Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review

Arriving at the (not so) local multiplex for the Spider-Man: BND press screening on Monday evening, I was heartened to see the theater’s massive parking lot absolutely jam-packed. The Odyssey has become enough of a cultural phenomenon to draw otherwise reluctant movie audiences back to the theaters, a very welcome change from what has been a schizoid summer box office to this point. 

The question, then, is whether or not Destin Daniel Cretton’s new Spider-Man picture, the fourth installment in this series, can keep this positive mojo going. Whereas I’m typically rubbish at the predictive market  —  this is the guy who was convinced Supergirl would do just fine  — if nothing else, the film certainly deserves to be a hit, not something one would have said about many of the more recent bloated, lifeless MCU installments since the groundbreaking Avengers: Endgame back in 2019. 

When we see Peter Parker (Tom Holland) again, it’s been several years since the events of the previous film, in which, for reasons too complex to explain here, Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) was coerced by Peter to cast a spell of forgetting over the entire planet as to his existence. In a bold attempt to protect everyone else he cared about, Peter essentially lost his beloved, MJ (Zendaya), and his best friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon), as all remnants of who he was to them were permanently removed from their minds. 

Watching their progress together through the undergraduate rigors of MIT (Ned helpfully keeps a kind of vlog about their achievements each year), Peter holes up in the upstairs of a battered apartment building, with various high-tech gizmos, including a helpful AI named E.V. (voiced by Naomi Watts), and a 3D printer which is kept busy crafting his spider-costumes. Living solely as Spider-Man, year after year, with no personal life to speak of, takes an obvious toll on Peter, both emotionally and physically, as his body’s arachnid hormone levels keep spiking, causing him to lose control of his powers at times. 

After tangling with one of his regular foes, the Scorpion (Michael Mando), and nearly killing him, Peter decides he needs to figure out a way to better regulate the powers coursing through his bloodstream. He meets up with Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) to discuss how the doctor has been able to restrain his brutish alter-ego, the Hulk, from continuing to be a problem. With Banner’s help, Peter eventually creates a regulator that curbs his powers enough for him to remain in control of them. 

That’s not all, of course. There also seems to be a growing conspiracy against the Department of Damage Control, a shadowy government agency, led by Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman), that “cleans up” the messes left behind after one super-powered brawl or another. In Peter’s continued investigations, working alongside a genial police detective (Liza Colón-Zayas, from “The Bear”), he discovers a powerful telepath (Sadie Sink), who has a fixation on the place, and will stop at nothing to gain access to it  —  including taking over the mind of MJ, Peter’s lost love, in an attempt to scare him away from trying to stop her. 

Cretton’s film is blessed with an inspired screenplay from longtime Spider-scribes Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, who get to work here from a deeper palette of emotional hues. The tone, somewhat darker and more mature, corroborates with the excellent cinematography of DP Brett Pawlak, whose imagery is richer and deeper in timbre and texture than many other recent MCU efforts, as if they’ve cleansed the camera lens of grime and soot. It’s a far more carefully shot and more precisely articulated film, the compositions orchestrated with considerable care. 

Working also in the film’s favor is the fact that Holland, now a chiseled man, with notably broader shoulders, and sharper angularity in his face, has aged into full adulthood. In a few of the film’s several flashbacks, you see the younger Holland, who first began this role at the tender age of 19, looking every bit the callow teenager he was portraying. His agony at watching Ned and MJ go on without him is much more powerful and visceral, etching his face with the weight of being utterly unknown. Spider-Man is no longer an alter-ego, but all that he has. 

Peter’s sacrifice for his friends, and the rest of the world at large, has effectively worked as intended, only the cost has virtually crippled him as a human being. When he meets up with the lethal vigilante known as the Punisher (Jon Bernthal), he still tries to keep him from killing people, but his world-weariness has obviously taken a heavy toll on his psyche. He is, perhaps, closer to the Punisher’s sort of darkness than he ever was before.

The film does neatly bring other Marvel figures into the mix  — notably without falling into the trap of the latter-day MCU, so intent on setting up further installments of other movies and shows, the actual films suffering from irrelevance  —  including the White Widow (Florence Pugh), Tombstone (Marvin Jones III), and Ramrod (Billy Clements). As always, the number of characters to keep track of can be overwhelming, but Cretton and his creative team keep a steady pace, working to include other colorful figures organically, in service to the story, rather than as an obligatory, contractually demanded quota. 

That said, Sink’s character, who seems to revel in causing Peter further emotional damage en route to her goals, takes a quick turn that isn’t entirely supported by her earlier sadism. And, as a card-carrying Daredevil fan, it’s more than a little galling to see so many elements of the horn-headed one’s milieu  — including overly enhanced senses, the Punisher, and a visitation by the Hand, a nefarious group of zombie-esque ninjas that are one of DD’s primary nemesis  —  in service to Spider-Man, a character who has more than enough on his own. Still, these are relatively minor quibbles compared to recent past DOA MCU entries such as the unwatchable Captain America: Brave New World. 

There is a joy in this film, a thrill in seeing Spidey maneuvering through Manhattan in breathtaking POV shots (thank you, Insomnia Games, for the inspiration), and a playfulness that adds spark to the proceedings in a way that feels well earned. Suddenly, it seems, there might be a path forward for Marvel afterall: Making carefully crafted, better felt films, and letting their characters breathe. As a result of this approach, the entire film feels more weighty and significant, including a particularly acute scene between Peter and MJ near the end, where they lay their cards on the table (aided, no doubt, by the actual loving affections between the real-life couple). 

Happily, the film also has a few genuine tricks up its sleeve, including one significant plot reveal that actually made me gasp out loud (apologies to anyone sitting near me at that moment), suggesting the MCU may still yet have some vitality left. There are no guarantees in life, of course, and it’s entirely possible this film will be the anomaly if the December-release of Avengers: Doomsday isn’t up to snuff, but for now, at least, it’s a very welcome return to a super-hero movie where the emotional stakes take center stage over the CGI bacchanalia.