Tom Holland returns as our favorite web slinger for his fourth solo outing in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Amazingly, it has been almost five years since we last saw him in Spider-Man: No Way Home, with the ending of that film resulting in many changes for the famed wall crawler.
With Doctor Strange forced to cast a spell that erased Peter Parker from everyone’s memories, Parker now lives a solitary existence where he still does good as Spider-Man but keeps a distance from his loved ones.
In his role as Spider-Man he assists the Department of Damage Control (DODC) in the pursuit of a rogue tank that is running amok through New York City. Breaking through the wall of a DODC building, Spider-Man finds out that the tank was being controlled by a powerful telepath, one who has the ability to jump from person to person. Using their telepathic powers, they help famed criminal Scorpion escape custody.
Working with the DODC, Spider-Man begins to investigate who the mystery telepath is and find out what their plan is. At the same time he tries to keep lost love MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) safe, getting some unwanted help from The Punisher (Jon Bernthal)
Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton takes over the franchise from the departing Jon Watts who helmed the last three entries. Cretton brings the same energy that he brought to the world of Shang-Chi, with his resulting film evenly matching high end spectacle with more grounded dramatic scenes. Well as grounded as a Spider-Man film can be, as this is someone with superhuman powers after all, but the screenplay coupled with Holland’s winning performance make sure to keep Peter Parker relatable.
Ten years into playing the character, Holland has more than made the role his own. Also, the length of time that has passed really allows us to see the toil that being a superhero has had on his life. This is probably the most heartfelt Spider-Man movie yet, with Holland’s interactions with Zendaya’s MJ and Jacob Batalon’s Ned being incredibly bittersweet due to them having no recollections of their past relationship with him.
This plot element additionally allows Zendaya to stretch herself, something the previous films didn’t give her much opportunity to do. Her most impactful scenes are shared with Holland, with their being a glimmer of hope that MJ and Peter can rekindle their relationship, only for this to be shot down by the realization that anything between them is now gone. It’s scenes such as these that raise Brand New Day above other comic book fare.
Not being in a relationship isn’t the only change Peter has to deal with this time around, with his body going through something of a metamorphosis. With his arachnid DNA getting out of hand, it gives the filmmakers the opportunity to encroach into Cronenberg territory. We’re not talking full on body horror here, it is a Spider-Man film after all, but it opens up some interesting opportunities for the character as he moves forward.
With all this, most will probably be wondering if Brand New Day comes close to matching No Way Home, and the answer would have to be no. This doesn’t mean that Brand New Day is poor, more that No Way Home is such a hard act to follow. The fan service alone in that film pretty much puts most MCU movies in the shade. Still, Brand New Day has some aces up its sleeve to make it stand out, with several fan favorite characters making an appearance, even if some elements of the script slightly let the film down, which we will come to in a minute.
One complaint I have seen others make about the previous films is that we never got to see much of the neighborhood Spider-Man, with the films having him take on large scale threats. Cretton pretty much rectifies this, with the film’s first 20 minutes being a montage of him taking on an assortment of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery. Obviously as the film progresses the stakes become higher with him eventually going up against a powerful villain.
It is the inclusion of said villain that I mostly had issues with. For the first two thirds of the movie, we never actually see who the villain is. Spoilers online already made it obvious who this “villain” would be, but to be honest, the addition of this particular character felt incredibly shoehorned in. There is a fantastic assortment of Spider-Man characters at Marvel’s disposal, many of which have never appeared on screen. Instead of using one of these, a decision was made to include a character from another comic, with the only reason I can see is to introduce an already rumored MCU franchise down the line.
Anyone who has followed the production will no doubt know which character I am alluding to, as well as who plays them, but I don’t want to spoil it for those who don’t. What also didn’t help matters was how the character was handled, with their personality being very different from what I remember in the comics. This isn’t a judgement on the performer however, with them handling the role particularly well.
One character that doesn’t feel shoehorned in is Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle/The Punisher. There was some fear that the character would be hamstrung with the PG-13 rating, but for the most part this is the same Punisher we have loved in the shows, albeit less violent. Even then, the only reason he is less violent is because he isn’t given the opportunity to do so. After watching him now for 10 years on television, it was great to finally see Bernthal’s version of the character on the big screen.
As shown in The Odyssey (2026), Bernthal and Holland have great chemistry together and like that film, their scenes together are some of the film’s most memorable, with Bernthal even showing his emotional side. On the action front, this is the first time we have seen him face off against someone superhuman, with him facing off with The Hulk. As expected, this doesn’t go as planned.
Speaking off the Hulk, it was great to see the old school version of him back, even if it was only for a short time. With the introduction of Professor Hulk, I thought “savage” Hulk would be a thing of the past, but his return here results in one of the film’s best action scenes, with Spider-Man struggling to stop the ensuing destruction.
Speaking of action, Brand New Day features some of the franchise’s best action scenes. Employing the Jackie Chan Stunt Team was a masterstroke (UPDATE: Cretton confirmed Jackie Chan only visited the set. The film’s stunt work was handled by Peng Zheng, who trained under the late Brad Allen), giving the fight scenes a different feel from other Spider-Man movies, being closer to Cretton’s own Shang-Chi. This isn’t surprising considering that film had the involvement of choreographers Andy Cheng and the late Brad Allen, both of whom were prior members of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team.
The best of these fight scenes comes during the finale, where Holland’s Spider-Man faces off against The Hand’s Ninjas, with the odds seemingly stacked against him. What I particularly appreciated about this fight was that the filmmakers fought the urge to go big, with the ensuing action being relatively smaller in scale, and all the better for it. As much as I loved Shang-Chi, I felt the finale would have been better if it focused on a fight between the title character and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai’s Mandarin instead of the CGI fest we were ultimately treated to.
Composer Michael Giacchino’s score also perfectly matches the change in tone that this entry goes for, offering up a quieter, more sombre score, one that still generates the excitement required for the action scenes but knows when to dial it back. As great as Giacchino’s music is, I wish Marvel would give him the opportunity to direct again, as his Werewolf by Night (2022) was fantastic.
Any Marvel fan will no doubt have already seen Brand New Day, so what I say probably doesn’t matter. Whilst this isn’t the best outing, this is still a quality MCU entry that is only let down by some minor script issues, none of which should really hamper your enjoyment of the film. The film opens up several directions of where the franchise could go from here, with there even being the possibility of another Spider-Man that isn’t Peter Parker somewhere down the line.
Next up for the MCU is the hotly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday (2026) which will no doubt also bring about some changes to the MCU as it moves forward.
Plot: 3.5/5
Acting: 5/5
Action: 4/5
Overall: 4.2/5