Summary
- Captain America: Brave New World faced poor reviews and a box office drop in its second weekend.
- Director Julius Onah defended the film, stating his satisfaction with the story told.
- Despite the criticism, audience enjoyment seems to be positive with an 80% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Captain America: Brave New World reviews have criticized the Marvel Studios film for multiple reasons. Now, director Julius Onah has given a diplomatic response to the negative reactions.
Captain America: Brave New World marked the MCU’s first feature film with Anthony Mackie as the eponymous hero. Unfortunately, the film hasn’t had the strongest start. While its opening weekend haul was solid, Captain America: Brave New World suffered a significant box office drop in its second weekend. Captain America: Brave New World reviews have also been poor, with the film currently holding a 48% score on Rotten Tomatoes, worse than all but two Marvel Studios feature films.
Related
The Spider-Man 4 cast is rumored to be considering an actor from the Star Wars franchise opposite Tom Holland, but who could they play?
During an interview with Esquire, Onah was given the opportunity to respond to the Captain America: Brave New World criticism. Onah defended the hard work that went into making Captain America: Brave New World, noting that he feels “very satisfied” with the story they told. The Captain America 4 director added that all of these movies (presumably meaning all MCU films) receive criticism and seemingly suggested that some moviegoers perceived “certain things” because the film “was so out-there in terms of some of the conversation.” However, Onah said that what was most important to him was the audience’s enjoyment.
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.
There may be truth to Onah’s comments about the audience’s perceiving things about the movie. Many fans expected Captain America: Brave New World to be bad partly due to the reports of the film undergoing significant reshoots after multiple poor test screenings. This left fans with the impression that Captain America: Brave New World was in trouble from the start, with some critics pointing to scenes that they felt were clearly added or retooled after reshoots as one of the reasons for the film’s poor quality.
Still, if Onah’s top priority was the audience’s enjoyment, he may have succeeded. While Captain America: Brave New World may have earned a B- CinemaScore (a record-low for MCU movies), the film currently enjoys an 80% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, perhaps another instance of there being a wide chasm between critics and fans or casual movigoers.
Unfortunately, Captain America: Brave New World‘s second-weekend box office drop suggests audience enthusiasm won’t be enough to save the film from becoming a box office bomb. It’s possible for Captain America: Brave New World to have legs in the coming weeks to help reach the $425 million it reportedly needs to break even. However, Captain America: Brave New World is currently performing on par with The Marvels and Ant-Man 3, both of which reportedly lost money for Marvel Studios.
Captain America: Brave New World is now playing in theaters.
More
Captain America: Brave New World Shows The Incredible Hulk Needs More Respect
The Incredible Hulk remains an underrated gem in the MCU, blending, tragedy and moral dilemmas in a way Captain America: Brave New World didn’t.
Source: Esquire