Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Captain America: Brave New WorldAlthough Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which it was modeled after.

Released in 2014, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is widely considered to be one of the MCU's best movies, a major political thriller that massively changed the MCU status quo with some excellent ties to some key Marvel Comics moments. As such, it's not hard to see how Brave New World attempts to follow the same kind of recipe, though with much lower levels of success. Here's how Captain America: Brave New World tries to echo Winter Soldier, and why it ultimately still failed in its efforts.

Captain America: Brave New World Repeats A Lot Of The Winter Soldier

There Are Plenty of Parallels To Be Found

It's not hard to find the overt parallels between Captain America: Brave New World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It's clear that Brave New World very intentionally tried to capture many of the same elements and overall tone. To name some key examples, both movies open with Captain America leading a mission for the government, and both focus on the same trio of heroes (a Captain America, a Falcon, and a Black Widow).

Both movies also have mind control as a major plot point, and genius supervillains being held in government facilities. Likewise, both movies end the same way with large-scale battles involving warships as well as more personal conflicts in Washington DC where the primary antagonists are reasoned with (Bucky Barnes/Red Hulk). There are even more parallels that can be made, though those are definitely the biggest between the two Captain America movies.

Captain America: Brave New World Can't Recapture What Made The Winter Soldier So Special

The Bar Was Way Too High, And Brave New World Definitely Struggles

Overall, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is still considered to be one of the MCU's best movies over a decade later. This creates a pretty high bar for any future MCU movies trying to mimic its success, as Brave New World clearly tried to do. However, despite having so many of the same elements, it's more than evident that the fourth Captain America movie struggles far more than the second one.

A big reason for the movie's struggles is that the entire plot of Brave New World is much more complex and muddled. The Winter Soldier has a very clear throughline and narrative as Steve Rogers and his allies uncover the major Hydra conspiracy within SHIELD, whereas there's a lot in Brave New World that simply doesn't mesh nearly as well as Sam Wilson uncovers the truth about President Ross and the skeleton in his closet that is Samuel Sterns aka The Leader. While the film's extensive reshoots can be partly blamed, Brave New World just has too many elements that ultimately don't resonate together as well compared to what's seen in The Winter Soldier.

The 2014 movie was also helped by being so directly personal, particularly with the relationship between Bucky and Steve Rogers. Conversely, Brave New World relies on all the connections it brings back from 2008's The Incredible Hulk...without featuring Bruce Banner, who could have made those ties personal. As a result, Brave New World exists as a pretty pale imitation of the MCU movie it tried so hard to resemble. One could argue that that was also part of its problem, rather than having a more unique plot with a clearer narrative all its own.

Brave New World Doesn't Feel As Important To The MCU's Future As Winter Soldier Did

It's Not Nearly As Cohesive To The Rest Of The MCU

Without a doubt, Captain America: The Winter Soldier was crucial for the MCU in of Bucky Barnes' re-introduction as the Winter Soldier in the present day. It's also the MCU movie that fractured SHIELD, something that not only affected future MCU movies but also current Marvel television at the time. It also began paving the way for Captain America: Civil War and the status quo shifts that happened in that film as well.

In contrast, Captain America: Brave New World has some cool elements, particularly the debut of Ross as the Red Hulk and the introduction of adamantium from the Celestial island created in Eternals. However, it doesn't feel nearly as important to the greater MCU as a cohesive part of a larger whole. This is something that's been a big problem for Phases 4 and 5 overall, though one would have hoped the Brave New World could have broken the streak.

Instead, the strongest thing Captain America: Brave New World does for the greater MCU comes at the very end of the movie. In Brave New World's post-credits, Sterns teases the threats coming in future Avengers movies, and the ending also sees Sam Wilson deciding to re-asssemble Earth's Mightiest Heroes...off-screen. If the best thing an MCU movie does for the greater universe is tee up future movies without having major status quo shifts in its own film, it's not that great of an MCU movie.

Because of all the parallels and attempts to match The Winter Soldier's tone, it can be claimed that Brave New World had a lot of good potential. However, a lot of that potential was squandered as Brave New World was unable to find a strong enough voice on its own, leaving behind a muddled and largely isolated plot that ultimately felt more derivative than anything else, and not nearly as significant to the MCU as a whole. One could argue that had this movie been reworked to star Bruce Banner as a more direct sequel to The Incredible Hulk, it might have done far better.

Captain America: Brave New World is now streaming on Disney+.

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