The first MCU movie of 2025 lands this weekend with Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson taking up the shield as Captain America after Steve Rogers gave him the mantle in Avengers Endgame.

Facing an international incident after meeting with Harrison Ford’s President Thaddeus Ross, who is also the Red Hulk, the Avenger must find out what’s really going on.

Reviews are now in for Captain America Brave New World and the 35th Marvel Studios blockbuster has the MCU’s worst Rotten Tomatoes score (52 per cent) for one of its movies after Eternals and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Check out the critical highlights below, ranging from the more optimistic 3 stars down to the 1 star slamming.

Empire
Pacy and punchy, this is a promising first official outing for the new Captain America, even if some awkward and inconsistent moments hold it back from greatness.

Daily Telegraph
It’s hard to imagine Brave New World rallying the Marvel fanbase, not least because it gives them so little to rally behind. It feels less like a film than something you make when you can’t think of one, but your deadline is looming regardless.

The Observer
Though it ties together threads from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole, 'Brave New World' is neither particularly good or bad. It's just another Marvel movie.

The Times
The MCU has eaten itself into a bloated, constipated stupor. The possibility for clear and uncomplicated storytelling has been neutralised by the kind of relentless exposition that 34 previous movies and 11 MCU TV shows now, unfortunately, require.

The Guardian
The action is moderate and it’s lacking in the steam-heat, humour and the surreal energy of superhero movies past.

The Independent
Brave New World is stuffed with callbacks to movies everyone seemed to agree were misfires upon release... It leaves the film not so much a reshuffling of the deck as a journey to nowhere, like switching rooms on the Titanic.

Vanity Fair
Brave New World is a bunch of characters wandering around in search of meaning, the Marvel machine creaking loudly as it tries to whip up some grand mythos around these B-tier figures.

The Hollywood Reporter
Unfortunately, Captain America: Brave New World proves a lackluster Marvel entry that feels as if its complicated storyline has been painstakingly worked out without a shred of inspiration.

Variety
It’s superhero meatloaf and potatoes served with just enough competence and dash not to feel like reheated leftovers.

Captain America: Brave New World is released in UK cinemas on Friday.