Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review

Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review

Spider-Man has swung back into theaters with Brand New Day. I love superhero movies, the MCU, and Spider-Man so naturally this was one of my most anticipated movies of the year. Now, did Spider-Man: Brand New Day live up the hype and deliver another great Spider-Man movie? Let us talk about it!

The Good

The best thing about Spider-Man: Brand New Day is that I felt like it mixed the charm and magic of the Jon Watts trilogy of Spider-Man movies while also incorporating a fresh new flavor due to Destin Daniel Cretton taking over as the director. Destin Daniel Cretton was the director of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and he was brought on to do Spider-Man. This film feels different from the first three Spider-Man movies with Tom Holland. Some of that was a practical choice because it has been five years in the real world, four years in the MCU since No Way Home. So, Peter is in a different place in his life due to the events of No Way Home and Doctor Strange’s spell that really shapes so much of what this film is about. The film is more mature and much darker than the earlier three Spider-Man films. The title “Brand New Day” I don’t think necessarily fits what the movie is about, but I think it does a great job of letting the audience know that this film is starting something new and different from the Tom Holland era of Spider-Man films. Destin Daniel Cretton brings more of a style and a flavor to this film and that really feels like it is doing something different, but it keeps the fun and charm of those earlier three Spider-Man films. This film can build off the foundation of those films and expand on it with this film, with the return of MJ and Ned. 

One of the things that surprised me about the film was just how thematic it was. This is the most thematic Spider-Man movie that we have gotten since the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films by a good bit. This film is about loneliness and finding yourself. After the events of No Way Home, Peter Parker is without Aunt May, MJ, and Ned so he is in this big city, but he is all by himself getting by with being Spider-Man. With the mutation stuff that is going on in the film, it better explores this idea of balancing being Spider-Man and Peter Parker. But more importantly, with it being about loneliness and finding yourself, you better understand why certain characters are in the film. When it was announced that both Punisher and the Hulk were going to be in the film. I was very confused as to what this movie was going to be with Spider-Man, Punisher, and the Hulk and you realize watching the movie, that is’ because they are all trying to find themselves and they are lonely. The reason Frank Castle is the Punisher is because he lost everybody close to him. Bruce Banner is wearing this device that stops him from being the Hulk. Even with how they tie Sadie Sink’s character into it all, and what her motivations in the films connect back to this idea of being along and finding yourself. It is a film that has all the fun that you expect in a Spider-Man, while also having much more depth and character that is explored through themes.

Another big positive about the film, this is the first film in the Tom Holland era of Spider-Man films, where it is New York centric and he is a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. If you look at the earlier Tom Holland led Spider-Man films, they have all done something different with the character. Where they take him to Washington DC, Europe, and of course explore the multiverse. But we have not gotten a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man focused more with Tom Holland. Given that it has now been 12 years since The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony and Marvel felt that it was the time to get back to the roots and classic images of Spider-Man. I love that about the film, so despite the film going back to the roots of Spider-Man, it feels fresh because it is a Spider-Man movie that I feel like we have gotten in 12 years. I really liked and appreciated that about the film. The movie kicks off and we get this montage of Spider-Man fighting local crime, he is working with the police, and he is getting crime alerts. Which is very much like a Spider-Man thing to do, that has mostly been avoided in the Tom Holland era of Spider-Man films. This is a very weird comparison, and I do not know how many would agree with this, but this is the most Batman-feeling Spider-Man movie that we have gotten. Where so much of the film is built as a mystery for both Spider-Man and the audience. So, there are a lot of investigations going on in the film and he is going to other people for him, and it feels very Batman-like, while very clearly being a Spider-Man movie.

With this film, you have a great ensemble of characters that are of course played by fun and great actors. Between this film and The Odyssey, Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jon Bernthal are having a great July in terms of reviews and box office. Speaking of them, all of them are standouts in the film. Tom Holland is easily delivering his best performance as Spider-Man, and his best performance in general. In this film, we see Peter Parker at a different stage of life. Because of that there is more drama and tension in the film, so there is more depth and emotion given to Tom Holland. There are some heartbreaking scenes with MJ and Ned as there is this struggle with Peter debating whether he should tell them who he is. But you also get the fun and charming Peter Parker/Spider-Man that is the reason so many people have connected with the character, particularly Tom Holland’s iteration that is so fun and charming. You get the more fun side of the character when you team him up with Punisher and there is this great bromance. Holland and Bernthal have fantastic chemistry with each other. The banter between them is so much fun and it makes you want to see more of them on screen together. It’s fun seeing them partnered up because Peter Parker and Frank Castle have something in common, where they both lost people close to them and that’s what’s led to them becoming Spider-Man and Punisher but they’re very different characters in terms of the morals and what they believe in. Where you have Punisher who loves killing people and does not mind doing it, teaming him up with Spider-Man, the most wholesome of our superheroes that does not want to kill people. 

Finally, between this film and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, I think Destin Daniel Cretton has cemented himself as one of the best MCU directors in terms of the action. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a martial arts film, so of course it is taking inspiration from other martial arts films and delivering some very cool stuff. You apply the acrobatic nature to Spider-Man, and you get some very cool action set pieces. What helps this film out is that they shot on location in practical environments. Where the big one shown through set videos and the trailers is a sequence involving a tank. That is a standout sequence because we know that they were in New York City filming this, they were not on green screens in Atlanta filming this. The two other big set pieces, one involving the Hulk, and The Hand at the end of the movie. They are all very cool sequences because you are pinning Spider-Man up against threats we have not seen fight before. You also get these cool images and camera shots where the camera is flipping and moving with Spider-Man as he’s moving around super fast and flipping through hallways, that’s all handled very well and is some of the best Spider-Man action that we’ve ever gotten.

The Bad

    NOTE: What I am going to talk about in the bad, is not stuff that I would classify as spoilers. But to some people, it could be spoilers because it is not all information shown in the trailers, but it is also not really giving anything away at the same time. 

The big thing is I thought some of the villains were a bit disappointing. Now there is some other stuff with the villains that I did like, but it is hard to touch on without spoiling anything. But the two villains primarily shown in the trailers, Scorpion and The Hand I thought were underwhelming. They teased Scorpion at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, almost 10 years ago and he is back in this film, and they do not really do anything with him. He disappears after the first hour of this film, and there is no reason as to why it had to be Scorpion. It is disappointing that they are finally paying something off that was established almost 10 years ago and you do not do anything more with him. Like The Hand, they are just there so Spider-Man has somebody else to fight and have images of Spider-Man fighting ninjas. It was a very weird decision to promote these characters in the trailers and include them on the posters when combined they have like 7 or 8 minutes of screen-time.

The other thing with this movie is, and this was small, but I thought the usage of Ned was a bit weird. He is in the film much less than I thought he was going to be and it feels like they had more to do with Ned then what was shown. I do not know if that was a scheduling thing with Jacob Balaton where he was not available as much as they needed him to be. There is a scene in the trailer where Spider-Man goes to get MJ because he fears she is in danger. The film gives a reason as to why Ned is not there, but it feels like a very last-minute change, that could have been due to scheduling issues. Granted, there are two scenes with Ned one with Spider-Man and one with Peter Parker that are great and add a lot to the film. I love the moments we get with Ned in the film, I just wish there were more and it felt like they had to cut some things due to scheduling issues.