Summary
- A poorly executed brainwashing plot in Captain America: Brave New World creates confusion for viewers.
- The film ignores significant events from Secret Invasion, leaving crucial details unaddressed.
- An oddly fast spread of bad news in the movie suggests laziness by the writers and detracts from the story.
Captain America: Brave New World soared into theaters with high expectations, promising a fresh chapter for Sam Wilson after his earlier exploits in the MCU. However, as fans dissect the film’s details, they’re discovering story elements that feel less than seamless. While certain plot points blend seamlessly into both the movie and the larger story, others stand out as oddly executed or insufficiently explained, leaving viewers with pressing questions about the logic behind pivotal decisions. These perceived missteps in Captain America: Brave New World draw attention away the story in general.
For fans of Captain America: Brave New World, the way the movie handles certain plot points can take away from the enjoyment of the film as a whole because it makes everything a bit clunkier. When talking about a film like this, one that was highly anticipated to boot, the truly inexcusable plot holes make it hard to really settle in and enjoy the action. It is in fact, possible that’s one of the reasons Brave New World has been met with less than enthusiastic reviews.
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Captain America: Brave New World’s Brainwashing Was Poorly Carried Out
When The Leader’s plan started to unfold, it seemed like it was going to be one that was both brilliant and dangerous. The idea of somehow brainwashing various good guys into doing bad things with flashing lights and music was certainly sinister. The problem is that as the movie went on, it became harder and harder to understand several things about this plan.
The first issue is Captain America: Brave New World never even tries to explain how The Leader got to the people he brainwashed, how the brainwashing actually worked and why, if he could seemingly get to everyone, why he wouldn’t brainwash say … Captain America or President Ross?
The movie’s only attempt to explain how the villain was able to get to anyone was a throw-away line from Ross about “he can hack into files, why could he brainwash someone?” It seems like something that was so important to the main plot of the newest Captain America film would be explained at least a little. The writers seemed to grow bored with the plot point and just wanted to move on.
Captain America: Brave New World Completely Ignored Secret Invasion’s Big Reveal
When Secret Invasion first hit Disney+, it was clear this series was supposed to completely shake up the MCU. However, like Brave New World, it was met with mostly negative reviews and backlash from the fanbase. Still, enough happened in that show that it should have gotten at least a mention.
Wouldn’t there be some sort of protocol to look for Skrulls when dealing with other governments suddenly losing trust in one another? What about the fact that Ross seemingly replaced a president that was a Skrull? One of the biggest MCU happenings in the history of Marvel was the reveal that an alien race had quietly invaded the world. It feels like that might have come up in conversation at some point at the very least.
Bad News Travels Oddly Fast In Captain America: Brave New World
There are two instances in Captain America: Brave New World where bad news travels weirdly fast. The first is when the brainwashed minions of The Leader go after Isaiah Bradley. Almost immediately after the attack, Joaquin is alerted by … somebody about what’s going on at the Raft. This is despite the fact that by this point Sam and Joaquin have been fired by President Ross. So who at the Raft texted the man who is now effectively a vigilante? And how did they get that information to Sam before the president even knew? Because in a later scene it’s shown Ross finds out much later about what’s going on at the prison.
The speed of bad news is even crazier when The Leader turns himself into authorities and the media somehow immediately has all sorts of information about his manifesto exposing President Ross. The framing makes it look like Ross is holding a press conference in the Rose Garden while Stearns is being arrested.
And yet, as the press conference starts, a member of the media is asking him about the arrest and the accusations made by the “criminal mastermind.” This needed to happen, it appears, in order to trigger Ross losing his temper but it feels like there could have been a few things that occurred in between in order to not make the news spread quite so fast.
As is the case with most of the other plot holes in Captain America: Brave New World, the problem with these issues is that it appears to be laziness on the writers to a degree that shouldn’t exist in a film in the MCU that’s supposed to carry this much stature.
Captain America: Brave New World
- Release Date
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February 14, 2025
- Director
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Julius Onah
- Writers
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Dalan Musson, Malcolm Spellman
- Prequel(s)
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War
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Anthony Mackie
Sam Wilson / Captain America
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Harrison Ford
Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross / Red Hulk
More
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