The Walt Disney Company seems to be at a turning point.
After years of giving themselves over to political activism, unsuccessfully, corporate leadership has finally realized that focusing on quality, family-friendly entertainment and well-received blockbusters is a more sustainable strategy than progressive ideology.
READ: Disney Officially Drops DEI, Reverts Back To Sanity
Still, dramatic corporate shifts take time, and while it might take years for their films to recover from years of damage, they need their big upcoming releases to soften some of the blow from high-profile failures. Enter Captain America: Brave New World.
Captain America got off to a rocky start; the film was hit with reshoots, rewrites, and delays. Then star Anthony Mackie made headlines for seemingly criticizing America during his press tour. While playing the literal embodiment of America.
Not what you want to hear if you’re Disney, hoping for a massive box office hit. And neither are the first critics’ reviews that have started to hit Rotten Tomatoes.
‘Captain America’ Already Off To A Rocky Start
There have been over 100 critics’ reviews to hit Rotten Tomatoes on Brave New World, with a middling 52% positive score thus far.
A.A. Dowd from Digital Trends roasted the visuals, saying “No blockbuster that cost this much should look this shoddy.”
One critic, rated a “positive” review, described the film as “passable,” at least compared to Disney and Marvel’s recent list of “misfires.”
The Boston Globe said the film is “a raging bore on top of being nearly incomprehensible.” Though their critic did also express frustration with the fact that it’s trying to be as “inoffensive and apolitical” as possible.
Christian Toto, who previously contributed to OutKick, said that the film has a “choppy feel,” suggesting that the “infamous reshoots left scars.” Though on a slightly more positive note, did say it “entertains but never dazzles.”
Fan reactions on X have been similarly mixed, with some enjoying it, but an equal number describing it as a mixed bag that never reaches previous Marvel highs.
It’s unclear what exactly prompted the reshoots and rewrites, but it exemplifies the problem modern Disney has. They set release dates, then have to shoehorn the movie in to a predetermined time period. They reconfigured their studio with the assumption that left-wing politics would be ascendant, then have been forced to backtrack once proven wrong. The golden era of Marvel Studios, where every single release was the event of the year, is long gone. And Brave New World doesn’t seem to be in any position to fix it.
