Captain America: Brave New Worldis ushering in the next run of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies this weekend, and new comments by a source who worked on the movie have revealed the crew’s troubled thoughts about the film during reshoots. Every Marvel movie goes through varying degrees of reshoots – from small pick-ups to complete overhauls – but it seems that for some of those involved in the movie’s creation, things didn’t look good for the return ofAnthony Mackiein his new role as Captain America.
According toVulture, a source claimed that everyone “knew this is probably not going to be a good film.” Elaborating on why they believed that, the source is quoted as saying:
“I worked on the reshoots. I think everyone on the crew knew this is probably not going to be a good film. Some of the action sequences were not believable. We had a lot of frustrations on set. My co-workers who spent more time on Brave New World than I did said, “Yeah, this has been a really rough production.”When the studio had its test in front of an audience, it didn’t respond.”
In one way, it looks like they have been spot on with that assessment, as critics have been their usual divided selves on the matter of whether Marvel Studios is getting back on track, or just back to the same old repetitive movies they have been churning out for almost two decades (the words of some critics and not us). However, first audience reviews have delivered a very different picture, with the Rotten Tomatoes’ Popcornmeter score opening on a very healthy 80% approval rate, compared to the 36% Tomatometer score it held at one point.
The idea that any Marvel movie lands in cinemas as exactly the same film it was planned to be several years earlier when it was conceived is ridiculous. Over the last 16 years, Marvel Studios has developed movies that have turned into TV shows, shows that have pivoted to a movie and back again, and added or cut several key roles in even their biggest and most successful movies.Captain America: Brave New Worldhas just been going through the regular motions, but thanks to Marvel Studios’ 2024 “break”, it has been worked and reworked more than most.
Anthony Mackie Shouldn’t Have Had to Apologize for His Comments About Captain America
Anthony Mackie’s comments about Captain America were no different than those made by Chris Evans, various Marvel writers, and even the MCU.
One of the big changes was the late addition of Giancarlo Esposito’s Sidewinder to the mix in a film already heavy on antagonistic characters thanks to the inclusion of Tim Blake-Nelson’s return as The Leader, and Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus Ross’ transformation into Red Hulk late in the movie. However, as explained by MCU producer Nate Moore, the reason for the switch-up all came down to making sure the movie delivered what was expected – a thrilling new entry on the ongoing Marvel saga. He previously said:
“I think one of the challenges of making these sorts of movies is making sure your tone is consistent. As we were making the film, we were really trying to find the perfect political thriller tone. And sometimes that means some of the stuff you shoot doesn’t quite work out in the way you intended. We knew we needed somebody like Giancarlo to help ground the tone even further into the world of the political thriller without it getting too heightened.”
It seems that so far,Captain America: Brave New Worldis pleasing the most important people: audiences. If that is the case, then no matter how messy things became during the film’s production, it could have possibly paid off in the long run.
