:29 PM

They blatantly mocked the attempts on President Trump, and mocked him and took jabs at him, and by extension, most Americans and many other good people throughout the world.

This trash flick won't make a profit in theaters.

And their revenge against conservatives has only made conservatives more powerful.

String - 2/21/2025, 7:19 PM

If I had voted I would have been among the 41% who felt 'Captain America: Brave New World' was good. I was definitely not disappointed in the film in the way I felt leaving 'Quantumania and 'Love & Thunder.' I left 'Deadpool & Wolverine' feeling, well that was good but was it satisfying. Did that film push the MCU further? I hate the concept of 'anchor beings'. Perhaps that colors my impressions of that film & recently the whole 'Nicepool' controversy has definitely soured me on the film. But while I think Captain America 4 could have been a better film, yeah, sure. But it was not the dumpster fire, some folks have made it to be. I think going in with reasonable expectations is how folks should go into an MCU film. But unfortunately, because of social media and folks with the loudest voices WANT this film to fail. Those voices often shout over the ones who found the film entertaining enough to not feel it was a waste of time watching.

MakeAmericaGrea - 2/21/2025, 7:24 PM

@String -

But unfortunately, because of social media, people with the loudest voices WANT this film to succeed. Those voices often shout over the ones who found the film poor enough to feel it was a waste of time watching.

MakeAmericaGrea - 2/21/2025, 7:27 PM

@String -

Of course you like it. Or at least of course you will claim you like regardless of how you actually feel about it.

You wanted Kamala to be president and you want there to be no U.S.-Mexico border.

You can say people. You don't have to say folks just because so many other people say folks.

MakeAmericaGrea - 2/21/2025, 7:20 PM

"It's okay if my movie got a lot of criticism, because no movie is perfect, and even the best movies of all time got at least a little criticism."

There are some parallels with this movie and the pilot in Toronto.

The pilot and this movie's director didn't earn their jobs through merit, and couldn't stick a landing.

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CAPTAIN AMERICA 4 Director On Negative Reviews: "Every One Of These Movies [Receives Criticism]"

Captain America: Brave New World director Julius Onah has responded to the (mostly) negative reviews the latest MCU movie has received, and he seems to be taking it all in his stride...

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD Director Shares Red Hulk's Alternate Fate And Teases The MCU's Vice President

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD Originally Featured An Appearance From A Multiversal Illuminati

DISCLAIMER: As a user generated site and platform, ComicBookMovie.com is protected under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and "Safe Harbor" provisions.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD Director Shares Red Hulk's Alternate Fate And Teases The MCU's Vice President