Eek! You don’t want to see ‘Captain America: Brave New World’s opening Rotten Tomatoes score

Well, there goes the universal acclaim of the Captain America film series. With the Steve Rogers trilogy being one of the most highly regarded pockets of the MCU, Captain America: Brave New World has long felt the pressure to live up to such a lofty standard, especially as Anthony Mackie’s inaugural solo movie was the victim of poor test screenings and extensive reshoots. Still, fans couldn’t help but be thrilled by trailers, which teased the delicious prospect of Harrison Ford hulking out.

And yet it seems, like so many times with the MCU in recent years, we should’ve put a cap on our expectations for this new Cap movie. Although early reactions weren’t too shabby, in the wake of the first reviews rolling in, Brave New World‘s critics score on Rotten Tomatoes is here and… Guys, it’s not just bad, it’s Quantumania bad.

At the time of writing, the film sports a measly RT rating of just 49%. As an extra kick in the teeth, that’s not just a rotten score, it’s also only 3% above the infamous Ant-Man 3‘s franchise-low Tomatometer of 46%. In comparison to the ghosts of Cap past, all three Chris Evans vehicles are Certified Fresh on the site, earning 80% (The First Avenger), 90% (The Winter Soldier), and 90% (Civil War), respectively.

Reviews are as savage as you would expect. The Boston Globe bemoaned it for being depressingly “inoffensive and apolitical” while The Wrap got in a particularly good burn: “There’s nothing brave about this movie. There’s nothing new either. And sure, it technically takes place in the world, but one out of three is bad.” Maybe The Observer was most damning of all, however: “Brave New World is neither particularly good or bad. It’s just another Marvel movie.”

Obviously, Brave New World‘s score will level out as more reviews pour in, but its chances of rising anywhere near to the percentages of its predecessors is very slim. For instance, The Marvels had a similar opening RT score but these days sports a more respectable, if not exemplary, rating of 62%. It looks like Brave New World is destined to go down as a middling entry in the MCU oeuvre, much like the majority of what the studio has pumped out during the Multiverse Saga so far.

Of the 11 films released since Phase 4 began in 2021 (not including Brave New World), nine of them are among the bottom half of all 34 MCU releases when ranked by their Tomatometers. Even worse, out of the five worst-reviewed Marvel movies ever, four of them are from recent years (Quantumania, Eternals, The Marvels, and Love and Thunder, in case you were wondering).

That means it’s all up to May’s Thunderbolts* and, most pertinently, this July’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps to really cement the fresh wave of success that Deadpool & Wolverine threatened to kick off last summer. If they likewise stumble, though, then the road to Avengers: Doomsday is going to look rather doom-laden indeed. For the moment, we can make up our minds when Captain America 4: Hulkmania Brave New World opens everywhere this Valentine’s Day.