Summary
Captain America: Brave New Worldreviews 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 Worldmarked 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 Worldsuffered a significant box office drop in its second weekend.Captain America: Brave New Worldreviews have also been poor, with the film currently holding a 48% score on Rotten Tomatoes, worse than all but two Marvel Studios feature films.
Captain America 4 Director is ‘Satisfied" With The Story They Told
During an interview withEsquire, Onah was given the opportunity to respond to theCaptain America: Brave New Worldcriticism.Onah defended the hard work that went into makingCaptain America: Brave New World, noting that he feels “very satisfied” with the story they told.TheCaptain America 4director 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 fansexpectedCaptain America: Brave New Worldto be badpartly due to the reports of the film undergoing significant reshoots after multiple poor test screenings. This left fans with the impression thatCaptain America: Brave New Worldwas 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. WhileCaptain America: Brave New Worldmay 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 dropsuggests audience enthusiasm won’t be enough to save the film from becoming a box office bomb. It’s possible forCaptain America: Brave New Worldto have legs in the coming weeks to help reach the $425 million it reportedly needs to break even. However,Captain America: Brave New Worldis currently performing on par withThe MarvelsandAnt-Man 3, both of which reportedly lost money for Marvel Studios.
