Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review

You have to remember just how brutal the ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home actually was.

Everyone forgot Peter Parker existed.

MJ doesn't remember him.

Ned doesn't remember him.

The relationships Peter spent three movies building are effectively gone.

Spider-Man still exists.

Peter Parker doesn't.

And Brand New Day actually understands how bloody horrible that would be.

Peter is still swinging around New York saving people, but when the mask comes off, there's basically nobody waiting for him.

His life has become Spider-Man.

He fights crime during the day and then goes home alone, watching Ned's Reels from his sofa.

That's pretty depressing when you think about it.

His closest thing to a friend is Detective DeWolff, played by Liza Colón-Zayas, and even she can see that something isn't right with him.

For me, this is easily the most interesting part of the film.

Because what happens to Peter Parker when there's nothing left except Spider-Man?

I've always liked Tom Holland as Spider-Man.

He's funny, likeable and completely believable as the slightly awkward kid who suddenly finds himself hanging around with the Avengers.

But he's not that kid anymore.

And Holland seems to absolutely relish the opportunity to finally play Peter as an adult carrying some serious emotional baggage.

This might actually be his best performance as Peter Parker.

There's a sadness behind him now.

He's lost Aunt May.

He's lost MJ.

He's lost Ned.

And the worst part is that they're still out there.

Peter can see them.

He knows them.

He remembers everything they went through together.

They just don't remember him.

That's arguably worse than losing someone completely.

The film really digs into what that isolation is doing to Peter, including the possibility that without the people who kept him grounded, the Spider-Man side of his personality is beginning to take over.

That's a genuinely fascinating idea.

And I wish the film pushed it even further.

Peter's grief eventually starts affecting him in ways he can't completely control.

And that brings Bruce Banner back into the picture.

Mark Ruffalo returns as Banner/The Hulk, and when you think about it, pairing him with Peter makes perfect sense.

Who better to talk to about having another side of yourself that can potentially take control?

Banner has spent years learning how to live with Hulk.

Peter is now struggling with his own version of that battle.

It's not literally another personality living inside him, obviously, but emotionally they're dealing with similar problems.

How much control do you really have?

And what happens when anger, grief and power all collide?

There's some really interesting material here.

Again, though, I found myself wishing the film would dig just that little bit deeper.

While Peter is dealing with all of this, there's obviously still the small matter of somebody trying to cause havoc in New York.

This time Spider-Man is dealing with a villain capable of jumping between bodies, with Damage Control becoming involved in whatever they're looking for.

I'm deliberately not going too far into that because there are things in this film that are much better discovered while watching it.

And that especially applies to Sadie Sink's character.

Her role becomes extremely important to the story and potentially to where the MCU is heading next.

Sink is excellent.

Anyone who's watched Stranger Things already knows how good she is at playing characters dealing with trauma, fear and enormous supernatural problems, so it's hardly surprising that she fits comfortably into this world.

More importantly, her character becomes an interesting reflection of Peter.

We've heard "with great power comes great responsibility" approximately nine billion times at this point.

But Brand New Day actually asks what happens when somebody with enormous power is also deeply traumatised.

Power doesn't magically fix you.

Sometimes it can make things much worse.

Yep.

Frank Castle is here.

Jon Bernthal returns as The Punisher, and he's basically everything you'd expect him to be.

Angry.

Violent.

Grumpy.

And generally solving problems by making them explode.

Putting The Punisher anywhere near Spider-Man is always going to be interesting because they're almost complete opposites when it comes to how they deal with criminals.

Peter desperately tries not to kill people.

Frank's entire approach could probably be summarised as:

"Have we tried shooting them?"

Bernthal has always been fantastic in the role, and seeing him sharing this world with Holland's Spider-Man gives the film another interesting dynamic.

Destin Daniel Cretton takes over directing duties this time, and Brand New Day definitely doesn't feel exactly like the previous Holland movies.

That's probably a good thing.

The awkward high-school comedy has largely disappeared.

Peter isn't a kid anymore.

Even New York looks different.

There's more grey sky, more overcast weather and generally a darker atmosphere surrounding Peter.

The music changes with it.

The whole film feels like it's trying to tell us that the carefree days of Peter desperately trying to impress Tony Stark are over.

This Spider-Man has experienced death.

He's experienced grief.

He's made decisions that permanently changed his life.

And you can see that in Holland's performance.

He actually seems more interested in playing Peter's internal battle than Spider-Man's physical one.

That's where the film is strongest.

Obviously MJ and Ned haven't suddenly disappeared from the universe.

They just don't know Peter anymore.

Zendaya and Jacob Batalon return, and their presence creates this strange mixture of comfort and sadness.

We're happy to see them.

Peter is happy to see them.

But the relationship isn't the same.

There's still something about Holland and Zendaya together that just works naturally, which makes the situation even more painful.

Peter knows what they had.

MJ doesn't.

That gives even fairly simple scenes an emotional weight they wouldn't otherwise have.

Batalon also brings some much-needed lightness when the film starts becoming a little too miserable for its own good.

Because bloody hell, Peter could use a laugh.

This might surprise people.

For a massive Spider-Man blockbuster, Brand New Day isn't actually overflowing with huge action sequences.

There are fights.

Scorpion, played by Michael Mando, gets involved.

There's obviously the Hulk.

Punisher blows things up.

Spider-Man swings around New York.

But if you're expecting one enormous set piece after another, that's not really what this film is doing.

The biggest action sequence arrives surprisingly late.

And I'm slightly torn on that.

On one hand, I actually like that they're willing to make a Spider-Man film where Peter Parker matters just as much as the bloke wearing the mask.

On the other hand...

It's Spider-Man.

You do still want at least a couple of moments that make you sit there thinking:

"That was bloody awesome."

There aren't enough of those.

The MCU Problem Strikes Again

And this is probably my biggest issue with Brand New Day.

Marvel still seems incapable of simply making a film without reminding us that another film is coming.

There are appearances from other MCU characters.

There are story threads clearly being positioned for later.

And inevitably there's the looming shadow of Avengers: Doomsday hanging over everything.

We've been doing this for years now.

At its best, the MCU was brilliant at making individual films that also happened to connect to something bigger.

The original Iron Man works perfectly well as Iron Man.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier works as its own film.

Guardians of the Galaxy works as its own film.

They didn't feel like expensive trailers for whatever Marvel wanted us to watch next.

Too often, modern MCU projects do.

And unfortunately Brand New Day occasionally falls into that trap.

After more than two hours, I wanted to feel like we'd reached somewhere important.

Instead, parts of the film leave you thinking:

"Right... so we're setting up the next one."

Again.

Despite those problems, there's something here that I really like.

Marvel is finally allowing Tom Holland's Spider-Man to grow up.

Not just physically.

Emotionally.

The earlier movies were about a kid learning how to become Spider-Man.

This one is much more interested in what being Spider-Man actually costs.

Peter saved everyone at the end of No Way Home.

And his reward was losing everyone he loved.

That's the cruel irony at the centre of Brand New Day.

Being a hero doesn't guarantee you a happy ending.

Sometimes doing the right thing absolutely sucks.

And Holland sells that brilliantly.

Yes.

Especially if you've followed Tom Holland's Spider-Man from the beginning.

Just don't expect another No Way Home.

That film was a gigantic celebration of Spider-Man history filled with returning characters, enormous crowd-pleasing moments and the kind of nostalgia Marvel could probably only pull off once.

Brand New Day is trying to do something different.

It's smaller emotionally, even if the budget certainly isn't.

It's sadder.

More reflective.

And considerably more interested in Peter Parker than simply finding another villain for Spider-Man to punch.

I actually respect that.

I just wish Marvel had enough confidence in those ideas to go all the way with them.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day isn't Tom Holland's biggest Spider-Man movie.

It might, however, contain his best performance as Peter Parker.

Holland finally gets the opportunity to show what years of loss, responsibility and impossible decisions have done to this character, and he absolutely delivers.

Sadie Sink makes a strong addition to the cast, Jon Bernthal remains perfectly suited to The Punisher, and seeing Zendaya and Jacob Batalon again gives Peter's story the emotional connection it needs.

But the film also suffers from a problem that's becoming increasingly difficult for Marvel to ignore.

Not every movie needs to advertise the next movie.

Sometimes we just want this story.

Because buried underneath all the MCU setup is potentially one of the most interesting Spider-Man stories Holland has been given.

Peter Parker has spent years learning that with great power comes great responsibility.

Brand New Day asks something slightly different.

What happens when carrying that responsibility leaves you with nobody?

Even Spider-Man can't do everything alone.

And for a character who has spent years saving everybody else, perhaps learning that he needs other people might be the hardest lesson of all.