Spider-Man: Brand New Day - Movie Review

The Movie: Spider-Man: Brand New Day

The Director: Destin Daniel Cretton

The Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando, Mark Ruffalo

The Story: A forgotten Peter Parker lives alone as a full-time Spider-Man until mounting pressure triggers a dangerous change and a powerful new enemy emerges.

The Rating: 9 / 10

The Review:

Ever since Spider-Man: Homecoming came out, the franchise shared by Disney's MCU and whatever Spiderverse that Sony has otherwise tried and pretty much failed to maintain, has been the strongest and most consistent of all the movies put out under the Marvel banner. Tom Holand, in my opinion, has become the quintessential Peter Parker and I love the fact that he takes so much pride and ownership in playing what is arguably the most popular character in comic book history. Anticipation is always high whenever another installment in the web slinger's saga is approaching just as there is always a fair amount of stress that the filmmakers will continue on a proper path towards both box office and story telling success.

While Jon Watts did a great job directing the first three movies, I'm glad a change was made, especially in this case, with Marvel handing over the director's chair to Destin Daniel Cretton whose work on both the Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the Wonder Man TV series have both been met with very high praise. I had no issues with Watts but sometimes a new set of eyes can bring a fresh take to a franchise that might otherwise begin to grow stale and what Cretton does with this movie actually elevates both the story and the cinematic experience. Before major changes were made to this portion of the MCU, Marvel had enough faith in Cretton's abilities to give him the big Kang movie which eventually turned into the Russo Brothers' Doomsday project which should speak volumes about his ability as a director.

So now here we are and, for Spider-Man, it's a brand-new day (see what I did there?) as we see the continued fallout of Peter isolating himself from everyone he cares about in an effort to keep them all safe. This is an interesting time for a Spider-Man movie as the MCU is dealing with incursions, the pending arrival of Doctor Doom, and the inevitable and continued emergence of Mutants into the overall narrative so of course we're all wondering how this movie will include and be affected by all of these things. There's a whole lot of spoilery stuff there so, as you know, I will avoid all of it as much as possible so you can fully enjoy the storytelling experience just as much as I did.

What I can say is that this is a really fun movie with lots of MCU characters and storylines woven together in very smart ways that feel natural and not forced or shoehorned in for the sake of fan service. The Hulk and Punisher, played as always by Mark Ruffalo and Jon Bernthal respectively (they're in the trailers so I'm okay mentioning them here) both serve a purpose to the story as well as getting to continue their own narratives in meaningful ways. I highly recommend watching the Punisher: One Last Kill one shot that was released on Disney+ recently, it's quite brilliant and gets subtly referenced in this movie.

I really, really loved the interactions between Holland and Bernthal as Peter and Frank Castle, their chemistry is just so good and their personalities clash in the most perfect buddy cop movie type of way. Bernthal has done such a fantastic job in this role over the years so it's nice to see him involved in multiple corners of the MCU and I really hope we get to see more of these two together down the road. I know this has also been a huge wish list item from the fanbase for years and the payoff I think is more than we could have hoped for and exactly what we've always wanted.

The way Peter is forced to deal with adulthood and responsibility as well as mental and emotional trauma is the heartbeat of this movie and it ends up being a key factor in how the movie concludes. There are so many reasons why I can't expand on that, just know that Peter deals with a lot and comes to terms with realities he has been trying hard to avoid even though they have had negative impacts on himself and others for years. We all know Sadie Sink plays a primary character in this movie and she definitely factors into Peter's redemption arc by the time it's all said and done.

From every perspective, this is easily the most grown-up Spider-Man movie we've seen to date and I mean through all of his variant forms as well. Gone are the days of high school Peter naively trying to find his way in the world which is partly facilitated by a four-year jump in time from the last movie. Zendaya's MJ and Jacob Batalon's Ned are still firmly ingrained into the fabric of the story and both continue to give great performances and add a ton of value to the movie in both emotional and sometimes comedic ways. The friendship between the three has really become one of the things I most look forward to revisiting in all of the MCU.

With so many characters involved in the story, I was afraid it might feel bloated or there would be too much fan service, but the writing team of Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers took great care to include everything in legitimate and meaningful ways. There are several villains Spidey has to fight, Multiple heroes Peter interacts with, and even a couple cameos that did nothing but add to the fun and really helped to make this feel like a legit MCU movie while still standing on its own. I never thought I'd see Spider-Man wearing only his mask and a towel while in a very important meeting and yet here we are. No, I'm not going to explain.

I can always tell when I really enjoyed a movie because, when it's time to write my review, I just keep typing away and there's always so much more I want to discuss without going too far into deep dive territory. As you can tell, this movie is definitely a great example of that so here's a few more thoughts before I force myself to wrap it up.

One of the things I found really interesting about the movie is that it has a very different visual aesthetic than the previous three films which really adds weight to the more mature Peter Parker that we get this time around. It's not dark or moody by any means, but it also doesn't look like a glossy, teen focused Disney+ show which was used intentionally in Watts's films to great effect, especially Homecoming. Now, we get a fully realized Spider-Man movie that looks more on par with other Marvel franchises and feels ready for Peter to step into more of a leadership type role versus being the goofy kid superhero that is barely taken seriously.

The special effects are all really well done and there was nothing that stood out to me in a negative way. I think Marvel's renewed focus on quality over quantity is paying the biggest dividends in this part of the filmmaking process more than anywhere else. Also, the fight scenes in this movie are next level compared to anything we've seen from a Spider-Man movie and I give all the credit in the world to Cretton as the director and Peng Zhang as the supervising stunt coordinator who also worked together on both Shang-Chi and Wonder Man. In the trailer there's a couple quick clips of Spidey going up against The Hand and that whole sequence is so well done and looks super cool on screen.

If you've made it this far, thank you so much for reading my review. As you can tell, I really enjoyed this movie. Everything about it lived up to what I was hoping for and maybe even surpassed those expectations. Oh, and it's definitely worth seeing on a premium format screen. The press screening was shown to us in a Dolby Cinema theater and it looked amazing and spectacular and every other complimentary Spider-man related adjective you can think of. Spider-Man: Brand New Day really is the perfect way to kick things into high gear as the MCU heads down the path towards Doomsday.

Before I forget. There was no mid or post credit scenes although it's not unheard of for Marvel to omit one or all of them during press screenings, so you'll have to decide for yourself whether you want to stay all the way until the end of the credits. We were all a little disappointed not to have at least one so I'm holding out hope that could change when the movie is released.