Captain America: Brave New World parents guide

Captain America: Brave New World Parent Guide

A brave new world needs a brave hero.

Overall C

Theaters: As Sam Wilson settles into his new role as Captain America, he finds himself in the middle of an international incident and a nefarious global plot.

Release date February 14, 2025

Violence C-
Sexual Content A
Profanity C
Substance Use A-

Why is Captain America: Brave New World rated PG-13? The MPAA rated Captain America: Brave New World PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and some strong language.

Run Time: 118 minutes

Parent Movie Review

With Steve Rogers well and truly retired, Captain America’s shield has passed to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), who is facing problems his predecessor could only imagine. A global war is threatening to erupt over the incredible technology within the Celestial Tiamut (see Eternals), with America’s controversial new president, former general Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford), trying to arrange a multi-party treaty to see that the technology is used for the benefit of all. Sam is skeptical of Ross but wants to give him a chance. An attempted assassination soon puts them at odds: One of the assassins is Sam’s old friend and mentor, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly). In trying to prove his friend’s innocence, the new Captain America finds himself neck deep in a mire of corruption, treachery, and vengeance which threatens to destroy everything he has fought to save.

This film really hits its stride into a solid “meh”. It’s clearly trying to recapture the genre-bending success of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but only really manages to plod around in the same sandbox for two hours while reminding you that Eternals existed. The fight scenes are over-long, over-digital, and over-edited, and entirely too frequent. I started zoning out entirely, since nothing of plot significance happens during any of them, and it isn’t like Marvel was about to kill off a named character in an alley fight with some faceless goons. They feel perfunctory more than exciting, which is how most of the rest of the film feels too.

This is, of course, yet another superhero film, the plot relying on dozens of others, and in this case, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Disney+ miniseries. Since you couldn’t force me to watch more superhero content for free, I can tell you from experience that the film still mostly makes sense without having watched the show. Sure, I didn’t get about 60% of the references, but I also didn’t care, so it didn’t bother me. The overtures into spy-thriller territory do keep this from feeling exactly like every other Marvel film for the past 8 years, but they don’t manage to make it fun.

Being yet another superhero film, you should also have a pretty good idea of what to expect as far as violence goes. Lots of people get beat up, some quite dramatically, and a whole bunch of innocent civilians get presumably killed just off screen while the protagonists dismantle as much civic infrastructure as possible in a big fight. There are also a whole lot of stabbings in this one for some reason, as well as a dramatic murder-suicide. No sexual content, no drug use, brief social drinking, and just over a dozen scatological profanities. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. I wonder how much longer studios will be willing to spend this kind of money for results this underwhelming.

Directed by Julius Onah. Starring Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Liv Tyler. Running time: 118 minutes. Theatrical release February 14, 2025. Updated

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Captain America: Brave New World
Rating & Content Info

Why is Captain America: Brave New World rated PG-13? Captain America: Brave New World is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for intense sequences of violence and action, and some strong language.

Violence: People are frequently beaten and stabbed. Characters are frequently shot at, and a number of people are fatally shot on screen. A character shoots himself in the head. People are presumably killed in large scale scenes of destruction.

Sexual Content: None.

Profanity: There are 16 uses of scatological profanity, and frequent use of mild curses and terms of deity.

Alcohol / Drug Use: Adult characters are briefly seen drinking socially.

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This film builds on events from across a large number of films in the MCU, but primarily Captain America, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, The Incredible Hulk (2008), Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. If you really want to see Harrison Ford as the President of the United States, just go watch Air Force One.